Assessing the Zero-Deforestation Supply Chain Movement

Climate Focus is currently undertaking an assessment of the zero-deforestation supply chain movement for the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020). Recognizing their responsibility to protect forests, more than 470 companies have pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains as of September 2017. Now with fewer than three years left until the 2020 deadline across these commitments, enhanced action and collaboration across sectors and supply-chain actors are urgently needed. To best support this action and collaboration, a clearer understanding of progress made to date for corporate commitments and the overall impact of the zero-deforestation movement on forests is needed.

To provide this clearer understanding, this publication consists of three parts:

1. Assessing progress on commitments and implementation of corporate supply chain efforts, while filling essential data gaps on the scope of current efforts relative to the entire commodity market and on the ambition and quality of existing commitments;
2. Developing an assessment framework and evaluating current evidence for the impact of the zero-deforestation efforts to date, considering shifts in government policy, changes in land use practices and both positive and negative impacts of the zero-deforestation movement in tropical forest countries; and
3. Assessing the effectiveness and highlighting the contributions of TFA 2020 in supporting this agenda.

The publication is led by Climate Focus, in collaboration with Blue Maia for the third work component. Our publication partners include CDP, Global Canopy Programme, Forest Trends, and Rainforest Alliance.