The agricultural sector in many countries is identified as a driver of deforestation. It also, in some countries, offers opportunities for increasing the adoption of trees on farms (e.g., through farmer-managed natural regeneration and agroforestry). Stakeholders in the public, private, and nongovernmental sectors are undertaking initiatives to reduce the impact of commodity value chains on forests, presenting a real learning opportunity. For example, Brazil’s Soy Moratorium was the first voluntary zero-deforestation agreement implemented in the tropics, and it set the stage for supply-chain governance of such commodities as beef and palm oil.

 

The aim of this activity is to scale out and up successful agricultural and agroforestry commodity chain approaches, to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Uruguay), in East Asia and the Pacific (Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam), and in Africa (East African Highlands, Sahel Green Belt countries, and Central Africa Miombo countries).

 

First, the activity will compile evidence on addressing the impact of commodity value chains – notably palm oil, soybeans, rubber, coffee, cacao and beef - on deforestation and forest degradation, including aquaculture (shrimp) and mangroves in coastal zones. Second, the activity will develop a typological and analytical framework for tree-based commodities on farms and greenbelts—from local to national to continental landscape scales—to assess the opportunities for "crowding in” trees into an agricultural commodity value chain. Third, there will be emphasis on identifying where climate change is shifting or will likely shift the geography of well-established commodity crop industries, and the scope for afforesting or introducing mixed agroforestry in the current crop areas that will be converted (or not replanted). 

 

This activity is ongoing. Knowledge and lessons learned will be put into practice in the context of development partners’ investment, green growth, and climate-resilient operations. This will involve raising awareness; producing analytical assessments of cross-sectoral tradeoffs and synergies in both geospatial and time scales; and incorporating findings into National Action Plans and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions in the face of climate change.