By Valerie de Vries A recent update to AidEnvironment’s database of direct suppliers to JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva—the three largest meatpackers in Brazil—shows an increase of over 35% compared to June of this year. The direct supplying farms now cover an area of 18.4 million hectares, more than twice the size of the Netherlands and Belgium combined. Our sample identified […]
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By Sarah Drost, Valerie de Vries and Iqra Rafiq The Netherlands imported 44.1% of all cocoa products imported in the EU from non-EU origin countries in 2023, 41.6% of all palm oil products, 19.3% of all soy products, and 13.5% of all cattle products. These insights and many more can be found in the 27 factsheets AidEnvironment has developed in […]
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We are hiring! We are looking for a GIS intern who can support AidEnvironment’s Deforestation-free Supply Chains team, including deforestation analysis, land use change analysis and database maintenance. The internship’s period will be from August until October 2024, and the maximum duration is 3 months. There is an option for a temporary paid position immediately following the internship, depending on […]
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A recent update to AidEnvironment’s database includes direct and indirect suppliers of JBS, Marfrig and Minerva, the three largest meatpackers in Brazil, covering 23.6 million hectares. That area is larger in size than the island forming Great Britain (20.93 million ha). Our sample identified 23,594 direct supplying farms and 47,338 indirect supplying farms linked to the three largest meatpackers in […]
Read moreAuthor: Marco Garcia, Deforestation-free supply chains team AidEnvironment’s real-time deforestation monitoring (RDM) system has detected a recent clearing inside SLC Agricola’s Fazenda Palmares located in Barreiras municipality, Bahia state, Brazil. This farm and an earlier case of native vegetation loss linked to a fire event have been reported by AidEnvironment and included in Earthsight’s recently published Fashion Crimes investigation. The […]
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Article drafted by Sarah Drost, Deforestation-free Supply Chain Team, 21 February 2024 Since 2019, AidEnvironment’s Deforestation-free Supply Chains Team has expanded its support to European and non-European legislative initiatives, either by backing the adoption of strong laws and guiding their effective implementation, or by substantiating strategic litigation under the legal acts adopted through a focus on non-compliance cases, supply chain […]
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Article by Sarah Drost AidEnvironment continuously supports civil society, law charities, campaigners, and journalists with supply chain mapping and global trade data analyses. This year we have mapped the Colombian palm oil supply chain, assessed how the Unites States is tied to scope-3 emissions linked to global commodity trade and consumption. We have also mapped importing operators eligible under the […]
Read moreIntroduction The take-up of No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies by the palm oil industry has had a significant impact on reducing forest loss for oil palm plantation development. A 2020 study by Aidenvironment and our partners determined that 83% of refining capacity in Indonesia and Malaysia, accounting for approximately 50% of the world’s refining capacity, is covered […]
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Article drafted by Sarah Drost and Rita Raleira. With the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) having entered into force in June this year, preparations for the application of the law have been set in motion. EU Member States must nominate their respective Competent Authorities, responsible for the supervision and enforcement of the EUDR, by the end of 2023, while the European […]
Read moreArticle by Indonesia team In the first half of 2023, the industrial forest plantation sector in Indonesia was responsible for significant deforestation, with ten companies collectively contributing to the clearance of 10,000 hectares of forest. Approximately 81% of this deforestation was attributed to just three companies. Furthermore, six out of the top ten companies for forest clearance were also among […]
Read moreArticle drafted by Marco Tulio Garcia, Consultant, Deforestation Free Supply Chains. Forest Monitoring Tools Forest monitoring tools are technologies and methodologies used to track changes in forest cover, forest health, and biodiversity over time. These tools range from satellite imagery and remote sensing technology, which can provide larger-scale data on forest cover and deforestation, to ground-based surveys and inventories, that […]
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Article drafted by Rita Raleira, Researcher, Deforestation-free Supply Chains It is official now – the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 9 June 2023, will officially enter into force on 29 June 2023. Its core obligations, however, will only become applicable as of 30 December 2024, giving companies and EU Member States […]
