Tropical Forest Alliance – MSPlatforms.org

General Information

Crop: Not crop-specific

Country: Global

Active countries: Global

Initiated in 2012

The Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA 2020) Public Private Partnership is a global partnership aiming to remove deforestation from palm oil, beef, soy, pulp, and paper production, thus preserving tropical forests.

Members

International agrifood, consultant and forestry multinationals, national governments such as the Government of Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Netherlands, Norway, Indonesia, Liberia, United Kingdom, and the United States. There is also a very strong presence of NGOs and civil society organizations from multiple preservation and development

sectors.

Challenge

To preserve forests and thus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Preserving and restoring forests is critical to averting the most dangerous climate change and achieving global goals. According to the latest IPCC report, about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are tied to deforestation, with up to 20% of all the abatement potential being identified in the land-use sector. Forests are also extremely important to food security, water security, and livelihoods. Founded by the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and the US government at Rio+20, it aims to foster cross-sector collaboration, by engaging its partners to take voluntary actions, individually and together, to reduce the tropical deforestation associated with the sourcing of commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, paper, and pulp.

Intentions and aspiration

Zero net deforestation by 2020 for the palm oil, soy, beef, paper, and pulp supply chains in 2010

The platform targets those involved in the forestry supply chain in order to restore forest, reduce greenhouse gas and improve livelihoods. The platforms mission is to enable its partners to take action via collaborative partnerships by tackling the drivers of tropical deforestation via market, policy, and communication approaches. Its aim is to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, improve the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, conserve natural habitats, and protect tropical landscapes for future generations. It is a key aspect of delivering sustainable and inclusive rural economic development in tropical forest countries.

Arrangements and capacitities

The platform is directed by all its partners and is supported and informed by a secretariat. It has a steering committee of 20 members (a subset of the general assembly) formed of representatives from the private sector (4), civil society organizations (4), governments (8), and indigenous and local representatives (2), plus the director of the secretariat and the ex-officio secretariat host representative. The role of the secretariat is to act as a neutral coordinating and facilitative platform. It does so by bringing together companies and government partners to help analyze the economic potential of public and corporate no-deforestation policies, in order to catalyze projects and initiatives in countries and throughout the supply chain. The goal of the secretariat is (i) convening stakeholders (ii) co-creating an environment and financing mechanisms, and, (iii) communicating with high-level decision makers and practitioners.

activities

Activities and outputs

Each member contributes in differing ways towards core activities, products, and services of the platform. Companies provide a market for commodities that are tropical deforestation-free, work with suppliers who acquire these products, and comply with the legislation and regulation that supports the conservation of tropical forests. The governments create the enabling conditions and ensure enforcement for tropical forest conservation, agricultural land use and land tenure, enable the sharing of information about best practices, develop support models to encourage rehabilitation of degraded lands, and provide technical assistance on M&E for tropical deforestation. Civil society provides policy and technical expertise and their networks to facilitate implementation, track developments, and draw attention to pressuring issues, as well as reviewing progress towards collective commitments.

Monitoring and evaluation

The alliance and its partners work together to improve monitoring of tropical deforestation and forest degradation in order to measure progress and allow for better traceability