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Home Resources Guidance for Companies Landscape Scale Action for Forests, People, and Sustainable Production

Difference between landscape approaches and jurisdictional approaches

Landscape approaches involve collaboration of stakeholders within a defined natural or social geography, such as a watershed, biome, or company sourcing area. These approaches seek to reconcile competing social, economic, and environmental goals through ‘integrated landscape management’ – a multi-stakeholder approach that builds consensus across different sectors with or without government entities.

Jurisdictional approaches are a type of landscape approach operating within sub-national or national administrative boundaries with active government involvement. Some engage multiple jurisdictions within a biome or physiographic region.

Each approach seeks to achieve sustainability at scale through an inclusive process engaging diverse stakeholders, and this L/JI guidance describes interventions relevant to both.

Business case for companies to engage in L/JIs

Responsible companies that aim to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation will find landscape/jurisdictional approaches an important strategy that complements their own efforts to clean up individual supply chains. The specific business case for undertaking the interventions described in this guidance accompanies each intervention. To elaborate the overall business case for engagement in L/JIs, consider these resources:

Credibility surrounding corporate claims on L/JIs

Important new thinking helps clarify what businesses may credibly claim about their interventions to address land use change and climate objectives at landscape/jurisdictional scales.

How companies can decide where to engage L/JIs

Where to engage will largely depend on a company’s geographic footprint, risk exposures, sustainability goals, and other factors. Following are some resources that explore which factors to consider or what places to prioritize:

L/JI case descriptions and lessons learned

This guidance offers brief real-world examples that illustrate how companies have intervened, but the following resources provide lengthier L/JI descriptions and lessons learned from their implementation.