From pledge to proof: helping companies achieve sustainable agriculture and forestry commitments

Go to section

The challenge
The solution
From development to uptake
An innovative approach

Introduction

About the project

Project title: An Accountability Framework to Mainstream Responsible Production and Trade for Agriculture and Forestry

Lead organisation: Rainforest Alliance

Partners include: Imaflora, LTKL, National Wildlife Federation, Proforest, Resourcetrust Ghana, Rights and Resources Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute, WWF, The Meridian Institute

Duration: October 2018 - December 2020

Deforested misty landscape © doidam10, Adobe stock

The challenge

In recent years, hundreds of multinational companies have pledged to eliminate deforestation, ecosystem destruction, and human exploitation from their agriculture and forestry supply chains. While these commitments have the power to transform lives and ecosystems on a global scale, they can only do so if they are actually implemented; otherwise, they remain empty promises. To date, progress toward these goals has fallen well short of stated ambitions. In palm oil, for example, 60% of the market is subject to corporate sustainability commitments, but only 19% of global palm-oil supply is credibly certified as responsibly-sourced.

Some companies have moved to fill these implementation gaps by embarking on their own bespoke certification schemes, sustainability projects and policies, which are executed with varying degrees of rigor. These company initiatives are threatening the viability of credible independent standards and have resulted in market confusion and (in some cases) greenwashing. Complementary tools are needed to work alongside standards to ensure that producers, companies, and sectors can achieve their far-reaching, sustainability ambitions and help governments, advocacy groups, and others support and monitor these efforts across landscapes and commodities.

Coffee harvesting machine in Brazil © Rainforest Alliance

The solution

A coalition of leading environmental and social NGOs has launched the Accountability Framework initiative (AFi). The group has developed, by consensus, the Accountability Framework to help companies translate their supply chain commitments into demonstrated outcomes in the areas of deforestation, conversion of other natural ecosystems, and human rights.

The Accountability Framework is a set of norms and guidance for setting, implementing, and demonstrating progress on ethical supply chain commitments – these can be deployed both within certification systems and outside of them as a broader company-wide due diligence effort. The Framework also clarifies what constitutes a credible claim for companies to follow in reporting and communicating on their commitments, based on a common architecture and language for quantifying and reporting on their progress. The Framework is aimed at improving the quality, consistency, and interpretability of performance data, and providing NGOs, financing institutions, and others with the information they need to steer companies in the right direction.

Fazenda Recanto coffee farm © Rainforest Alliance

From development to uptake

As the coalition moves from developing the Framework to supporting its application, work is underway in Colombia (among other regions) to engage private and public sector actors in Framework uptake. Colombia was selected because its government and several leading companies have made significant commitments to deforestation-free commodities and human rights.

For more information, including who is leading the AFi, the Framework Core Principles and Operational Guidance, and its relationship to existing systems and initiatives, please visit: www.accountability-framework.org

Forest 2, Mexico © Eugenio Fernández Vázquez, 2011, Rainforest Alliance

An innovative approach

The AFi was designed to complement existing sustainability initiatives (such as standards and certification), not to duplicate or supersede them, making it easier for the various sustainability tools, policies and schemes to be integrated seamlessly. This represents a marked change, transforming a landscape that features numerous misaligned guidelines, ad-hoc systems, and opportunities for greenwashing into a world where common approaches drive greater accountability, reduce opportunities for rogue behavior, and accelerate progress toward shared goals. As a common reference that can be used across commodities and geographies, and for all actors in a company’s suppy chain, AFi aims to make better use of technology, and promote transparency of information sources and results.

The Framework addresses agriculture and forestry because these are the principal drivers of deforestation—and the primary focus of recent company commitments—but if it proves successful, it could be replicated in other sectors, such as mining.