topic: Commodity Roundtables

topic: Commodity Roundtables

Social media activity version | Lean version

EU law to reduce deforestation is on a knife’s edge, will leaders act? (commentary)
- The landmark law to halt the import of products linked to global deforestation into the European Union is at a crucial stage.
- The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) could stand or fall in the coming days, depending on how the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, acts, and she should listen to the large chorus of corporations — many of whose industries are linked to deforestation — a new op-ed states.
- “It’s not every day that such a broad bench of companies encourages environmental and human rights regulation, and this thousands-strong corporate movement is worth celebrating. Von der Leyen can take heart in knowing she can act courageously for global forest protection, whilst maintaining considerable corporate support.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

To ease deforestation, natural rubber industry must ‘paddle hard’ (commentary)
- A recent study by the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh found that natural rubber related forest loss has been substantially underestimated and is at least two or three times higher than suggested by previous figures.
- The same study shows that at least 2 million hectares of forest has been lost for rubber cultivation since 2000, while the supply chain has begun to come together to define and standardize key requirements for environmental benefit and social equity.
- “All eyes in the rubber industry are currently turned towards the EU Deforestation Regulation. There are waves of opportunity that came before the EUDR and there are waves that will come after [but the] organizations that want to set themselves up for long term success will keep this in mind and paddle to good positions to ride all the incoming waves,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

U.S. and U.K. lawmakers must wake up to the coffee problem (commentary)
- Coffee is a globally traded agri-commodity that is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, and other abuses.
- The FOREST Act just introduced in the U.S. Senate would regulate palm oil, cocoa, rubber, cattle, and soy – but not coffee. Also this month, the U.K. announced details of its long-awaited deforestation legislation, but it doesn’t cover coffee, either.
- It’s time for regulators in these top coffee consuming countries to wake up, recognize the urgency, and regulate coffee, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Everything is traceable – unless you don’t want it to be (commentary)
- Aida Greenbury, the former Managing Director of Sustainability at APP Group and currently a board member and advisor to several organizations including Mongabay, argues that companies need to stop making excuses for the lack of traceability of commodities and materials in their supply chains.
- “Consumers have the right to know where the products they buy come from, and to trace them back to the source of the raw materials to ensure that they are not linked to anything dodgy, such as deforestation and human rights violations,” she writes. “Consequently, brands, retailers, and manufacturers have the responsibility to provide this traceability information to consumers.”
- Greenbury argues that traceability must extend throughout a company’s supply chain, including third party suppliers and smallholders.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

What stops the rubber industry from being sustainable? (commentary)
- Six million smallholder farmers produce almost 90% of the world’s natural rubber: 70% of this goes to the tire industry, which then services other downstream users.
- Sold by the ton, there are some costs that are not included in the price especially when produced in an unsustainable way. These costs have historically included deforestation, forced labor, and corruption.
- The members of the relatively new Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber aim to change that with a focus on sustainability in the rubber supply chain.
- This is a commentary. The views expressed are of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Despite flaws, commodity eco-labels contribute to sustainability (commentary)
- While eco-labels may have failed to stop deforestation of many agricultural commodities, they are nevertheless contributing to the sustainability of commodity production, argues Matthias Diemer, a trained ecologist who owns a consultancy in Switzerland focusing on sustainability in agricultural commodities.
- Diemer says that reports by Greenpeace and other watchdogs are important to raise the bar for eco-labels, but dismissing voluntary certification and placing the onus for change on governments is naive and risks losing the potential benefits of certification.
- Instead eco-labels should be appraised on realistic expectations of their potential impacts, writes Diemer.
- This post is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

Report: Soy, cattle industries trail palm oil, timber on deforestation risk
- The report says the soybean and cattle industries lack certification bodies like the RSPO that were created after consumer pressure.
- Among soybean and cattle producers, Glencore Agriculture, JBS and Minerva scored worst on indicators for forest risk.
- The two industries have a significant role in the deforestation of the Amazon and Brazil’s Cerrado biome.

Qualified success: What’s next for Peru’s Operation Mercury?
- The Peruvian government’s launch of Operation Mercury to crack down on illegal mining had a burst of initial success, cutting deforestation by 92% since its kickoff in February 2019.
- Concerns have surfaced that the operation would simply displace miners, forcing them to deforest new areas.
- However, satellite imagery analysis published in January 2020 revealed that, while deforestation due to mining continues to be a problem in southeastern Peru, Operation Mercury has not led to a surge in forest loss adjacent to the targeted area.
- The government is also investing in programs aimed at providing employment alternatives so that people don’t return to mining.