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Article by Sarah Drost, Senior Research Consultant, AidEnvironment The European Parliament adopted its negotiating position on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) on 1 June 2023, with 366 votes in favor, 225 against and 38 abstentions. The law will oblige companies to show what actions they are taking to protect not only the environment, but also human rights. Due […]
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Written by Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari team As part of the social forestry project implemented in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan, Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari, AidEnvironment’s team in Asia, held a series of workshops to surface input from local communities. One of the goals of the social forestry project is to work with local communities in achieving their ideas of using […]
Read moreThe first quarter of 2023 saw 10 companies clear 4,000 hectares (ha) of forest in Indonesia’s industrial forest plantation sector, new analysis by AidEnvironment shows. Approximately 77% of this deforestation was caused by the two companies that have long been the largest deforesters in Indonesia’s industrial forest sector: PT Mayawana Persada in West Kalimantan and PT Industrial Forest Plantation in […]
Read moreArticle by Okita Miraningrum and Rita Raleira How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day last week? Many chose to show their love and appreciation for their loved ones by offering them the typical gifts of the season – flowers, candy, or… chocolate! Besides being an all-time favorite Valentine’s Day gift, many people also consume chocolate daily — be it as […]
Read moreTwo well-known deforesters were responsible for 10,600 hectares (ha) of forest loss in Indonesia’s industrial forest plantation sector in 2022. The two companies are PT Mayawana Persada in West Kalimantan, which is operated by Alas Kusuma; and PT Industrial Forest Plantation in Central Kalimantan, operated by Nusantara Fiber. The remaining eight companies among the ten largest deforesters in Indonesia as […]
Read moreAidEnvironment’s deforestation-free supply chains team analyzed the trade flows of 98 commodity products, originating from non-EU countries and placed in the EU market in 2021. This is highly relevant in the context of the upcoming EU Regulation on deforestation-free products, that will require an in-depth understanding of the exposure of the EU and its 27 Member States to deforestation risks […]
Read moreOn December 6th, 2022, the European Commission, Council, and Parliament reached a political agreement on the new regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. Since 2021, AidEnvironment has provided thorough analyses and research inputs on key elements of the regulation in collaboration with and supported by our partners, including ClientEarth, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN), Mighty Earth, and the Meridian Institute. AidEnvironment’s trade […]
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As part of the Chain Reaction Research consortium, AidEnvironment co-organized a webinar on Thursday, December 1, dedicated to the findings of two recently-published reports, assessing the EU Deforestation Regulation and its impacts on stakeholders within Brazilian cattle and soy supply chains. The webinar had a total of 153 attendees joining from 24 countries. The attendees represented a diverse pool of organizations, […]
Read more5 DECEMBER 2022 Celebrating World Soil Day Article by Marina Vara Gutiérrez, Regenerative agriculture expert, AidEnvironment Soil nutrition loss is one of the major degradation processes threatening food production and it is widely recognized among the most important problems for food security and sustainable food production at a global scale. World Soil Day 2022 centers on the theme ‘’Soils: where […]
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Following a 2021 report on the role of the car industry in driving deforestation, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) has now assessed 15 companies in the automotive supply chain (10 car brands and 5 car seat suppliers) on how each of them addresses leather-related deforestation risks. These companies were individually and systematically scored in relation to the strength of their zero-deforestation policies and strategies; how they implemented these policies; the information they disclose to the […]
Read moreAidEnvironment, together with 55 other civil society organisations (CSOs) and trade unions, wrote an open letter to the European Commission calling for non-state actors to be able to access customs trade information. The organisations believe that the reform of the Union Customs legislation can contribute to a more effective implementation of EU legislative initiatives and the achievement of related policy […]
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Article by Rita Raleira After the Council of the European Union (“Council”) and the European Parliament (“Parliament”) having adopted their negotiating positions, in June and September respectively, the EU Regulation proposal for deforestation-free supply chains (“EU Deforestation Regulation”) is now in the trilogue negotiations phase. Representatives from the three European institutions (Commission, Council, and Parliament) are currently engaging in informal […]
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Article by Anne Kikundwa Communities in Kamrono in the Ugandan district of Agago, face a lot of deforestation. With the exception of shea trees which are predominant protected by strict community bylaws, many local tree species are increasingly being cut down to be used as wood fuel and charcoal. Charcoal burning is a common activity in the community that is […]
Read moreIndonesia remains the deforestation hotspot in the region according to an analysis conducted by AidEnvironment of the oil palm concession companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea with the most deforestation in the first six months of 2022. The top ten concessions collectively contributed to 8,100 hectares of deforestation and these ten concessions are all located in Indonesia. Two […]
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On Tuesday, 4 August 2022, AidEnvironment officially launched a social forestry website in partnership with the Government of Ketapang District in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The launch event was held at the Ketapang Regent Office and was attended by representatives of the Village Forest Management Institution (Lembaga Desa Pengelola Hutan/LDPH), village government, Regional Apparatus Organization (Organisasi Perangkat Daerah/OPD), North Ketapang and […]
Read moreWe are hiring! We are looking for an GIS intern, who can provide overall support to AidEnvironment’s Forest team, including deforestation analysis, land use change analysis, database maintenance, coding, and programming. About AidEnvironment AidEnvironment is a not-for-profit sustainability research, strategy and implementation organisation working to achieve transformative sector change. We produce actionable insights and implement sustainable solutions to help protect […]
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EU Deforestation Regulation: Will the traceability requirement hold smallholder producers back? The short answer is no. The European Commission’s recent proposed legislation to eliminate deforestation from the supply chains of soft commodities will require, among other things, complete traceability of the supply chains of a set of high-risk commodities. This has led civil society and industry to wonder about the […]
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The first in a special content series featuring stories from the ground from our programs in Indonesia, Uganda and the Philippines.
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Five industrial tree plantations companies in Indonesia contributed to almost 3,000 ha of forest loss in the first quarter 2022. Four of the companies operate in Kalimantan, with one Sumatra. The group companies responsible for the clearings are Alas Kusuma, Nusantara Fiber, PT Hutan Produksi Lestari, Jhonlin Group, and PT Toba Pulp Lestari (affiliated with Royal Golden Eagle). 1. ALAS […]
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Ten industrial tree concessions together had over 1,500 NASA fire alerts on their concessions in Indonesia’s dry season of 2021, analysis by Aidenvironment shows. Aidenvironment investigated all industrial tree concessions in Indonesia, to identify the companies with highest number of fire alerts. Most of the fires occurred in Kalimantan, then in Sumatra and surrounding islands, then East and West Nusa […]
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BrasilAgro, a Brazilian rural real estate firm and soy producer, has plans to convert at least 10,000 hectares (ha) of Cerrado native vegetation for livestock and grain production, which include the drilling of several large-capacity wells. Aidenvironment, through its Chain Reaction Research consortium, already monitors BrasilAgro for several years, and has previously flagged the company’s clearing operations in Brazil and the associated business risks. Read […]
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Our April 2022 Real-time Deforestation Monitoring (RDM) report sheds light on 13,930 hectares of deforestation and fire events.
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Aidenvironment recently published its Chain Reaction Research report on palm oil developments in Africa. The report inspired a Mongabay article published today on how in West and Central Africa, palm oil investors buckle under community pressure. There is substantial discrepancy between oil palm concessions in the region and areas ultimately converted for industrial oil palm plantations. One of the powerful explanations “is the cross-border campaigning and resistance […]
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The Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative (NICFI) Satellite Data Program provides high-resolution satellite imagery of the global tropics to help reduce and reverse tropical forest loss. A key goal of the program is to help advance solutions that reduce pressure on forests from global markets. The virtual roundtable event focused on the post- Glasgow Declaration context, and the role […]
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Read our recently published Chain Reaction Research report on palm oil developments in Africa.
Read moreOn 22 February 2022, AidEnvironment published a Real-time Deforestation Monitoring (RDM) report that sheds light on 21,265 hectares of deforestation and fire events linked to soy traders and meatpackers in the Cerrado biome in Brazil. RDM reports aim to: create awareness on recent deforestation and fire events linked to global commodities’ supply chains; engage commodity producers and traders on real-time deforestation […]
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Just four pulp and paper companies in Indonesia were responsible for 11,000 hectares of forest clearing during 2021, analysis by AidEnvironment shows. The figure is similar to Indonesia’s 2020’s deforestation figures, when five companies were responsible for 13,000 hectares of forest loss. The four groups clearing the most forest in 2021 were Alas Kusuma, Nusantara Fiber, Moorim Group and PT Hutan Produksi Lestari. Nusantara Fiber and […]
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While palm oil companies are considered ahead of other sectors in no-deforestation implementation, AidEnvironment uncovered that non-palm deforestation persists in sustainable palm oil supply chains.
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A new report by Aidenvironment’s partner Gulzhan Musaeva examines the exploitation of land resources by the palm oil sector and the role of banking institutions in this process. The report focuses on the two leading producing nations of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia, and neighbouring Singapore. The biggest local financiers — whose exposure to forest-risk sectors is among the highest in the world — […]
Read moreOil palm growers in Brazil have argued that palm oil production is a “green solution” to safeguard the Amazon as a result of planting on areas already degraded and cleared only before 2008. While palm oil production in the Brazilian Amazon has relatively lower environmental impacts than soy and beef, our new joint publication Palm oil Production in Brazilian Amazon Threathens […]
Read moreThe recently released PRODES data for 2021 shows deforestation of 13,235 km2 (1,323,500 hectares) in the Legal Amazon, the highest number since 2008 and an increase of 22 percent when compared to the previous year (the annual rates cover a timeframe from August of the previous year to July of the current year). Since the beginning of 2019, when the current president, Jair […]
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Aidenvironment research contributed to a television broadcast about deforestation in the Dutch animal feed industry. Zembla, a Dutch documentary program, released a broadcast on November 25th at NPO2 concerning Brazil’s soy exports linked deforestation and animal feed companies in the Netherlands. Aidenvironment supported the research in Brazil, by providing data on deforestation and fires in several farms from soy producer SLC Agrícola […]
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November 2021 has been a month of promises and pledges to safeguard the world’s forests and further prevent carbon emissions from deforestation. Apart from the COP26 collective declaration to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, yesterday the European Commission released a proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products. The law aims to minimize the risk of deforestation in goods, such […]
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The Sinar Mas group, owned by the Widjaja family, is one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. Its flagship companies Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) have no-deforestation commitments. However, some Sinar Mas companies are not under the scrutiny of such policies. Aidenvironment documents at least 6,000 hectares of forest clearing inside Sinar Mas’ coal mining concession PT Berau Coal since […]
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Chain Reaction Research held a webinar on October 21st, 2021 looking into a recent Aidenvironment report that documented 133,000 hectares of deforestation since 2016 that are significant producers of palm oil. The event focused on the need for more palm oil buyers’ No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies to be applied across all commodities for no-deforestation claims to […]
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The Indonesian company PT Hutan Produksi Lestari has cleared 755 hectares of forest between January and August 2021. This makes it the fourth largest deforester for industrial trees in Indonesia in 2021 so far. Since January 2020, the company has owned an industrial tree concession of 10,050 hectares in Kapuas district, Central Kalimantan province. The concession falls within the habitat of the Critically Endangered Bornean orangutan […]
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Aidenvironment has recently finalized a study for the environmental law charity ClientEarth on the EU timber market. The study is part of a wider project on the role of timber operators in forest governance, in the framework of two tools to combat illegal logging: Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). The study ultimately aims to inform […]
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