Africa: Illegal Land Clearing for Commercial Agriculture Responsible for
Half of Tropical Deforestation
11.09.2014
Press release
Washington, DC - A comprehensive new analysis released today says that
nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of
illegal clearing for commercial agriculture.
The study also finds that around half of this illegal destruction was driven
by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef,
soy, and wood products.
In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and
biodiversity, the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial
agriculture is estimated to produce 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year--
equivalent to 25% of the EU's annual fossil fuel-based emissions.
"We've known that the production of agricultural commodities is a principal
driving force behind deforestation, but this is the first report to show the
outsize role that illegal activities play in the production of hundreds of
food and household products consumed worldwide," said Michael Jenkins,
President and CEO of Forest Trends, a Washington-based NGO that published
the report.
"Increased agricultural production will be necessary for food security and
to meet the demand of the emerging global middle class. However, the world
must also wake up to the scale of how much of this agricultural production
is taking place on land that has been illegally cleared. Urgent action is
needed to help countries where these agricultural products are being grown,
both for governments to enforce their own laws and regulations, and for
businesses aiming to produce commodities legally and sustainably."
According to the study, Consumer Goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the
Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture, 90% of
the deforestation in Brazil from 2000 to 2012 was illegal, primarily due to
the failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale
cattle and soy plantations, as required by Brazilian law. (Much of this
occurred prior to 2004, when the Brazilian government took steps to
successfully reduce deforestation.)
And in the forests of Indonesia, 80% of deforestation was illegal--mostly
for large-scale plantations producing palm oil and timber, 75% of which is
exported. While other countries also experience high levels of illegal
deforestation, Brazil and Indonesia produce the highest level of
agricultural commodities destined for global markets, many of which wind up
in cosmetics or household goods (palm oil), animal feed (soy), and packaging
(wood products).
Illegal deforestation is also rampant in most other countries across Asia,
Latin America, and Africa losing large areas of tropical forest. Examples
include the following:
* In Papua New Guinea, millions of hectares of forest have been
illegally licensed for deforestation in recent years; a recent Parliamentary
inquiry in the country found that 90% of these licenses were issued by
corrupt or fraudulent means.
* In Tanzania, forests have been illegally razed to make way for
jatropha, a plant commonly used to produce biofuels.
* In Cambodia and neighboring Laos, licenses for large-scale rubber
and other agricultural plantations covering millions of hectares of
remaining forests have been handed out in recent years. Most of these
licenses and developments have been found to be illegal.
* In Bolivia, soy--75% of which is exported--is the main engine behind
illegal deforestation in the country's stretch of Amazon.
In most cases, the companies that illegally razed forests to grow these
crops had some form of government permit in hand. However, the report finds
that it was also often the case that these permits were corruptly issued or
fraudulently obtained; that these companies were missing additional required
permits and licenses; or that these companies violated laws when clearing
and planting, causing significant negative impacts on the environment and
the rights of local people who have lived in these forests for generations
and who depend on them for their food and incomes.
"All over the tropics, companies are bribing officials to obtain permits,
trampling the legal or customary rights of Indigenous Peoples and other
forest-dwelling communities, clearing more forest than they are allowed, and
causing pollution and environmental devastation by flouting the law," said
Sam Lawson, the report author.
Export Agriculture a Key Driver of Illegal Deforestation
According to the report, the international trade in agricultural commodities
(beef, leather, soy, palm oil, and wood products, including paper) produced
on land illegally converted from tropical forest is worth an estimated US$61
billion per year. The EU, China, India, Russia, and the US are among the
largest buyers of these commodities.
Overall, exports of agricultural commodities produced on land where forests
were illegally cleared drove 25% of all tropical deforestation between 2000
and 2012. The study estimates that almost 40% of all palm oil, 20% of all
soy, nearly 33% of tropical timber, and 14% of all beef traded
internationally comes from land that had been illegally deforested.