Tropical forests’ lost decade: the 2010s
- The 2010s opened as a moment of optimism for tropical forests. The world looked like it was on track to significantly reduce tropical deforestation by 2020.
- By the end of the 2019 however, it was clear that progress on protecting tropical forests stalled in the 2010s. The decade closed with rising deforestation and increased incidence of fire in tropical forests.
- According to the U.N., in 2015 global forest cover fell below four billion hectares of forest for the first time in human history.

In surprise move, Brazil has removed restrictions on Amazon sugarcane production
- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has signed a decree revoking a zoning regulation for the sugarcane industry, effectively allowing for cultivation of the crop in the Amazon and other areas of primary forest.
- The measure is controversial because it wasn’t requested by the industry, which, under the previous regulation, was permitted to expand onto degraded land and cattle pasture covering six times the area currently planted with sugarcane.
- The government has justified the move as necessary to boost the ethanol industry in Amazonian states, but experts warn the end of the zoning restriction could present an obstacle to ethanol exports to the European Union, damaging the biofuel sector.
- To date, the sugarcane industry has remained dissociated from the deforestation linked to the cattle and soy industries. Environmentalists say this new decree could end that exception, while also sending the message that the government sees no value in protecting standing forests.

How rubber farmers can reduce risk and help the environment (commentary)
- Since the cost of natural rubber, unlike synthetic rubber, is determined by markets and mostly driven by commodity exchanges like that of Singapore, Tokyo, and Shanghai, Thailand’s rubber farmers – mostly made up of small landowners who hold 95 percent of the planting area – don’t have safeguards against the seesawing econometrics of the business.
- They have also traditionally cultivated rubber as a monoculture – a practice often criticized for its environmental effects on soil, fauna population, quality, and productivity. So, diversifying the scope of their lands and livelihoods is an option that only makes sense.
- Gaining certification through organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) helps them transition through that diversification, widening the possibilities of income and teaching them more sustainable ways to manage their operations.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Can jurisdictional certification curb palm oil deforestation in Indonesia? (commentary)
- In this commentary, Dan Nepstad of Earth Innovation Institute and John Watts and Silvia Irawan of Inovasi Bumi argue that the surge in oil palm expansion in Indonesia since the early 2000s has caused deforestation, environmental degradation and social conflicts; strategies to reduce these negative impacts have seen only modest success.
- The authors say the jurisdictional certification pilots of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) represent a promising new approach to these issues. The RSPO pilot in Seruyan — a district that has experienced many of these problems — has led to several innovations, including an agricultural facility that provides technical support to smallholders while managing funds received from companies, implementation of the “jurisdiction-wide environmental protection plan” regulation, a mechanism for resolving land conflicts, and a method for mapping and registering independent smallholders.
- Deforestation may be on the decline in Seruyan, with the exception of the El Niño related fires of 2015 and 2016. Through jurisdictional certification, there is the potential to protect 480 thousand hectares of standing forests and restore 420 thousand hectares of forests.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Chinese banks risk supporting soy-related deforestation, report finds
- Chinese financial institutions have little awareness about the risks of deforestation in the soy supply chain, according to a report released May 31 from the nonprofit disclosure platform CDP.
- China imports more than 60 percent of the world’s soy, meaning that the country could play a major role in halting deforestation and slowing climate change if companies and banks focus on stopping deforestation to grow the crop.
- Around 490 square kilometers (189 square miles) of land in Brazil was cleared for soy headed for China in 2017 — about 40 percent of all “converted” land in Brazil that year.
- As the trade war between the U.S. and China continues, China may increasingly look to Latin America for its soy, potentially increasing the chances that land will be cleared to make way for the crop.

The biggest rainforest news stories in 2018
- This is our annual rainforests year in review post.
- Overall, 2018 was not a good year for the planet’s tropical rainforests.
- Rainforest conservation suffered many setbacks, especially in Brazil, the Congo Basin, and Madagascar.
- Colombia was one of the few bright spots for rainforests in 2018.

