Tracing food supply chains in challenging times (and places)
The expansion of commodity production is one of the largest drivers of tropical deforestation across the globe. In response, buying companies have adopted zero-deforestation commitments and other forest focused supply chain policies (FSPs). Such policies hold the potential to reduce deforestation by excluding deforestation-linked products from the market and thereby reducing the incentives to expand production in forested areas. However, in practice, these policies are hard to implement. When they are successful, they may leave behind poorer producers who are less able to comply with no-deforestation restrictions or take advantage of policy loopholes. ETH’s Environmental Policy Lab, led by Prof. Dr. Rachael Garrett, a WFSC member, seeks to understand the effects of these policies at achieving conservation goals and altering human wellbeing in the targeted regions. To understand different perspectives about these policies and how they may affect producers on the ground, we (Federico Cammelli, Sam Levy and Janina Grabs from the Environmental Policy Lab) conducted semi-structured interviews with representatives of groups involved at all stages along the beef cattle and palm oil supply chains in the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesia with the aid of WFSC funding.
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