A third of companies linked to deforestation have no policy stop it.
Global Canopy’s research also shows that many businesses don’t keep their promises.
According to a report, only a third of the businesses most closely associated with the destruction of tropical rainforests have implemented any deforestation policies at all.
According to a study conducted by Global Canopy, 31% of the businesses whose supply chains have the greatest impact on the risk of tropical deforestation do not have a single deforestation commitment for any of the commodities to which they are exposed.
Deforestation may still be taking place in order to produce their goods because many of those who have established policies are not properly monitoring them. Only 50% of the 100 businesses that have committed to deforestation for each commodity to which they are exposed are monitoring their suppliers or sourcing regions in accordance with their commitments to deforestation for each commodity.
Global Canopy’s Forest 500 report states: “We are three years past the 2020 deadline that many organisations set themselves to halt deforestation, and just two years away from the UN’s deadline of 2025 for companies and financial institutions to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation, conversion and the associated human rights abuses. This target date is essential to meeting our global net zero targets and averting catastrophic climate change.”
World leaders agreed to eliminate deforestation from supply chains at Cop26 in 2021. Humans clear land for agricultural products like palm oil, soy, and beef, which largely result in the destruction of the world’s forests, account for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.
Financial institutions have a poor record on deforestation, according to the report. Those identified provide US$6.1tn in finance to companies in forest-risk supply chains, but according to the report “only a small proportion of financial institutions most exposed to deforestation are addressing deforestation as a systemic risk”.
Only 48 (32%) of the financial institutions have publicly acknowledged deforestation as a business risk, and 92 (61%) of the financial institutions that are most vulnerable to deforestation do not have a deforestation policy that covers their lending and investments.
Companies and financial institutions have been urged by the report to recognise deforestation as a threat to their operations and implement policies to end the practice in their supply chains. Additionally, it is requesting that governments improve their regulation and include financial institutions in this regulation. Under the Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the Paris Agreement, and the Global Biodiversity Framework, numerous nations have pledged to end deforestation. However, the majority have not yet implemented policies to implement this.
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The declines in our wildlife is shocking and frightening. Without much more support, many of the animals we know and love will continue in their declines towards extinction.
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