22 Examples of initiatives on issues related to agricultural commodities and forests

BOX 22 EXAMPLES OF INITIATIVES ON ISSUES RELATED TO AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND FORESTS

„ The Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade

Dialogues initiative launched by the Presidency of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change and the

Tropical Forest Alliance to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable land-use practices. „ The Forest Positive Coalition launched by the

Consumer Goods Forum to accelerate systemic efforts to remove deforestation, forest degradation and conversion from key commodity supply chains (palm oil, soy, paper, pulp and fibre). „ The Sustainable Cocoa Initiative, involving the European Union, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. „ The comprehensive economic agreement signed between Indonesia and the member states of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland,

Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).391

Under the agreement, which entered into force in

November 2021, Swiss tariffs on palm-oil imports will be reduced by 20–40 percent if the palm oil complies with certain sustainability goals.392 „ The Joint Working Group on Palm Oil between the

European Union and certain Association of South

East Asian Nations member countries. „ Action Track 3 of the Food Systems Summit, “Boost

Nature-positive Food Production”, and the coalition on “Halting Deforestation and Conversion from

Agricultural Commodities”. „ The Global Environment Facility 7 Impact Program,

“Forest Systems, Land Use and Restoration”.

Regulatory measures governing traded goods are being put in place to decouple agriculture and deforestation – complementary support for producer countries is needed

A significant and growing share of the commodities produced on new agricultural land feeds international trade.389,390 Regulatory frameworks are being developed in some markets to avoid the placement of products associated with deforestation or forest degradation. Awareness is also growing among countries about the need to address environmental damage while simultaneously increasing food security for all. Some governments, companies and others have committed to addressing this – such as in a 2010 resolution on deforestation by the Consumer Goods Forum, the Amsterdam Declarations partnership and the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests. Box 22 provides other examples of initiatives to address issues related to agricultural commodities and forests.

Sources of finance are increasingly requiring more transparency on deforestation in value chains

Sources of finance are increasingly seeking to clarify, eliminate, reduce and mitigate their adverse environmental, social and governance impacts (Box 23). In general, this has moved from being viewed as an expensive approach that is bad for business to a business strategy that is good for long-term growth and risk management.393

The Central Banks and Financial Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System is investigating the linkages between biodiversity loss, macro-economics and finance.394 The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures was established in 2021 with the objective of developing a framework for organizations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks in order to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and towards nature-positive outcomes.395 n