{"id":25772,"date":"2022-01-01T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaialab.org\/?p=25772"},"modified":"2024-03-28T17:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T17:15:22","slug":"time-for-change-delivering-deforestation-free-supply-chains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaialab.org\/en\/time-for-change-delivering-deforestation-free-supply-chains\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for change: delivering deforestation free supply chains"},"content":{"rendered":"
Deforestation<\/span>

Time for change: delivering deforestation free supply chains<\/h1>

In the last five years 10 million hectares have been lost, roughly the area of Bulgaria every year. The loss of primary forests, particularly in tropical areas, continues at an alarming rate, with a huge long term impact on the Earth\u2019s climate, biodiversity and people who live in the forests.
\nIf deforestation was compared to a country in terms of emissions, it would be the third one in the world after the United States and China. Since 1960 around half of tropical forests have been lost, with strong evidence that demand for agricultural commodities and agricultural expansion are the main drivers<\/p>\n<\/div>[vc_single_image image=”23902″ img_size=”full” css=”.vc_custom_1703779176227{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”]

A recent study published in Science <\/a>has confirmed\u00a0 that agricultural expansion is the dominant cause of tropical deforestation. Pasture expansion is the most dominant driver by far, accounting\u00a0 for around half\u00a0 of the deforestation, resulting in agricultural\u00a0 production across the tropics. Palm oil and soy cultivation together account\u00a0 for at least a fifth, and six other crops – rubber, cocoa, coffee, rice, maize and cassava likely account\u00a0 for most of the remainder, with large regional variations and degree of uncertainties.<\/p>\n

Supply chain and demand side measures must be designed\u00a0 in a way that addresses the underlying and indirect ways\u00a0 in which agriculture is linked to deforestation. These side measures need to drive improvements in sustainable rural development, otherwise deforestation rates will remain stubbornly\u00a0 high in many places.<\/p>\n<\/div>[vc_single_image image=”23903″ img_size=”full” css=”.vc_custom_1703779189974{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”]

More comforting news comes from recent studies indicating that nature and land use solutions can contribute up to 37% or 11.3 Gt CO2 of the climate mitigation required\u00a0 by 2030 and limit warming to within a 2C increase. Of this important contribution, almost two thirds can be achieved through forest conservation and restoration and improved management of tropical forests, mangrove and peatlands. To implement them, systemic action is needed to redirect investment and funds and reduce deforestation.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Local impacts, global drivers<\/h2>

Globally, the main drivers\u00a0 of deforestation and forest degradation are linked to a handful of agricultural commodities that cause land use change such as\u00a0 palm oil and soy, coffee, cocoa,\u00a0 meat and\u00a0 maize\u00a0 followed by other products like rubber, leather, timber, as well as\u00a0 infrastructures like\u00a0 roads, dams, oilpipes and not least mining.<\/p>\n

In tropical forests, at the heart of the problem lies\u00a0 agricultural expansion\u00a0 driven by the demand of agricultural commodities, but also more complex causes like market pressure, food preferences, lifestyles,\u00a0 inefficiency in some agricultural practices and food waste.<\/p>\n

In European temperate, North-American and Russian boreal forests, the main cause of deforestation and forest degradation is\u00a0 timber demand ( 83%) followed by forest fires\u00a0 (12.7%) and urban sprawl (2.2%).<\/p>\n<\/div>

Why is Europe part of the problem?<\/h2>

EU consumption accounts for about 10% of global deforestation.\u00a0 This might not sound a lot, nonetheless Europe has a leading position on environmental and climate policies worldwide and is able to influence global\u00a0 trade. Data and studies<\/strong><\/a> show that Europe is one of\u00a0 the biggest importer of commodities linked to deforestation or Forest Risk Commodities ( FRCs) as shown in the pie chart. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>[vc_single_image image=”23904″ img_size=”full” css=”.vc_custom_1703779201097{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”]

For some commodities like cocoa, the EU is the world\u2019s largest importer of cocoa beans, responsible for over 60 per cent of global imports. Although only some cocoa\u00a0 imports are linked to deforestation,r the main producing countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, have faced high deforestation rates in the last 20 years. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The impact of EU consumption on deforestation is so relevant\u00a0 that in 2021 the EU Commission, at the request of\u00a0 the EU Parliament, presented a Proposal for a Regulation on deforestation free products<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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icon<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
The deforestation rate is so alarming that climate targets will not be met without a serious and fast crackdown on deforestation..<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

The\u00a0 responsibility\u00a0 of EU countries\u00a0 depends on the mix of FRC imports and their consumption.Nine EU countries are more exposed to deforestation and overall are responsible for 70%\u00a0 of FRCs.<\/p>\n

A critical issue in the identification of responsibilities in the consumption of FRCs is that importing\u00a0 countries do not account\u00a0 related emissions to deforestation, which\u00a0 are instead attributed to producing countries in their national GHG\u00a0 inventories.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Multilateral actions, targets still to be met<\/h2>

