Summary
While hundreds of companies have pledged to remove deforestation from agricultural supply chains over the last decade, little information is available on the transformational impact of these commitments. This study is a first step in addressing this gap and seeks to shed light on the farmer incentives to change practices to more sustainable operations as well as the link of such changes to forest-related corporate commitments. The assessment focused on the beef and soy sectors in Brazil and the beef and dairy sectors in Colombia. Overall, the authors find that commitments in the beef sector refer to general pledges to end deforestation and improve traceability, while commitments in the soy sector focus on specific approaches towards implementation such as certification and moratoria. Also, where specific implementation tools are explicitly mentioned as part of a commitment, such as certification and moratoria in the soy sector, commitments are more likely to be passed on to the producer level to achieve the desired effect. However, the commitments in their current state are insufficiently addressing producer barriers to sustainable production. Also, few supply-chain companies in the soy or beef sectors provide positive incentives or assistance that would help producers in the transition towards more sustainable practices. Overall, the impact of supply-chain efforts can be greatly enhanced by increasing the scale and scope of commitments, engaging companies that are representing a large market share of a given commodity, strengthening integration and transparency of the supply chain, and having effective public-private cooperation.
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