OVERVIEW
Expansion of agriculture, tree plantations and illegal and unsustainable logging continue to drive conversion and degradation of natural habitats despite decades of commitment by companies and governments to go deforestation- and conversion-free.
Although corporate commitments continue to grow, deforestation is on the rise globally. Aligning public and private sector efforts to address deforestation and conversion, as captured in the New York Declaration on Forests, Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement is a requisite step to increase food production while reducing the environmental impacts of production, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen integrated sustainable development decision-making and implementation.
Our deep experience developing voluntary sustainability standards, working with businesses up and down supply chains to address the impacts of their operations and sourcing and partnering with governments to achieve ambitious climate targets positions WWF well to facilitate the robust public-private collaborations needed to tackle deforestation and conversion at scale.
Our work
- Translating deforestation-free commitments into impact. WWF is advancing implementation of corporate commitments through global and regional platforms, including the High Carbon Stock Approach, High Conservation Value (HCV) Resource Network, Africa Palm Oil Initiative and Accountability Framework initiative (AFi). As a founding AFi Steering Group member WWF collaborated with NGOs to develop widely-agreed, robust guidance on setting and implementing deforestation- and conversion-free commitments.
- Helping expand the role of companies in addressing deforestation at meaningful scales. WWF is working with some of the top companies in the world to constructively engage in jurisdictional approaches in the landscapes in which they operate or source commodities, linking actions to reduced deforestation and conversion at scale.
- WWF is pursuing a three-pronged approach to eliminate deforestation from the production of natural rubber. First, we are securing deforestation-free commitments from the world’s top rubber users (including automakers, trucking companies, airlines and tire manufacturers) to drive demand for improved rubber production. Second, we are developing environmentally, socially and economically sustainable pilot projects in key landscapes in Sumatra, Cambodia, Myanmar and China that will inform the way sustainable natural rubber is produced. And third, we are a founding member of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber, which was created to increase the supply and uptake of sustainable natural rubber in the global marketplace.
Resources on collective action:
- Retail Soy Group
- Palm Oil Transparency Coalition
- The UK Soy Manifesto
- Brazil's Amazon Soy Moratorium
- The Consumer Goods Forum Commodity-Specific Roadmaps
- Accountability Framework