Recent developments have brought ‘due diligence,’ along with tracking and traceability, to the forefront of discussions and requirements in the diamond, colored stone and pearl industries (Hänni and Cartier, 2013;Archuleta, 2016; Cartier et al., 2018). To address this trend, certification mechanisms and technologies (such as blockchain) are being developed to solve inherent traceability challenges. As applied to gems, such standards and associated gemological approaches (e.g., geographical origin determination) to enhance traceability and transparency measures. This article seeks to provide the reader with an overview of current developments, terms used in this context and further research that may be needed. Diamond—in the form of conflict diamonds and the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)—is not the only material used in jewelry supply chains that has been scrutinized in recent years: for example, there has been a focus on gold (Dirty Gold campaign in 2004 and Conflict Gold in 2012), rubies and jade from Myanmar, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan or precious corals listed under CITES, to name a few notable cases. In response to these developments, jewelry industry associations (e.g., CIBJO, WDC, ICA, AGTA) have begun to address these issues and companies have gone on to form a range of initiatives to...