Who didn’t feel devastated last summer seeing heart-breaking images of fires in the Amazon?
The world suffered deeply seeing the destruction of the forests and the impacts on wildlife and people that live or depend directly on these ecosystems. Less than a year later, the fires have started again. Only this June, the number of fires was already higher than in June 2019, and actually higher than has been recorded in the past 13 years[1]. The situation is likely to only get worse as we enter dry season in the Amazon.
If this wasn’t enough – other biodiverse habitats around the globe such as the Cerrado in Brazil or peatland forests in West Kalimantan in Indonesia are also being destroyed.
The ever-increasing demand for commodities to produce the goods we consume daily has a major role in driving this destruction. Besides the Amazon fires, the destruction of nature increases the risk of zoonotic diseases[2] and reduces our ability to mitigate climate change.
Today we published in full our new report done in collaboration with RSPB: Riskier Business: The UK’s overseas land footprint.
This report provides key new evidence of the UK’s heavy dependence on products and raw materials coming from abroad to meet its demand for food and other items, and on the climate, environmental and human rights risks posed overseas by these imports.
Key findings are:
- Over 21 million hectares of land in other countries – that’s equivalent to 88% of the UK’s land area – were required, between 2016 and 2018, to produce just 7 commodities used and consumed in the UK (i.e. beef & leather, cocoa, palm oil, pulp & paper, rubber, soy and timber).
- An area nearly 3 times the size of Wales (around 6 million hectares), was required for commodity production in countries with high biodiversity, high rates of nature destruction, poor track records on labour rights and/or weak rule of law, such as Brazil, Indonesia and Ivory Coast.
- Over 2,800 species, already under threat in high risk producer countries[3], could be under pressure from UK trade in key high deforestation risk commodities.
- At least 28 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent were emitted annually, between 2011 and 2018, to produce the amount of cocoa, palm oil, rubber and soy imported to the UK.
In 2018, as part of its 25-Year Environment Plan, the UK Government promised to reduce the UK’s footprint overseas. Since then it has created the independent Global Resource Initiative (GRI) Task Force, that submitted a set of ambitious recommendations to the UK Government in a report published in March 2020.
However, the government has not yet responded to the GRI Task Force’s recommendations and does not plan to do so until October 2020 at the earliest. In the meantime, actions that the GRI Task Force recommends, such as establishing a mandatory due diligence obligation for businesses to identify, mitigate and report on their overseas environmental footprint, and the setting of a deforestation-free supply chain target, are at risk of being excluded from the Environment Bill, currently before Parliament.
The government has a key role to play in driving action within business and financial institutions, and by setting a global example of leadership. Legislation to secure deforestation- and conversion-free supply chains is urgently needed, as are comprehensive policy and other legal measures, such as trade agreements, to ensure that the UK stops taking part in the destruction of nature and climate change, both domestically and overseas.
That’s why WWF and RSPB are calling on government to urgently:
- Implement an ambitious action plan in response to the GRI task force recommendations, going beyond these where necessary to address the issues highlighted in Riskier Business.
- Establish a mandatory due diligence obligation on businesses and financial institutions through the Environment Bill.
- Secure high environmental and social standards and safeguards in new UK trade agreements.
- By the end of 2020, set a time-bound, legally binding target to halve the UK’s overall environmental footprint by 2030, including a sub-target to halt deforestation and conversion embedded within UK's commodity supply chains as early as possible and no later than 2023.
- Implement an ambitious action plan in response to the GRI task force recommendations, going beyond these where necessary to address the issues highlighted in Riskier Business.
- Establish a mandatory due diligence obligation on businesses and financial institutions through the Environment Bill.
- Secure high environmental and social standards and safeguards in new UK trade agreements.
- By the end of 2020, set a time-bound, legally binding target to halve the UK’s overall environmental footprint by 2030, including a sub-target to halt deforestation and conversion embedded within UK's commodity supply chains as early as possible and no later than 2023.
The UK Government will only act if they hear from us. Support our campaign, starting by calling for new trade deals that don't put nature at risk: Don't let our government fuel the fires | WWF, and by asking your MP to support new legislation to remove deforestation from UK supply chains.
This article was originally published on my LinkedIn account.
