2Sustain

Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) has launched its second Annual Review, identifying how international companies that have direct exposure to forest risk commodities (FRCs) are responding to increasing pressure from deforestation.

These FRCs include timber, soy, cattle products, palm oil and biofuels.

Unfortunately, it appears that many of these FRCs are choosing to ignore deforestation risks. This year, FFD approached 285 companies for its annual review, and only 78 companies (27 percent) responded. (See the full list here.) In the Reveiw, FFD calls on more businesses to recognize the importance of changes in regulation and policy relating to protecting forested lands and the need for managements to assess their risk exposure in more detail.

“It’s not just environmental good sense, it makes increasingly sound business sense to understand and reduce deforestation pressures driven by agricultural expansion right now – to prepare for both future legislation and market opportunities,” Tracey Campbell, Director of the FFD Project, said.

More specifically, the review highlighted these four specific business impacts that could result from not engaging on this important issue: (more…)

Some are calling it “the world’s largest conservation agreement.”

On Tuesday, Canada’s leading pulp and paper companies, in unprecedented partnership with nine environmental groups, announced the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which calls for ground-breaking environmental standards of forest management and conservation, protecting species at risk and action on climate change.

The historic agreement covers more than 72 million hectares of public forests licensed to FPAC member companies across Canada. It specifically recognizes the shared role that governments, industry and environmentalists play  in protecting and sustainably managing the Boreal Forest.

From the agreement: (more…)

There’s an old torch song called “What a Difference a Day Makes” by Dinah Washington. It has been stuck in my head lately, particularly as I read stories coming out of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change which kicked off this week in Bali. I think the reason I can’t shake the tune because everywhere I look I’m reminded of the huge difference between the environmental movement as I remember it from the late 80s/early 90s and the movement today. So I suppose it’s more like “What a Difference Two Decades Makes” – but who’s counting?

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