Abstract
Many companies sourcing agricultural commodities with high deforestation risk have committed to zero deforestation, meaning they intend to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. While previous research has attempted to assess progress against such initiatives, little is known about how the characteristics of sourcing patterns may influence the adoption and potential effectiveness of zero-deforestation commitments. Supply chain stickiness – here defined as the geographic persistence in trade relationships between traders and sourcing regions over time – may reflect lock-in effects and the level of trust between the parties involved. Here, we use a metric of supply chain stickiness, calculated from temporal network analyses on the Brazilian soy export supply chain, as a proxy for these underlying dynamics to explore their effect on the adoption and effectiveness of zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs). Using data for 2004–2017, we find that although stickier traders are more likely to adopt ZDCs, they also appear to have less effective ZDCs than other traders (as indicated by the level of soy and territorial deforestation in their sourcing regions). This finding suggests that additional strategies are needed to increase the effectiveness of ZDCs.
Highlights
The international trade and consumption of agricultural commod ities are estimated to drive around 26% of forest loss in the tropics and sub-tropics (Pendrill et al, 2019)
We use a metric of supply chain stickiness, calculated from temporal network analyses on the Brazilian soy export supply chain, as a proxy for these underlying dynamics to explore their effect on the adoption and effectiveness of zero deforestation commitments (ZDCs)
To examine how different levels of stickiness may influence the effectiveness of ZDCs, we focus on two outcome variables believed to be directly related to the effectiveness of ZDCs: the level of soy deforestation risk and ter ritorial deforestation allocated to individual traders (Trase, 2020b)
Summary
The international trade and consumption of agricultural commod ities are estimated to drive around 26% of forest loss in the tropics and sub-tropics (Pendrill et al, 2019). Zu Ermgassen et al (2020) used spatial data on individual supply chains to monitor progress against ZDCs in the Brazilian soy export sector. While these studies inform on the overall effectiveness of ZDCs, they provide scant evidence on how different sourcing strategies and patterns influ ence this effectiveness. Sourcing strategies are the main lever through which traders of deforestation-risk commodities influence activities further upstream in the supply chain (Lyons-White and Knight, 2018). A better understanding of how different sourcing strategies, as reflected in spatiotemporal sourcing patterns, could influence actions on the ground is needed to enhance the effectiveness of ZDCs
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