Without a binding international agreement, European and national Regulations to track the impacts of FRCs along the supply chain, the private sector, NGOs, research institutions and\u00a0 governments are working to improve not only the monitoring of the supply chains, but also to reduce the risks. To this end, nine European countries have set up the Amsterdam Declaration Partnership<\/a>, to work with key supply stakeholders and\u00a0 encourage them to reduce and minimize the impact.<\/p>\n

Monitoring deforestation and forest degradation has\u00a0 remarkably improved recently, with satellite data\u00a0 available on Copernicus and Nasa platforms. The platform\u00a0 Global Forest Watch<\/a> relies\u00a0 primarily on freely available medium-resolution imagery (10-30 meter pixels) from NASA\u2019s Landsat or the European Space Agency\u2019s Sentinel\u00a0 and\u00a0 it allows tracking of deforestation in exposed countries.<\/p>\n

New and innovative open tools have been developed to track deforestation. Among them, Trase Earth<\/a> is a revolutionary data – driven transparency initiative, developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute and\u00a0 The Global Canopy, that is able to monitor the trade and financing of commodities driving deforestation worldwide. It maps supply chains combining self-disclosed data from companies with customs, shipping, tax and logistics linking consumer countries to traders and places of production.\u00a0 It shows how commodity\u00a0 exports are linked to environmental and social harms in the places where they are produced. Trase\u2019s freely available tools enable companies, financial institutions, governments and citizens to take practical steps to address\u00a0 deforestation. It already covers over half the global trade in forest-risk commodities and continues to expand coverage to new commodities. It maps supply chains and financing of key commodities from entire countries and regions, such as Brazilian soy or Indonesian palm oil exports, providing a wall-to-wall map of the central stages of a supply chain.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0 the forefront of commodity certification and sustainable production,\u00a0 long running schemes such as FairTrade<\/a> and \u00a0RainForest Alliance,<\/a> have joined forces with the aim of better visualizing\u00a0 and assessing\u00a0 deforestation risks in locations where there are certified producer organizations.\u00a0 For some\u00a0 highly traded and risky commodities such as palm oil and soya, specific certification standards\u00a0 have been developed, permanent round tables\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with\u00a0 NGOs, market players and\u00a0 government set ups.<\/p>\n

The private sector and multinational companies have often developed their own standards to track and improve the impacts of their commodities in the value chains\u00a0 .In the last years\u00a0 there has been an increase of\u00a0 hybrid forms of sustainable governance within big industries and multinationals.\u00a0 Nespresso has launched\u00a0 the AAA<\/a> Sustainable Quality Program\u00a0 to improve sustainability standards\u00a0 in coffee plantations.<\/p>\n

In parallel, alliances and coalitions between multiple players in\u00a0 the supply chain including producers, buyers, government intermediaries, civil societies and governments to face issues such as minimum wage, deforestation and minimum price for producers. \u00a0Global Coffee Platform<\/a>, Cocoa&Forests Initiative<\/a> and Soft Commodities Forum<\/a>\u00a0 are examples of coalitions set up by global food giants and Consumers Goods Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several independent supply platforms, developed\u00a0 by high profile\u00a0 non profit organisations, are now available\u00a0 for the private sector to track supply chains\u00a0 at high risk of\u00a0 land use change. One of the best and most accurate\u00a0 is \u00a0Global Forest Watch Pro<\/a>, which\u00a0 provides\u00a0 maps and tools to private entities to identify land risks linked to the supply of some commodities.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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icon<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Globally more than 150 private companies are committed to reach a zero deforestation target in their supply chains but targets are not sufficiently ambitious to generate a significant impact<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

If tracking impacts is improving at the same rate l as corporate initiatives,then why does deforestation continue at such an alarming rate? First of all, not all deforestation is driven\u00a0 by high risk commodities.\u00a0 In the African continent practices such as slash and burn and shifting agriculture\u00a0 to increase\u00a0 agricultural land for self consumption and local food demand, are widespread.<\/p>\n

At the forefront of global consumption patterns, some companies are committed to reducing deforestation in their supply chains, others accept \u201czero net deforestation\u201d, offset\u00a0 by reforestation\u00a0 plans. Also\u00a0 for the majority of companies committed to\u00a0 reducing deforestation, their pledges\u00a0\u00a0 include a 2020\u00a0 cut off date, not updated to 2030.<\/p>\n

According\u00a0 to Forest 500<\/a>, an ambitious and important\u00a0 project, supported by the Global Canopy<\/a>, to monitor and assess pledges of companies and financial institutions exposed to\u00a0 deforestation in their activities, key findings\u00a0 in the evaluation of their results <\/a>suggest the following outcomes:<\/p>\n