From farm to forest: How agricultural supply chains can tackle deforestation
Finding innovative solutions for achieving a sustainable balance between agricultural and forestry goals, while halting deforestation, were top of the agenda at a recent gathering of conservation and farming experts in the Italian capital Rome.
During the 27th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO), held from 22-26 July, representatives from Indonesia, Peru, Uganda, Japan and the European Union (EU), together with experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and stakeholders gathered for the 9th World Forest Week (WFW) side event “Greening synergies Innovative solutions to halt deforestation through sustainable agricultural supply chains and financial enablers”.
The event was held in alignment with the COFO-COAG agenda item on “Linkages between agriculture and forestry”, and explored a broad array of solutions aimed at achieving a sustainable balance between agricultural and forestry objectives and halting deforestation.
Integrated efforts, such as those championed by the UN-REDD Programme over the past 16 years, have found tangible evidence and solutions. The event showcased examples of different types of innovations and cutting-edge solutions to boost forest conservation while achieving food security, sustainable development, and meeting climate and biodiversity targets.
To illustrate the comprehensive set of solutions available, the “Solutions-tree” interactive online platform was introduced to delegates - a gateway and repository of tested solutions and tools for addressing the underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. It aims to help countries and stakeholders identify context-specific solutions, facilitating policy development and project design.
Guinea and Sierra Leone are already applying the Solutions-tree in their REDD+/halting deforestation strategy preparation in the contexts of GCF REDD+ Readiness project in West Africa, as shared by representatives.
Japan, a key partner of FAO in the development of Solutions-tree and donor of the "Building Global Capacity on Halting Deforestation and Conversions from Agricultural Commodities" (BIG-CHANCE) project, highlighted the importance of cross-sectoral knowledge co-creation in addressing deforestation.
The event also noted the significant leap needed to close the financial gap to halt deforestation, achieving climate, biodiversity, and food security targets. Examples like Argentina's GCF REDD+ results-based payments project illustrates how REDD+ RBP use of proceeds can be put at use to promote and boost a virtuous cycle, transforming land use and livestock management towards more sustainable practices, decoupled from deforestation. Breaking down sectoral walls and fully engaging local communities, private sector, governments, and Indigenous Peoples are critical.
National and regional efforts that tap innovation to find breaking-edge solutions
Smallholders and local communities are at the forefront of the management and conservation of forest resources. We heard how Indonesia has made notable progress in reducing deforestation through stringent policies, improved governance, consistent law enforcement, and on the ground measures including forests and land fire control.
Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement reflect the country's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with most of this reduction expected from improved forestry and other land use actions. The ambitious Forest and Land Use (FOLU) Net Sink 2030 policy alongside the enhanced NDCs (eNDC) (2022) and the Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050, aims to significantly lower emissions, with 60 percent of the mitigation target coming from the FOLU sector. Coordinated efforts in deforestation prevention, conservation, and sustainable forest management, including peatland and mangrove protection and restoration, as well as enhanced carbon uptake are imperative. Ground level efforts include enhancing community engagement and forest management through social forestry programme.
By implementing social forestry policies, Indonesia enhances community access to forests, aiming for 12.7 million hectares of forest area allocated for social forestry by 2030, focusing on empowering local communities, adopting sustainable practices, and ensuring equitable access to resources, support, incentive and markets.
Consumers are also pushing new approaches. The EU, for example, recognizing its impact on global deforestation and forest degradation through its consumption of certain commodities and products, explained how it has introduced a regulation to reduce its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global biodiversity loss as well as promote sustainable production and consumption patterns in the Union and globally.
The EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (or EUDR) entered into force on 29 June 2023. Implementation is based on a due diligence statement requested to private operators that should ensure with negligible risk that products are “legally produced” and “deforestation-free”. Geolocation coordinates of the plots of land where the commodities were produced are also requested as part of the due diligence statement. The Team Europe initiative is supporting producer countries to prepare for EUDR, with an initial funding package of €80 million, in order to enhance sustainable agriculture and forest ecosystems. EU's efforts include operationalizing regulations, providing technical assistance, and fostering collaboration for sustainable supply chains.
Digitalization and transparency of information and data are key for ensuring that commodities and agricultural supply chains do not harm forests. Peru has made significant advances on digital innovations in greening the agricultural sector. Products such as coffee, cocoa, and oil palm have advanced in geo-referencing through the digital identity of the Registry of Agricultural Producers, with the aim to comply with growing market-based regulations. Over 80 percent of these products are already georeferenced. The government provides training on these digital tools to certify production decoupled from deforestation and raise awareness of due diligence requirements. Since 2022, the registry has expanded to cover the entire country, collecting information on 38 variables. These variables allow for an individual diagnosis of service needs and productive potential, facilitating targeted services and public sector spending. The challenge is having 2,034,600 producers identified, all georeferenced. Also, a digital observatory and mobile app have been created to offer services such as QR code-based digital identities, production economic valuation, fertilizer notifications, disaster damage reports, and satellite monitoring.
Addressing deforestation requires more than just innovation - it demands closing the financial gap. A combination of sources and solutions are needed, including analyzing and promoting an optimization of public spending.
Uganda’s public expenditure review illustrates how strategic public expenditure review can help governments to better understand sector performance, identify financing gaps, and highlight successful cross-sectoral synergetic projects and budget planning. It can also inform climate and biodiversity tracking and monitoring, such as the Paris Agreement’s transparency framework.
The financial gap between subsidies and overall forestry expenditure was highlighted as an opportunity to achieve forest-positive objectives. Additionally, expenditures related to deforestation risk, including interventions for forest land clearing, were identified as areas where synergetic opportunities could be enhanced.
FAO, including through UN-REDD, supports such analysis and actions and is now developing a new analytical framework to foster policy coherence across sectors, enhancing the effectiveness of public investments in forestry and agriculture.