Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

TY - JOUR

T1 - Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector

AU - zu Ermgassen, Erasmus

AU - Ayre, Ben

AU - Godar, J.

AU - Bastos Lima, Mairon

AU - Bauch, Simone

AU - Garrett, Rachael

AU - Green, Jonathan Michael Halsey

AU - Lathuilliere, Michael

AU - Lofgren, Pernilla

AU - Macfarquhar, Christina

AU - Meyfroidt, Patrick

AU - Suavet, Clement

AU - West, Christopher David

AU - Gardner, Toby A.

N1 - © 2019 The Author(s).

PY - 2020/2/18

Y1 - 2020/2/18

N2 - Zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs) are voluntary initiatives where companies or countries pledge to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. These commitments offer much promise for sustainable commodity production, but are undermined by a lack of transparency about their coverage and impacts. Here, using state-of-the-art supply chain data, we introduce an approach to evaluate the impact of ZDCs, linking traders and international markets to commodity-associated deforestation in the sub-national jurisdictions from which they source. We focus on the Brazilian soy sector, where we find that ZDC coverage is increasing, but under-represents the Cerrado biome where most soy-associated deforestation currently takes place. Though soy-associated deforestation declined in the Amazon after the introduction of the Soy Moratorium, we observe no change in the exposure of companies or countries adopting ZDCs to soy-associated deforestation in the Cerrado. We further assess the formulation and implementation of these ZDCs and identify several systematic weaknesses that must be addressed to increase the likelihood that they achieve meaningful reductions in deforestation in future. As the 2020 deadline for several of these commitments approaches, our approach can provide independent monitoring of progress toward the goal of ending commodity-associated deforestation.

AB - Zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs) are voluntary initiatives where companies or countries pledge to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. These commitments offer much promise for sustainable commodity production, but are undermined by a lack of transparency about their coverage and impacts. Here, using state-of-the-art supply chain data, we introduce an approach to evaluate the impact of ZDCs, linking traders and international markets to commodity-associated deforestation in the sub-national jurisdictions from which they source. We focus on the Brazilian soy sector, where we find that ZDC coverage is increasing, but under-represents the Cerrado biome where most soy-associated deforestation currently takes place. Though soy-associated deforestation declined in the Amazon after the introduction of the Soy Moratorium, we observe no change in the exposure of companies or countries adopting ZDCs to soy-associated deforestation in the Cerrado. We further assess the formulation and implementation of these ZDCs and identify several systematic weaknesses that must be addressed to increase the likelihood that they achieve meaningful reductions in deforestation in future. As the 2020 deadline for several of these commitments approaches, our approach can provide independent monitoring of progress toward the goal of ending commodity-associated deforestation.

U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab6497

DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab6497

M3 - Article

SN - 1748-9318

VL - 15

JO - Environmental Research Letters

JF - Environmental Research Letters

IS - 3

M1 - 035003

ER -