News Excerpt:

Global Canopy has released its tenth annual Forest 500 report and ranking — which tracks the policies and performance of the 350 most influential companies and 150 financial institutions most exposed to deforestation risk in their supply chains and investments.

Key findings of the report:

• Many global brands with supply chains linked to tropical forest loss do not have a single deforestation policy.
• Almost a quarter (23%) of the companies and financiers that have been included in each of the 10 annual assessments since the Forest 500 was established (in 2014) have still not published a single commitment to addressing deforestation. 
• There is no solution to climate change without ending deforestation — almost every country in the world has committed to join in efforts to urgently address and reverse deforestation,
• From land clearance for cattle farming to palm oil plantations, there is growing recognition of the human-driven threats to the world’s forests and the importance of protecting them in the fight against climate change and devastating biodiversity loss.

Companies:

• Almost 200 countries at the COP28 climate talks last year gave their support to the goal of halting and reversing deforestation by 2030.
• The assessments show that 37% of Forest 500 companies have published a deforestation commitment for at least one commodity, but not for all commodities they are exposed to and have influence over. 
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of companies that have set commitments are failing to publish adequate evidence of their implementation. 
• Just 6% of the companies with a deforestation commitment showed adequate evidence of implementation for all highest-risk commodities.

Financial institutions:

• In 2014, just 11% of financial institutions in the Forest 500 had published a deforestation policy, in 2024 that figure has risen to 45%. 
• This means that the majority (55%) of financial institutions with the highest exposure to deforestation in their portfolios are still yet to set a single policy.
• 85% of financial institutions still do not have a publicly available policy for all four highest-risk commodities — soy, cattle products (beef and leather), timber products (timber and pulp and paper), and palm oil — which drive two-thirds of tropical deforestation.

Why is Forest 500 important? 

• Governments and companies endorsed the New York Declaration on Forests in 2014, calling for an end to commodity-driven deforestation by 2020. But the 2020 target date was missed.
• We need to end tropical deforestation to tackle the climate, nature, and biodiversity crisis, and meet the targets set in the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use, and the Global Biodiversity Framework. 
• Many of the companies and financial institutions with the greatest influence on deforestation are still not doing enough to eliminate deforestation, conversion of natural ecosystems, and the associated human rights abuses. 
• Forest 500 holds them accountable through annual assessments of the strength and implementation of their commitments on deforestation, conversion, and associated human rights abuses.

Global Canopy:

• Global Canopy is a data-driven not for profit that targets the market forces destroying nature.

Other key lessons from the report:

• To achieve net zero, deforestation must be recognized as a central theme to the climate agenda.
• Public pressure can drive rapid progress on deforestation and conversion on the ground in supply chains.
• A good example is palm oil —numerous global investigations and campaigns over the past 20 years have shined a light on the environmental and social unsustainability of conventional palm oil production; the impact of this public pressure is evidenced by 52 percent of companies in palm oil supply chains having a commitment in 2014, which grew to 76 percent in 2023. 
• More attention must be placed on cattle farming, the biggest agricultural driver of deforestation globally.

Conclusion:

To ensure a livable future, the world cannot endure another decade of limited progress. This is a critical decade for humanity. To avoid catastrophic consequences, we need to see significant progress over the next five years.