A tale of burgers and buns: Who is really reducing deforestation?

Deconstruct a hamburger, and what have you got? Beef—maybe from Paraguay—在一个可能包含来自巴西大豆和印度尼西亚棕榈油的大豆上，所有这些都包裹在用粉碎的马来西亚树木制成的纸袋中。

A decade ago, you could have assumed each of these ingredients came at the expense of tropical forests, which were being flatteneden masseto make way for giant plantations. That, unfortunately, is still a good bet, but it’s not a sure one, because hundreds of companies have pledged to produce or source palm, timber & pulp, soy, and cattle in ways that don’t drive deforestation.

In our Forest Trends Ecosystem Marketplace report,Supply Change: Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-free Supply Chains, 2016,we have tracked 579 individual commitments from 366 companies—up from 307 commitments from 243 companies in March of last year—它表明，在这366家公司中，大多数公司仍未报告其承诺的进度。

Disturbingly, that figure includes companies whose pledges were supposed to be met prior to this year. What’s more, the vast majority of companies active in the beef and soy sectors still haven’t made any pledges at all.

Most of the companies that have committed to reduce deforestation are headquartered in North America and Europe, far away from the commodity-related deforestation.

We presented our results at the Global Landscapes Forum in London, where investors from around the world were looking to put money into sustainable agriculture initiatives.

Taking stock

One glaring finding stands out: Disclosure on progress toward commitments is insufficient as public information on progress is only available for one in three commitments.

Most of the companies that have committed to reduce deforestation are headquartered in North America and Europe, far away from the commodity-related deforestation. They also tend to be large, publicly traded entities, dealing in food products, and well-known to consumers—but they purchase from smaller, less visible, and less transparent companies.

在报告中，我们超越了那些做出承诺的人，而是在566家公司中，代表至少7.3万亿美元的市值，他们被确定为与这四个商品相关的森林砍伐风险。

Of companies active in palm, 61 percent have adopted pledges, compared with only 15 percent in cattle and 19 percent in soy. The disparity is alarming because it is estimated that cattle production causes 10 times more deforestation than palm.

That’s largely because of the attention given to palm, such as high-profile campaigns against companies likeNestléandKellogg’sto reduce forest destruction linked to palm oil.

A small but growing number of investors have begun shifting their agricultural holdings from traditional plantations that come at the expense of forests and small landholders to more sustainable activities.

Going forward, the challenge is to shine this same sort of light on soy and beef, while also moving further and further down the supply chain, to the hundreds of thousands of small farmerswho supply the bulk of the beefand soy that ends up in burgers and buns.

现在发生了什么事？

A small but growing number of investors have begun shifting their agricultural holdings from traditional plantations that come at the expense of forests andsmall landholders to more sustainableactivities, many of which earn a return by helping farmers become more efficient, effective, and business-savvy.

For most corporations, it’s a completely new way of thinking, and the Global Landscapes Forum was designed to move that forward, which is why we chose to launch our report there.

Organizations like the Consumer Goods Forum are also moving the ball forward with new tools like theSustainable Soy Sourcing Guidelines, which help companies develop their own soy sourcing policies.

Together, these and other initiatives are bringing the bright light of transparency into a previously opaque part of the global economy—and helping to remove deforestation from the products we use every day.