During the 1990s, the negative impacts of industrial, agricultural and forestry activities on the environment in Brazil resulted in growing concerns. Thanks to a larger diffusion of information about impacts, environmental certification of several agricultural and forestry products is increasing. This paper analyzes and compares two certification processes, i.e., that of community-based timber management in the Amazon and of organic coffee. The key issue addressed in this paper is whether these certification processes can reconcile economic effectiveness, social equity and environmental sustainability. The comparison aims at clarifying the positive and negative impacts of the various institutions interacting in this process. Both cases allow observing that environmental certification in Brazil is not yet capable of fulfilling the aim of achieving and maintaining certification in the long term. Among other factors accounting for that are its high costs and the uncertain market demand for organic products and sustainable timber.