NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT

The 2018 NYDF Progress Assessment finds that while corporate commitments to deforestation-free supply chains are increasing—particularly in palm oil and timber—they remain highly variable in ambition and scope. Traceability systems are improving, and new jurisdictional initiatives in Brazil and Indonesia show promise, but financial institutions lag in addressing portfolio risks. Direct data on deforestation reduction is currently lacking, though new tools like Trase and Global Forest Watch–Commodities are being developed to fill this gap.

• Corporate commitments to reduce deforestation in agricultural supply chains are increasing, but their quality and scope vary. As of August 2017, the Supply Change Initiative tracked nearly 900 companies with risk exposure to cattle, palm, soy, or timber & pulp, with 471 companies having at least one commitment totaling 785 commitments. Companies in the palm and timber & pulp sectors are more likely to make commitments than those in the cattle and soy sectors, a trend linked to the availability of certification standards.
• Many corporate commitments lack specificity, making them difficult to monitor or compare. A significant portion of 'powerbroker companies' in timber and palm oil have vague sustainability commitments that do not explicitly exclude the exploitation of priority forest types or require credible certification. To address this, a coalition of NGOs is developing the Accountability Framework to harmonize definitions and improve the consistency of monitoring and reporting.
• Companies are operationalizing commitments through risk assessments and traceability systems, though long-term planning is limited. In 2016, 81 percent of producer companies had traceability systems, while 71 percent of downstream companies did the same. However, only 20 percent of companies across the four priority commodities assessed their deforestation risks for a period of six years or more.
• Transparency in reporting progress is improving but remains incomplete. Progress information was available for 51 percent of commitments tracked by Supply Change over two years, up from 36 percent in 2016. Despite this, one-fifth of all commitments are classified as 'dormant', meaning they either have a passed target date or were announced in 2015 or earlier without a target date.
• Financial institutions are slow to address deforestation risks in their portfolios. As of 2016, only about one-third of 150 financial institutions linked to Forest 500 companies had commitments related to the four major commodities. While some Asian banks are adopting ESG guidelines, few apply them to their entire portfolios. Twelve banks with USD 10 trillion in assets have committed to the Soft Commodities Compact.
• Jurisdictional and landscape-level initiatives are emerging to align private sector and national goals. Examples include the Produce, Conserve, Include strategy in Mato Grosso and the South Sumatra Eco-Region Alliance/Partnership Consortium for Landscape Management in Indonesia. These efforts aim to eradicate illegal deforestation and improve local livelihoods.
• Direct data on the reduction of deforestation associated with specific commodities is currently unavailable, but new monitoring tools are being developed. Global Forest Watch–Commodities uses satellite data to track deforestation by commodity type, and Trase maps supply chains from production regions to import countries. Trase data for 2015 showed that 42 percent of Brazilian soy exports were covered by a zero deforestation commitment, yet 97 thousand hectares of deforestation attributable to soy expansion were associated with sourcing regions of companies with such commitments.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2018). NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal2.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT. 2018. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT |date=2018 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2018new, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2018}, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2017Goal2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }