Aggregator | An aggregator is any organisation where crops from multiple farmers are merged. This can be a cooperative, a warehouse, a mill, or a depot. To ensure traceability, it is crucial to record which farmers contribute to this merge, ideally listing dates and quantities per farmer. |
Bill of Lading | Legal document issued by a carrier (transportation company) |
Boundary Segment | The sides of a polygon. A boundary segment is defined by a vertex on both ends. |
Certificate of Origin or Origin Certificate | issued for every international shipment of coffee from producers to consumers. Contains details of identity, size, origin, destination and time of shipment of the parcels in question. |
Certificate of quality or Quality Certificate | Certificate issued by different institutions (see below) indicating the quality and origin of a parcel of product. Typically this is an accompanying document to the Bill of Lading. |
Concession area | Land area designated by the national authority for a specific use, typically for exploring or extracting natural resources. Usually, a contractual agreement is in place with a non-governmental party to administer the land. A contract can range from 10-30 yrs, depending on national legislation and type of business activity. |
Configuration | Configuration refers to the collection of tests, thresholds, and reference data being used for a specific project and/or client. The precise configuration of the Verify methodology is decided at the beginning of each project. |
Consistency | Consistency tests investigate internal cohesiveness of datasets, such as contradictions, discrepancies, etc. |
Coordinate Reference System | A CRS provides a framework to accurately determine any location on the surface of the earth as numerical coordinates |
Deforestation (EUDR) | According to the EUDR, deforestation is the conversion of forest to agricultural use, whether human-induced or not, which includes situations caused by natural disasters. |
European Union Deforestation-free Regulation | This EU regulation aims to control deforestation for agricultural purposes by introducing mandatory due-diligence requirements for EU businesses coming into effect per 30 Dec 2024 |
Farm Plot | A physical area of land on which crops are produced. A farm plot is represented either as a polygon or a geopoint. |
Farmer | Person that is associated with farm plot according to local rules. Depending on the country, this can be the land owner, cultivator, tenant farmer. |
Forest | According to the EUDR, forest is defined as "land spanning more than 0,5 hectares with trees higher than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 10 %, or trees able to reach those thresholds in situ, excluding land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use" |
Framework | The Verify methodology follows a framework that structures test hierarchy and test versions. |
General Data Protection Regulation | EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679. Regulation on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement on such data. |
Geopoint | A point on the earth’s surface, defined by longitude and latitude coordinates. |
Global Navigation Satellite System | GNSS is the global positioning system. GNSS includes the better known GPS, and other systems. |
Global Forest Watch | GFW is an online tool monitoring global forest changes and publishing data on deforestation globally. It is one of the sources used for the DEF01 deforestation test (public maps). |
Harvest season | Harvest seasons depend on the region of production. For cocoa, there are generally two harvest seasons. The main harvest season is from October to March, the secondary harvest season is from April to September. |
Indigenous peoples and local communities | Indigenous peoples and local communities are ethnic and/or traditional groups that have a distict culture, identity, language and relation with their territories. These are the groups who originally inhabited such areas and they bear a particular set of institutions, worldviews and ecological knowledge that connect them with their lands. At present, their rights are protected by international conventions, as well as some national constitutions and infra-constitutional norms. |
Intersects | The crossing of boundary lines or polygons. A special case are self-intersects where two boundary lines of the same polygon cross each other. |
Lot | A physical batch (of cocoa, coffee, etc.) that is being purchased, transported, processed, exported, etc. |
Overlap | Both a geopoint or a polygon can overlap with one (or more) polygon(s). Two polygons are considered to be overlapping if their geometries intersect. A geopoint is considered to be overlapping if it is located within a polygon. |
Plausibility | Plausibility tests investigate how believable certain data is. Plausibility refers to the concept how likely a value can be true. |
Polygon | A two-dimensional geometric shape defined by vertices (edges) and boundary segments forming a closed chain. A polygon is typically used to represent the location, size, and shape of a farm. |
Protected Area | Protected areas are typically defined and published by a country's government, although sometimes they can be provided by other organisations (e.g., NGO's, online repositories). Protected areas are illegal to farm in, therefore when a farm plot is located within a protected area, it generates a critical risk score. |
Reference Data | Reference data are datasets containing geospatial data that are used for certain Verify tests. Examples of reference data are country borders, built-up areas, protected areas, deforestation areas, and more. Reference data is organised by country and type. |
Scoring Model | The Scoring Model describes the set of rules that are used to arrive at a final risk score per farm plot record. It includes the test profile, test groups and aggregation rules. |
Spikes | A spike is defined by a distance to other coordinates of >20m and an angle of 3.5 degrees or less. |
Splinters | Farm plots that have polygons smaller than a critical size. |
TMF dataset | Dataset that can be used to determine deforestation areas. |
Validation | As defined by ISO9000: (3.8.13) Confirmation, through the provision of objective evidence (3.8.3), that the requirements (3.6.4) for a specific intended use or application have been fulfilled. Note 1 to entry: The objective evidence needed for a validation is the result of a test (3.11.8) or other form of determination (3.11.1) such as performing alternative calculations or reviewing documents (3.8.5). Note 3 to entry: The use conditions for validation can be real or simulated. |
Verification | As defined by ISO9000: (3.8.12) Confirmation, through the provision of objective evidence (3.8.3), that specified requirements (3.6.4) have been fulfilled. Note 1 to entry: The objective evidence needed for a verification can be the result of an inspection (3.11.7) or of other forms of determination (3.11.1), such as performing alternative calculations or reviewing documents (3.8.5). Note 2 to entry: The activities carried out for verification are sometimes called a qualification process (3.4.1). |
Vertex (pl. Vertices) | A vertex is the corner point of a polygon. A polygon needs at least three vertices (excluding the ending point). A polygon with three vertices is a triangle, a polygon with four vertices is a quadrilateral. |
IPLC | Indigenous peoples and local communities |
Hectare (Ha) | a metric unit of square measure, equal to 100 ares (2.471 acres or 10,000 square metres). |