Criteria for effective zero-deforestation commitments

Summary

Zero-deforestation commitments are a type of voluntary sustainability initiative that companies adopt to signal their intention to reduce or eliminate deforestation associated with commodities that they produce, trade, and/ or sell. As each company defines its own zero-deforestation commitment goals and implementation mechanisms, commitment content varies widely. This creates challenges for the assessment of commitment implementation or effectiveness. This paper develops criteria to assess the potential effectiveness of zero-deforestation commitments at reducing deforestation within a company supply chain, regionally, and globally. It then applies these criteria to evaluate 52 zero-deforestation commitments made by companies identified by Forest 500 as having high deforestation risk.