The establishment of monitoring systems for cattle and soy has strengthened private efforts for deforestation free supply chains

The purpose of the project was to contribute towards protecting threatened tropical forests in Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico, by supporting and strengthening: market-driven efforts to develop and expand deforestation-free supply chains, and government-led jurisdictional REDD+ mechanisms.

Why did Norway decide to support this project?

The rationale for the project identified by National Wildlife Federation was that large-scale transformational policies were needed in tropical regions to reduce the pressure on rainforests from agricultural production, the largest driver of deforestation. NWF reported that a key problem for the cattle moratorium was lack of evidence that the supply chains would be deforestation-free. The cattle industry was working to create such systems but it was critical to have third-party validation of any such system, by state agencies and NGOs.

The project was relevant for the NICFI goals and REDD+ internationally. All the three main areas of the commodities category were targeted: promoting roundtable processes, facilitating smallholders participation in sustainable supply chain commitments, contributing to enhanced transparency in commodity supply chains.

The project focused on achieving the following outcomes:

Outcome 1) Strengthened deforestation-free beef, leather and soy supply chain monitoring and implementation in the Brazilian Amazon;
Outcome 2) Deforestation Monitoring System for Roundtables designed Outcome 3) Roundtables, moratoria and deforestation monitoring integrated into REDD+

Please find National Wildlife Federation`s final results report to Norad in the PDF file in the box to the right.

Results

In this project, NWF, jointly with project partners, have established monitoring systems in the cattle and soy sector and monitored the effects of sustainable roundtables on certified areas. The report states that monitoring activities have supported efforts for deforestation-free supply chains, and that the project activities strengthened the case for jurisdictional REDD+.

It is not always easy to determine to what extent these results can be directly attributed to the activities of this project. Nevertheless, Norad assesses that the establishment of monitoring systems in regions where this was previously lacking is a satisfactory result that can generate effects beyond the life span of this project.

Please see a summary of results by outcome:

Outcome 1- NWF`s partner UW established a property-level monitoring system in Mato Grosso and Pará states in Brazil, and mapped 80% of all soy property boundaries across the Amazon. NWF has supported the implementation of deforestation-free supply chains through the GRSB-GTPS Working Group and the Consumer Goods Forum.

Outcome 2- NWF and partners developed deforestation monitoring systems for both the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). NWF was able to determine whether there was deforestation on RSB and RSPO certified properties. The Secretariats of RSB and RSPO have reviewed and adopted the findings of these monitoring activities.

Outcome 3- NWF conducted research and convened workshops on how moratoria and roundtables were supporting REDD goals at the jurisdictional scales. Partner EDF contributed to include the concept of jurisdictional sourcing and deforestation-free supply chains in the New York Declaration on Forests. A challenge to fully achieve this outcome has been access to government data and slow implementation of REDD mechanisms.