Global firms failing to protect forests: report

Global companies and financial institutions with the highest potential for curbing deforestation are largely failing to do so, undermining pledges to protect forests made at the COP26 climate summit in November, a report said yesterday.

The Forest 500 analysis by non-profit research group Global Canopy graded 350 companies most responsible for producing, using or trading commodities that drive deforestation, along with the 150 biggest banks, investment firms and pension funds that finance them.

One-in-three companies assessed had no forest commitments at all, and 72 percent addressed some but not all of the forest-related commodities in their supply chains. Even those with commitments keyed to specific commodities -- especially soy, beef and leather -- "are failing to provide evidence of how they are implementing them", the report concluded.

Cargill, Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle Corp., Unilever and PepsiCo were among 15 companies sharing a favourable ranking, while many from China, Brazil and Argentina had the lowest score possible in the five-tier rating.

Progress is even more halting among financial firms, which provide more than $5.5 trillion every year to companies in forest-risk supply chains, according to the report.

The Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use was signed during COP26 by 141 countries committing to halting and reversing forest loss and degradation by 2030.