Geneva, 28 September 2020 -- Geneva, 28 September 2020 – This year’s Climate Week NYC and World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit marked, once again, an increased recognition of the crucial role that the forests/commodities community plays in realizing the global climate goals. Held last week, events hosted by the Tropical Forest Alliance and its Partners highlighted the increased global action taking place in support of the World’s transition to deforestation-free supply chains.
The overarching theme to emerge was one of “collective action”. Again and again we heard from government officials, private sector leaders, civil society and others that no one organization can address commodity-driven deforestation alone – we must work together to succeed.
If you missed any of the sessions, we are pleased to invite you to watch and listen to these through the links shared below. We have also included a number of key articles and op-eds that were published parallel to last week’s events.
Launch of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition of Action
The Consumer Goods Forum launched its Forest Positive Coalition of Action, with the support of TFA. The Coalition is comprised of 17 companies with a collective market value of US$1.8 trillion driving collective, transformative change to remove deforestation, forest conversion and degradation from key commodity supply chains and supporting forest positive businesses.
Learn more and watch the recording of the 22 September launch event.
Launch of the Jurisdictional Approaches Resource Hub
The Tropical Forest Alliance and its Partners launched the Jurisdictional Approaches Resource Hub. This one-stop digital platform brings together the collective experience and expertise of TFA Partners working to advance jurisdictional and landscape approaches to tackle commodity-driven deforestation.
Users can explore guidance for companies, publications, webinars and other resources related to Jurisdictional Approaches including an interactive tool for companies to identify interventions they can take. Learn more at www.jaresourcehub.org and subscribe to the Jurisdictional Approach digest.
For more information, watch the event recording of the Jurisdictional Approaches Resource Hub launch on 24 September that brought together key partners introducing these resources and how the hub can benefit you.
Insights: Greening China’s Supply Chains
The Tropical Forest Alliance, in collaboration with the SEE Foundation, hosted a high-level dialogue on 23 September to raise awareness of ongoing efforts in China to advance green value chains and to explore opportunities for further collaboration. Speakers included senior Chinese government representatives, officials from Indonesia and the EU, Chinese and multinational businesses and civil society.
For more information, watch the event recording.
Insights: Scaling Forest Positive Action - Lessons from Colombia
Public-private cooperation in Colombia has brought innovative commitments and mechanisms to reduce commodity-driven deforestation. On 21 September, the Tropical Forest Alliance brought together senior leaders from the private sector, government and civil society on what lessons we can learn from Colombia and how global and local stakeholders can collaborate to achieve a forest positive future at both the national and regional level.
For more information, watch the event recording.
Announcements:
- Walmart committed to help protect, manage or restore at least 50M acres of land and 1M sq miles of ocean by 2030, including a goal to source palm oil, beef, soy, pulp, paper and timber 100% deforestation-free by 2025.
- Unilever announced a new partnership with Google Cloud to capture satellite images of the forests, biodiversity and water cycles that intersect with the company’s supply chain, thereby enabling greater accountability.
- Nestlé announced it will plant three million trees through Project RELeaf in Malaysia and to this end invest CHF 4 million in the next three years.
- The Norwegian government entered into a contract worth up to NOK 400 million (approx. USD 43) with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and its partners Airbus and Planet, to provide universal access to high-resolution satellite monitoring of the tropics in order to support efforts to stop the destruction of the world’s rainforests.
- In his UNGA address, President Xi Jinping pledged to achieve carbon neutrality in China before 2060 and to scale up the country’s intended nationally determined contributions under the Paris climate agreement.
Perspectives:
- Less talk, more action: 5 things the most successful partnerships share, by Dominic Waughray, Managing Director, World Economic Forum
- Ending commodity-driven deforestation requires innovative collective action, bringing together industry, government and communities, by Danièle Kouassi, Head of Cocoa Sustainability Côte d’Ivoire and Kennedy Ntoso, Head of Cocoa Sustainability Ghana, Olam Cocoa