RSPO adopts total ban on deforestation under sweeping new standards
- The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has adopted new standards that will prohibit its member companies from clearing any type of forest for palm plantations.
- RSPO-certified companies were previously permitted to clear secondary forests and peat forests with a peat layer no deeper than 3 meters (10 feet).
- The move comes amid a growing consumer backlash that has prompted companies to make zero-deforestation commitments.
- Environmental activists have welcomed the RSPO’s deforestation ban with cautious optimism, noting that enforcement of the certification body’s standards has historically been lax.

Nestlé suspended from RSPO for failing to pay dues, submit progress reports
- In the wake of Nestlé’s suspension from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, activists said the food giant must do more to prevent palm oil linked to deforestation and other abuses from entering its supply chain.
- They also called on the RSPO to take stricter action against companies flouting its standards. “Companies are increasingly aware that RSPO, in its current form is not providing them with deforestation-free palm oil. This is an existential threat to RSPO’s future,” said Robin Averbeck of the Rainforest Action Network.
- “Nestlé decided a few years ago not to waste time going down the RSPO route,” Averbeck said. “RSPO is clearly terrified of that feeling spreading. So it’s trying to make an example out of Nestlé.”

Tropical deforestation: the need for a strategy adjustment (commentary)
- Ecologist Dan Nepstad is the founder and executive director of the Earth Innovation Institute.
- In this commentary, Nepstad makes the case for building stronger government support to end deforestation in tropical countries.
- Without this support, it may not be possible to further curb tropical deforestation.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Rainforests: the year in review 2017
- 2017 was a rough year for tropical rainforests, but there were some bright spots.
- This is Mongabay’s annual year-in-review on what happened in the world of tropical rainforests.
- Here we summarize some of the more notable developments and trends for tropical forests in 2017.

Jurisdictional certification approach aims to strengthen protections against deforestation
- Jurisdictional certification brings together all stakeholders across all commodities within a district or state to ensure the entire region is deforestation-free.
- A few tropical forest regions have long used the jurisdictional approach; with proven success, more regions are now following suit.
- Pilot programs in Brazil and elsewhere exemplify the successes and challenges of the jurisdictional approach.

Almost 1M hectares ‘missing’ from land holdings of major palm oil companies
- Palm oil is a major driver of tropical deforestation. The report was produced by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which looked at information publicly disclosed by 50 of the most major palm oil production companies.
- Its findings indicate that while most companies disclose the area of planted land they manage, many fail to reveal the size, location, and use of many other areas in their portfolio, defying corporate accountability and concealing potential social and environmental risks.
- A supply chain expert says failures to disclose information don’t necessarily signal ill will on the part of the companies. Instead, it may be the result of unclear expectations, definitions, and protocols for reporting.
- The Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world’s leading palm oil certification body, is reportedly working to improve the reporting process of its member companies.

Cattle industry lags behind in addressing impact on deforestation
- Supply chain transparency is especially difficult in the cattle industry because cattle frequently change hands, unlike soy or oil palm crops that remain stationary for years.
- While some major cattle companies have taken strides toward sustainability, they still lack sufficient support from the industry as a whole.
- While consumers are increasingly pushing for deforestation-free palm oil and other products, consumer pressure for change in the cattle industry hasn’t been as significant.

Will there really be enough sustainable palm oil for the whole market?
- A report by non-profit CDP suggests companies may have a false confidence in their ability to find enough sustainable palm oil to meet their commitments.
- Certified sustainable palm oil was in short supply last summer and prices spiked when two major producers were suspended by the industry’s main certification association, revealing vulnerabilities in the supply.
- Better planning to secure future supply includes working more intensively with suppliers, says CDP.

The year in tropical rainforests: 2016
- After 2015’s radical advancements in transparency around tropical forests between improved forest cover monitoring systems and corporate policies on commodity sourcing, progress slowed in 2016 with no major updates on tropical forest cover, resistance from several governments in releasing forest data, and some notable backtracking on zero deforestation commitments.
- But even without the pan-tropical updates, we know that deforestation increased sharply in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for the world’s largest area of tropical forest.
- Low commodity prices may have bought some relief for forests.

