Abstract
This research critically examines implementation gaps and externality problems associated with the recent proliferation of zero deforestation commitments (ZDC) by large commodity producers. By developing and employing a hierarchical framework, we evaluate the policies and strategies of 50 leading ZDC adopters in high forest-risk commodity sectors (soy, oil palm, cattle and wood). The analysis shows that while most ZDC adopters formulated strong ZDCs, there is significant room for further refining implementation mechanisms. Specifically, it finds that weak commitment to full transparency, notably disclosure of sourcing locations and suppliers, and to independent verification, undermines ZDCs' transformative potential and ability to hold companies accountable for failure to comply with their ZDCs. Our analysis also reveals that most sampled companies do not explicitly account for the socially detrimental externalities that their ZDCs threaten to produce. Where this is acknowledged, it is acknowledged implicitly through standing commitments to full voluntary certification, especially in the wood and oil palm sector. As a result, issues related to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and protection of high conservation value (HVC) ecosystems are comparatively well addressed by adopters, but challenges faced by smallholders, food security risks, and indirect land use change issues are only minimally accounted for. Our results suggest that for ZDCs to contribute meaningfully to inclusive and sustainable development potential, complementarities between private and public regulatory initiatives need to be better leveraged.
Highlights
Major Northern corporations active in the agricultural and forestry sector have, since the 1980s, been some of the primary targets of international advocacy and consumer activism campaigns because of the negative social and environmental effects of many of their operations in developing countries
We find that weak commitment to full transparency, notably disclosure of sourcing locations and suppliers, and to independent verification, undermine zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs)’ transformative potential and ability to hold companies accountable for their failure to comply with their ZDCs
The adoption of ZDCs by many of the major ‘powerbrokers’ in the soy, palm oil, cattle and wood industries reflect rising corporate accountability for environmentally destructive activities occurring within their supply chains
Summary
Reducing the footprint of high forest-risk commodities (oil palm, soy, wood and cattle) – in the context of mounting concerns over climate change – has featured prominently in global environmental governance discourse. Only few sampled committers explicitly sought to support and maintain marketing relations with smallholders in their supplier base, to address food security risks (e.g. arising from, for example, increased demand for non-forestland), to conserve forested land banks (e.g. by not off-loading these to producers who intend to bring that land under production) and to account for possible indirect land use changes (ILUC) (e.g. from displacing non-forested land uses, notably subsistence agriculture) Given their comparatively high dependency on small suppliers, oil palm companies were found to be more responsive to the challenges that ZDCs pose for smallholders. Because many of the unaccounted externality issues are absent from certification systems, this points to the need to better leverage the authority and mandate of state institutions in producer countries
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