The reports of fresh deforestation come despite a landmark deal signed three years ago by Cargill and other companies
that included a target of “eliminating deforestation from the production of agricultural commodities like palm oil, soy and beef products by 2020.” Experts at the time said the deadline, laid out in the New York Declaration of Forests, would require companies to start straightaway to make their sourcing more sustainable.
Even before the New York Declaration, Cargill had made significant efforts to buy palm oil sourced only from land not linked to fresh
deforestation, according to a supply-chain expert with extensive experience working on Cargill’s global sustainability efforts.
In recent statements, Cargill has adopted a 2030 deadline for elimination of deforestation from its supply chain — a separate deadline, mentioned elsewhere in the New York Declaration,
that was meant to apply to ending all forms of deforestation, not just those related to agricultural commodities.
That organization, Washington-based Mighty Earth, used satellite imaging
and supply-chain mapping information from the Stockholm Environment Institute, an environmental think tank, to identify deforestation in Brazil where two American-based food giants, Cargill and Bunge, are the only known agricultural traders.
“A positive step would be for more companies to adopt zero deforestation commitments, apply controls to block crops grown in illegally cleared areas from entering their supply chains, report publicly on progress
and invest millions of dollars to support sustainable land use planning efforts, all of which Bunge has done.” (Bunge, however, is not a signatory to the New York Declaration of Forests.)
According to Mighty Earth’s analysis, the Brazilian savanna areas in which Cargill operates, a
region called the Cerrado, saw more than 321,000 acres of deforestation between 2011 and 2015.
In the Brazilian Amazon, the world’s largest rain forest, deforestation rose in 2015 for the
first time in nearly a decade, to nearly two million acres from August 2015 to July 2016.
