Deforestation and conversion
The Accountability Framework is a resource to help companies produce and source commodities while protecting forests and other natural ecosystems. It guides the establishment of effective policies and implementation systems to achieve supply chains free from deforestation and conversion.
The Accountability Framework calls for eliminating deforestation and ecosystem conversion from supply chains. Doing so helps companies mitigate risk while protecting critical values including carbon storage, biodiversity, water supplies, and the wellbeing of local people and communities. Core Principle 1 specifies what a company should include in a commitment or policy to protect forests and other ecosystems.
Related definitions
The Framework provides consensus-based definitions to guide the achievement of no-deforestation and no-conversion supply chains.
Deforestation: The loss of natural forest as a result of:
- conversion to agriculture or other non-forest land use;
- conversion to a plantation; or
- severe or sustained degradation
Conversion: Loss of a natural ecosystem as a result of its replacement with agriculture or another land use, or due to a profound and sustained change in a natural ecosystem’s species composition, structure, or function.
These definitions are globally applicable and can be contextualised to different regions and commodity production systems. This creates alignment between global-level commitments and localised methods for ecosystem identification and land-use change monitoring.
Related webinars
Related Core Principle
1