Complaint against a palm oil company in Papua held in limbo by RSPO
- In April, an NGO complained to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil about a plantation firm alleged to have grabbed indigenous land in Indonesia’s Papua province.
- The official grievance has yet to be accepted or rejected by the RSPO’s Complaints Panel, even after more than six months.
- Observers have noted that an executive from the parent company of the firm in question also sits on the RSPO’s Board of Directors. The roundtable denies that there is any conflict of interest.
- The RSPO is the world’s largest association for ethical palm oil production, whose members consist of palm oil companies, banks and NGOs that choose to join.

RSPO loses key backer in Australia: ‘We just can’t trust them anymore’
- Palm Oil Investigations said it would cease to promote palm oil certified as sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
- The watchdog had pushed some of Australia’s biggest corporate users of palm oil to buy only that which the RSPO had certified as ethically produced.
- The RSPO is the world’s largest association for sustainable palm oil production.

Voluntary certification standards have far to go, say experts
- Certification should be combined with other standard public policies to promote sustainable forest management principles, say experts.
- Experts point to a need for more relationship building between voluntary certification schemes and public institutions.
- Effective certification requires the cooperation of policy makers, certification schemes, companies, academics and other stakeholders.

$90M to decouple food production from negative environmental impacts
- The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has announced $90 million in grants to improve the sustainability of food production.
- The new funds will go into three of the philanthropy’s programs: Forests and Agriculture Markets Initiative, Conservation and Financial Markets Initiative, and Oceans and Seafood Markets Initiative.
- The programs are working to decouple food production from negative environmental impacts.

Indonesia’s oil palm maps remain hidden from public view. Why?
- In 2013, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil promised to publish its growers’ concession maps.
- That hasn’t happened, but the RSPO has pledged to make good on its commitment this year.
- Not everyone is on board with the initiative, however, and some doubt it will come to fruition. The public’s ability to monitor the industry hangs in the balance.

New Rainforest Alliance head: technology could improve commodity certification
- In January, Rainforest Alliance announced it had hired Nigel Sizer as its new President.
- Sizer previously headed up World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch, a forest monitoring platform.
- Given that background, it is unsurprising that Sizer is embracing technology in his new leadership role at Rainforest Alliance.

Indonesia could collaborate with RSPO, official study finds
- A new study reveals how the government’s sustainable palm oil scheme, ISPO, might work with the industry-led Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
- The study, sanctioned by the government and the RSPO. identifies similarities and differences between the two certification schemes.
- The RSPO has higher environmental standards than ISPO, but ISPO is mandatory for all Indonesian growers.

How can banks spur the palm oil industry toward sustainability?
- Banks are starting to come up with ways to encourage sustainability in the palm oil sector, whose unbridled expansion is fueling deforestation and rights abuses across the world.
- Still, the nascent green finance industry faces a number of obstacles as it seeks to expand its influence.
- These include a lack of transparency with regard to company ownership, misguided valuations of palm oil enterprises, and more.

Do poor environmental practices affect palm oil firms’ bottom lines on a scale meaningful for investors and financiers?
- Big companies generally don’t see environmental noncompliance as a major economic risk.
- That’s because they tend to think about their business in the short term, rather than in the long term, where most environmental issues come into play.
- The material impacts of environmentally unsustainable practices can also be hard to quanify.

What’s preventing palm oil investors from going green?
- Green investment could make the palm oil industry more sustainable, but a variety of obstacles are preventing it from becoming more prevalent.
- A lack of expertise, the structural issue of short-termism, and a lack of proven materiality all keep funds from flowing toward sustainable operations.
- Additional issues specific to palm oil exist as well.

Do palm oil financiers care about sustainability?
- Sustainable finance has been touted as a solution to the palm oil industry’s links with forest destruction and rights abuses.
- The movement’s progress, however, has been hampered by the difficulty of measuring the environmental impact of things like green loans and bonds.
- Mongabay spoke to experts in the field to investigate how much investors and financiers in the palm oil sector care about their clients’ sustainability.

