Zero deforestation: A commitment to change

The silver anniversary edition of ETFRN News brings together 40 contributions from 100 experts and practitioners, who share their experiences and suggest ways to improve the effectiveness of zero deforestation commitments through public-private collaboration and other new models. The publication inlcudes an article by TuK and its partners, entitled “Decoupling international finance from deforestation, and the need for regulation”.
Tropical deforestation and its effects on climate change and development are key concerns of our time. And conversion of tropical forests to industrial production of agricultural commodities is a main driver. In response, ambitious ‘zero deforestation’ pledges have been made by a growing number of companies and governments, to eliminate deforestation from supply chains.
ETFRN News 58 presents different view across a range of commodity value chains, including how companies and smallholders are working together to build deforestation free supply chains. It reviews publicly announced commitments and on-the-ground impacts and how implementation challenges are overcome. It looks at how socio-economic and environmental impacts and trade-offs are addressed, links between private commitments and government policy and regulations, and how transnational and civil-society initiatives help or hinder them.
Governments at local and global levels should complement private-sector initiatives, address underlying governance issues, and engage with stakeholders across the board, and challenges facing smallholders must still be acknowledged and dealt with. Implementing zero deforestation commitments has not been all plain sailing, but as a global community, we are certainly moving in the right direction.
 

This post is also available in: Indonesian