Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Power Brokers’ Chains Hold Back Forests Protection

Tropical forest burned and cleared for agriculture in southern Mexico. (Credit: Jami Dwyer via Wikimedia) Click to Enlarge.
The world will not, on present rates of progress, reach its goal of ending tropical deforestation within 15 years.

The Global Canopy Programme (GCP), a thinktank based in Oxford, UK, says many of those who could protect the forests by ensuring that deforestation does not contribute to commodity supply chains are failing to act.

The GCP, which draws together international experts on tropical forests, has compiled what it says is the first comprehensive ranking of the “Forest 500” − power brokers who control the global supply chains that drive over half of tropical deforestation.

Influential actors
It has identified, assessed and ranked 250 companies, with total annual revenues of more than US$4.5 trillion; 150 investors and lenders; 50 countries and regions; and 50 other influential actors, as it calls them – a wide-ranging group of banks, international agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Together, the 500 control the complex global supply chains of key “forest risk commodities” − such as soya, palm oil, beef, leather, timber, pulp and paper − that have an annual trade value of more than $100 billion and are found in over 50% of packaged products in supermarkets.

The GCP says only a small minority of the 500 have equipped themselves to tackle this problem, which makes a significant contribution to climate change and other environmental problems, as well as worsening poverty.

Deforestation and land use change cause more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, undermine regional water security, and threaten the livelihoods of more than a billion people.

Read more at Power Brokers’ Chains Hold Back Forests Protection

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