In the second of our two-part briefing on deforestation risk in supply chains, Ethical Corporation magazine looks at soya, beef and cocoa. We also look at pressures to reform the Forestry Stewardship Council, the rise of biodiversity as a business agenda, and the UK's plans to plough a new furrow on agriculture post-Brexit

Greta Thunberg's oft-repeated warning that "our house is on fire" is nowhere more evident than in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro's bonfire of environmental regulations has led to a surge in land clearance for soy and beef.

According to the National Institute of Space Studies there was an 85% jump in deforestation from 2018-2019, a rise attributed by ecologists to a so-called “Bolsonaro effect.”

In the first part of Ethical Corporation's two-part special briefing on deforestation we looked into deforestation risk in palm oil and timber products. (You can download the February magazine here.)

This month, Mark Hillsdon reports on the tendrils of hope amid escalating soy deforestation in Brazil as civil society and companies push back against Bolsonaro’s policies promoting environmental destruction.

He also reports on how the state of Mato Grosso’s pioneering Produce, Conserve and Include strategy is working to transform farmers into allies in the fight against deforestation, and a new green bond being launched on the London Stock Exchange that will incentivise sustainable soy production in the Cerrado.

With Brazil, the world’s sixth most populous country, home to more cattle than people, beef is one of the most important industries and responsible for 80% of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Mark Hillsdon reports on how a €3.5m joint venture between the Sustainable Trade Initiative and the Carrefour Foundation aims to double beef productivity in a bid to dramatically reduce its environmental toll.

Shifting continents to Africa, I report on how the pioneering Cocoa & Forests Initiative, signed between the governments of Ghana and Côte D’Ivoire and the cocoa industry in 2017, has failed to turn the tide on rampant deforestation.

And Mark Hillsdon and I look at the big gap between rhetoric and action by investors and companies when it comes to addressing escalating forest loss, as reflected in new reports from Forest 500 and CDP.

Angeli Mehta takes a long look at the Forestry Stewardship Council, which is coming under pressure to reform amid declining take-up and concerns about credibility in countries like Russia, and she reports on a long-running battle between FSC and a northern Californian community that is trying to prevent logging and the use of herbicides in high conservation value forest.

With a global agreement on biodiversity to be signed by 196 nations this autumn in China, she also reports on the growing business agenda for addressing biodiversity loss through platforms like the Business for Nature coalition and One Planet Business for Biodiversity.

Finally, we turn our attention to Britain, where David Craik reports on recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change that reducing emissions from land use will be key to delivering the UK’s net-zero economy as it looks to plough its own furrow post-Brexit.

We hope you enjoy the March issue, which you can download for free by clicking on the magazine below.

Next month, we shift gears and focus on cities, reporting on the rising agendas of climate change resilience and energy efficiency.

 

IDH  Brazil  cocoa  beef  soya  Business for Nature  One Planet Business for Biodivesity 

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