Nearly one-fifth (17%) of Brazilian beef, 75% of Brazilian soy, and 70-80%
of the palm oil and plantation wood and pulp from Indonesia were destined
for foreign markets.
"Five football fields of tropical forest are being destroyed every minute to
supply these export commodities," said Lawson, noting that the report's
figures were obtained using conservative estimates based on documented
violations of significant impact. "There is hardly a product on supermarket
shelves that is not potentially tainted," he added.
A Growing Problem
While the study highlights Brazil's recent success in reducing illegal
forest clearance, the report also cautions that the problem of illegal
deforestation for the production of commodities intended for export is now
expanding to new areas of the tropics where deforestation rates have
traditionally been low - and that the same illegalities seen elsewhere are
being repeated. In the Congo Basin, for instance, two out of the three
largest new oil palm projects currently under development have been found to
be operating illegally; one of these plantations, in the Republic of Congo,
is set to double that country's deforestation rate.
Action Needed
The report documents governance failures that undermine broader efforts to
tackle tropical deforestation, including private sector initiatives on
sustainable commodities and efforts by tropical forested countries to reduce
legal deforestation. It argues that while the recent spate of "zero
deforestation" commitments by major consumer goods companies involved in
producing, trading, or consuming relevant commodities is to be applauded,
illegalities relating to consumer agriculture and timber plantations can
ultimately only be fully addressed by governments, and efforts to go further
than legality will be held back by the need to compete with products that
were illegally produced.
"Without investing in governance, our collective investments in halting
deforestation and promoting forest stewardship will fail," concluded
Jenkins. "Responsible companies and environmental and human rights groups
are likely to be supportive of processes to reform the complex, conflicting,
and unclear laws and regulations that currently govern the forest and
agricultural sectors. This is a critical step, alongside improving the
enforcement and compliance of national and international laws. All must be
prioritized if global commitments to stop tropical deforestation are going
to be achieved."
The report includes a range of recommendations for countries that both
produce and import agricultural commodities, as well as corporations and
investors in the commodity trade. The report advises producer countries, for
example, to simplify and harmonize contradictory laws and regulations,
including those pertaining to land use and securing tenure for Indigenous
Peoples and other local communities to reduce conflicts. It asserts that
governments should enforce these laws and hold companies investing in these
countries accountable. Another set of recommendations call for actions by
the governments of countries that import the commodities concerned.
The report notes that important lessons can be learned from previous
successful initiatives to combat the trade in illegally sourced timber.
Producer countries - particularly those developing trade agreements with the
EU (FLEGT VPAs) - are clarifying regulatory frameworks that improve their
ability to demonstrate the legality of wood products to their citizens.
Consumer countries are instituting measures that have been shown to support
the enforcement of producer countries' own laws and regulations, including
the development of importing trade legislation (such as the EU Timber
Regulation), public procurement policies, and investment standards. However,
there has been limited analysis to date on how similar mechanisms for
agricultural commodities could leverage credible legal compliance, support
sustainable land use policies, and increase transparency.
"The current unfettered access to international markets for commodities from
illegally cleared land is undermining the efforts of tropical countries to
enforce their own laws" concluded Lawson.
"Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade."
Forest Trends is a Washington D.C.-based international non-profit
organization that was created in 1999 by leaders from conservation
organizations, forest products firms, research groups, multilateral
development banks, private investment funds and philanthropic foundations.
Its mission is four-fold: to expand the value of forests to society; to
promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and
capturing market values for ecosystem services; to support innovative
projects and companies that are developing these markets; and to enhance the
livelihoods of local communities living in and around those forests. It does
this by analyzing strategic market and policy issues, catalyzing connections
between forward-looking producers, communities and investors, and developing
new financial tools to help markets work for conservation and people. Forest
Trends' approach integrates the fundamental dimensions of ecology, economy,
and equity because our goal is to have an impact on a scale that is
meaningful globally and for a diverse set of stakeholders.