Big Palm Oil’s financiers

Part four in a five-part series on the links between business practices and deforestation in palm oil industry. Parts one, two and three. A key component of the palm oil industry that is often overlooked is the role played by financial institutions and investors. Over the past decade alone, at least $50 billion has been invested in […]
‘Zero Deforestation’ not necessarily the answer, environmentalists warn

Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysian Borneo. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last week, the London-based think tank Innovation Forum convened a two-day conference on the subject of sustainable forestry in Washington, D.C. Titled “How Business Can Tackle Deforestation,” the conference brought together leaders from both public and private spheres, including forest commodities companies, […]
Tracking companies’ zero deforestation commitments

Brazil’s Atlantic Forest has been severely reduced in extent from agriculture and urban expansion. Over the past three years dozens of companies have made ‘zero deforestation commitments’, establishing policies that set social and environmental safeguards for commodity sourcing and production. However these agreements are highly variable — some policies are quite strong, while others aren’t […]
Brazil unlikely to sustain gains in reducing deforestation without new incentives for ranchers, says study

Report argues that a jurisdiction-based approach could be a solution if commodity certification fails to reduce deforestation Cattle pasture and a forest reserve in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Cattle ranchers that drive the vast majority of forest clearing in the Brazilian Amazon are unlikely to be held at bay indefinitely unless […]
In Girl Scouts vs. Kellogg’s over palm oil, rainforests and orangutans win

Deforestation in Riau, Sumatra. After a campaign waged by two charismatic Girl Scouts over questionably-sourced palm oil used in Girl Scout Cookies, Kellogg Company today announced a policy that will move it toward deforestation-free palm oil. Under the commitment, Kellogg’s suppliers will have to meet specific sourcing criteria by the end of 2015. “Kellogg will […]
Brazilian soy industry extends deforestation moratorium
Soy traders and producers in the Brazilian Amazon agreed to extend a moratorium on soybeans produced in recently deforested areas for another year, reports Greenpeace. The moratorium, renewed Friday, has had an important role in reducing the impact of soy production in the Brazilian Amazon. Until it was signed in 2006, soy was a significant […]
85% of Brazilian leather goes to markets sensitive to environmental concerns

Around 40% of beef and 85% of leather production serve markets that are potentially sensitive to environmental concerns, providing a partial explantation as to why Brazilian producers have made recent commitments to reducing deforestation for cattle production, finds a new study published in Tropical Conservation Science. The research, conducted by Nathalie Walker and Sabrina Patel […]
World’s biggest companies lay out path toward zero-deforestation commodities

With a backdrop of fires raging across oil palm and timber plantations in Sumatra, business and political leaders convened in Indonesia to discuss a path forward for producing deforestation-free commodities by 2020. The gathering in Jakarta was the first meeting of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, a public-private push to implement the zero deforestation target […]
U.S. govt has role to play in stopping commodity-driven deforestation

The U.S. government could play a key role in breaking the link between commodity production and greenhouse gas emissions associated with tropical deforestation, argues a new report released by seven environmental groups. The report, titled Breaking the Link between Commodities and Climate Change, looks at the opportunity to address deforestation by targeting four commodities that […]
6 lessons for stopping deforestation on the frontier

Mongabay.com is partnering with the Skoll Foundation ahead of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship to bring a series of perspectives that aim to answer the question: how do we feed the world and still address the drivers of deforestation? HOW DO WE FEED THE WORLD AND STILL ADDRESS THE DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION? Soy, […]
Nordic energy giant launches ‘no deforestation’ policy

Neste Oil, a Finnish energy giant, has announced a new “no deforestation” policy [PDF] for sourcing palm oil. The company, which is one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, had faced criticism from environmentalists for purchasing palm oil potentially linked to rainforest and peatland destruction in southeast Asia. Under the new policy, Neste […]
Tropical croplands expand by 48m ha in 10 years, raising environmental concerns

Conversion of forest to oil palm plantations in Borneo. Croplands in the tropics expanded by an average of 4.8 million hectares per year between 1999 and 2008, increasing pressure on forest areas and other ecosystems, reports a study published in the journal PLoS ONE. The research found that soybeans and maize (corn) expanded the most […]
Strong ‘no deforestation’ commitments save forests and feed people

Green Gucci handbags. Courtesy of Gucci Gucci has rolled out a collection of ‘zero-deforestation’ handbags. Each handbag comes with a “passport” that provides the history of the product’s supply chain going back to the ranch that produced the leather. The line emerged out of concerns that leather in the fashion industry is contributing to deforestation […]
Dunkin’ Donuts to adopt palm oil policy

Oil palm plantation in Borneo, with rainforest in the background Doughnut and coffeehouse giant Dunkin’ Donuts has agreed to source 100 percent of its palm oil under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), though the company has yet to set a date for the move, reports the New York State Comptroller’s office. The fast-food […]

Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia