Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities – Goal 2 Assessment Report

The 2016 assessment of NYDF Goal 2 reveals a growing number of corporate commitments to deforestation-free supply chains, with 415 companies making 701 pledges. However, progress is uneven across commodities; palm oil and wood products have the highest commitment rates, while cattle—the largest driver of deforestation—has the lowest. Implementation remains a challenge, as few companies have time-bound actionable plans or full traceability to the production level. While companies in deforestation hotspots (Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Paraguay) are more advanced in operationalizing pledges, overall global impact on forest loss cannot yet be measured due to data gaps. The report emphasizes that private sector efforts require stronger support from financial institutions and improved forest governance from national governments to be effective.

• Corporate commitments to reduce deforestation in agricultural supply chains are increasing, with 415 companies making 701 pledges as of 2016, representing a 43% increase in new commitments over the previous year.
• Commitments are heavily skewed toward specific commodities; 59% of assessed companies have commitments for palm oil and 53% for wood products, while only 21% for soy and 12% for cattle have such pledges, despite cattle being the largest driver of deforestation.
• The majority of companies making commitments are downstream actors (manufacturers and retailers) headquartered in Europe, North America, or Australia, while upstream producers and those in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have been slower to act.
• Implementation of commitments is lagging, with less than half of assessed companies possessing time-bound actionable plans; for beef/leather, only 11% of companies have such plans.
• Traceability to the production level remains a significant barrier; for example, only 39% of palm oil systems trace back to the processing facility and 52% of soy can only be traced to the country level.
• Companies operating in deforestation hotspots—specifically Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Paraguay—are 10–20% more advanced in operationalizing their commitments than those with less exposure to these regions.
• Financial institutions are lagging behind consumer goods companies in adopting deforestation policies, with only one-third of 150 assessed institutions having such commitments in place.
• Weak forest governance and a lack of public-sector support are major barriers to private-sector efforts, though jurisdictional and landscape-level programs, such as those in the Brazilian Amazon, show promise.
• There is currently no global data available to determine if corporate supply-chain efforts are resulting in measurable reductions in deforestation, although tools like Global Forest Watch-Commodities and Trase are being developed to fill this gap.

APA

Streck, C., Haupt, F., Roe, S., Behm, K., Kroeger, A., & Schulte, I. (2016). Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities – Goal 2 Assessment Report. Forest Declaration Assessment. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2016NYDFReport.pdf

Chicago

Streck, Charlotte, Franziska Haupt, Stephanie Roe, Katharina Behm, Alan Kroeger, and Ingrid Schulte. Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities – Goal 2 Assessment Report. Forest Declaration Assessment, 2016. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2016NYDFReport.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Streck |first1=Charlotte |last2=Haupt |first2=Franziska |last3=Roe |first3=Stephanie |last4=Behm |first4=Katharina |last5=Kroeger |first5=Alan |last6=Schulte |first6=Ingrid |title=Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities – Goal 2 Assessment Report |publisher=Forest Declaration Assessment |date=November 2016 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2016NYDFReport.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{streck2016progress, author = {Streck, Charlotte and Haupt, Franziska and Roe, Stephanie and Behm, Katharina and Kroeger, Alan and Schulte, Ingrid}, title = {{Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities – Goal 2 Assessment Report}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2016NYDFReport.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }