This report by presents a “commodity-first” lens to identifying key landscapes where supply chain companies can make critical interventions to tackle deforestation. As supply chain actors will likely only engage with geographies in their direct supply chain, it focuses on commodity production and utilises recent data on drivers of deforestation to identify landscapes where deforestation is high, driven largely by the expansion of forest-risk commodities.
The study found that transformative impact will require commodity supply chain companies to broaden their efforts to complement individual supply chain action by engaging in jurisdictional approaches. Over a dozen landscapes are of particular importance given commodity production levels and associated deforestation. Amongst the top producing countries, 14 landscapes exhibit particularly high rates of deforestation, in total accounting for 32 percent of the total deforestation across Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America between 2010 and 2017.
The study also found that a relative lack of jurisdictional approaches in landscapes relevant from a “commodity-first” perspective could create challenges for deeper private sector engagement. Out of about 95 currently active jurisdictional initiatives, only 20 are in the top commodity producing regions. Further, 90 percent of top producing regions of key commodities do not have an active jurisdictional initiative in place.
The Terpercaya study, led by the European Forest Institute’s EU REDD Facility and Yayasan Inovasi Bumi (Inobu), aims to build shared understanding of what jurisdictional sustainability is in Indonesia, and what indicators can best measure and track progress towards jurisdictional sustainability in a transparent way. This briefing outlines the indicators selected under Terpercaya to track progress, how they differ from other standards, and the approach taken to develop a consensus on the indicators, through the involvement of a multistakeholder advisory committee.
The 22 selected indicators are grounded in Indonesian law and designed to both evaluate the performance of the jurisdictions and demonstrate the benefits of sustainable and inclusive commodity production. The indicators are grouped into environmental, social, economic and governance categories and reflect the priorities and concerns of consumers, and of the Indonesian government, people and producers. They represent a means for promoting and improving market access, while supporting sustainable and inclusive economic growth throughout Indonesia.
This document aims to introduce the jurisdictional approach (JA) and its potential to accelerate the implementation of national priority agendas in Indonesia in its medium-term development plan (RPJMN) for the period of 2020-2024, particularly to achieve sustainable food and agricultural production. Jurisdiction-based multistakeholder approach is offered as an innovative new development model to assist Indonesia achieve SDGs, from the initial perspective of sustainable food and agriculture. The concept note was formulated through a series of meetings and discussions with CSOs facilitated by Indonesia’s Sustainable Districts Association Lingkar Temu Kabupaten Lestari (LTKL) to provide inputs to Indonesia’s National Development Agency (Bappenas).
The concept note elaborates on the definition and components of JA, including the lens of sustainable commodities used in its development, and the benefits and beneficiaries of JA for sustainable food and. It also discusses existing legal basis for the approach in Indonesia, enabling preconditions for its success, and examples from various JA initiatives developed by developmental partners and CSOs throughout Indonesia. Section 6 will provide the reasoning behind the proposal to use this while also demonstrating its potential for other sectors in the future.
RSPO Jurisdictional Approach to Certification (JA) is an approach to minimize the negative impact of palm oil cultivation on the environment and on communities, at the scale of government administrative areas, through the stepwise certification of the production and processing of sustainable oil palm products. It involves continuously progressing towards (1) achieving implementation no deforestation, no new planting on peat, ensuring safe and decent working conditions, and upholding human rights at landscape level; and (2) the certification of sustainable production and processing of oil palm products, managed and supported through a multi-stakeholder governed entity (referred as Jurisdictional Entity (JE) within the document).
The approach requires government leadership, support, and collaboration in playing a key role in facilitating a multi-stakeholder process, setting up overall governance, regulations and frameworks to bring jurisdictional members to apply RSPO standards progressively. Jurisdictional Certification will follow the RSPO 2018 Principles & Criteria, as well as other RSPO Standards. The challenge, however, is that the RSPO P&Cs have been developed with plantation concessions and estates, or growers and smallholders in mind, and not whole jurisdictions.
The RSPO Jurisdictional Working Group has agreed upon the framework presented in this document, but notes that new Standards and processes may be needed to address new challenges as they arise.
This paper focuses on the Rio Branco Declaration (RBD) and the 30 first-order subnational jurisdictions located in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Peru that signed it between 2014 and 2018, committing to reduce deforestation 80% by 2020, conditional upon adequate support from the international community. The authors assess each study jurisdiction’s progress toward that commitment in terms of reducing deforestation, and examine a subset of the potential factors supporting or slowing progress, including the existence of commensurate targets within jurisdictions’ legal frameworks and the international financial support pledged to jurisdictions.
The authors found that progress toward achieving the target was slow and likely unattainable in most jurisdictions outside of Brazil. Among the four jurisdictions likely to achieve the target under current deforestation trajectories, only Mato Grosso State has a target within its legal framework that is more ambitious than the RBD target. They also found that the international response to the RBD was sluggish and likely inadequate – with only one financial pledge made in direct response to the declaration and the majority of funding to support jurisdictional efforts coming from one source. The authors explore what may explain individual jurisdictions’ performance with respect to the target, including specific jurisdictional circumstances, national context, and international support.
This case study looks into private sector engagement in the Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme (SPLP), which currently comprises eight palm oil producers, traders, and downstream buyers, namely namely Cargill, Danone, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), L’Oréal, Musim Mas, Neste, PepsiCo, and Unilever, in the Siak and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, Indonesia. The Coalition has been facilitated by Proforest and Daemeter Consulting, who also implement the programme.
Several key lessons for future private sector engagement in jurisdictional initiatives were identified. First, companies find collaboration on achieving a common goal in general attractive and efficient. The presence of a neutral convener is seen as essential to build trust within the coalitions as well as bridge trust with other stakeholder groups to allow real engagement and collaboration to take place. While SPLP activities are funded and implemented by its members, the mainstreaming of local government’s commitment to sustainable land use into policies is also highlighted as key to ensuring jurisdictionwide impact related to sustainable palm production. Companies interested in jurisdictional initiatives should be ready to commit for an extended period, as building coalitions takes time.
Jurisdictional approaches have become popular in international forums as promising strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and to guarantee sustainable commodity supply. Yet, despite their growing popularity, up to now, there is little consensus on how such approaches should move forward in specific jurisdictions.
In this paper the authors examine two contrasting municipal-level case studies in the eastern Amazonian state of Pará where jurisdiction-wide efforts are underway to reduce deforestation. By developing detailed forest governance intervention timelines since 2005, conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants, analyzing municipal deforestation trends, plus extensive examination of project reports, governmental documents and other secondary sources, this paper performs two main analyses. First, it characterizes the processes in each municipality by linking context and forest governance intervention timelines to deforestation trends. Second it provides a systematic comparison of processes based on (1) the role of the government, (2) multi-stakeholder participation and inclusiveness, (3) adaptive management, (4) horizontal and vertical coordination, and (5) alignment of public and private (supply-chain) initiatives. In so doing, this article answers some of the imperative questions on how to implement and improve jurisdictional approaches aimed at halting deforestation in the tropics.