2020 was supposed to be a crucial milestone in the fight to save our precious rainforests - but companies are giving up

It's been a decade since Cargill, Nestle, Unilever and others committed to zero net deforestation through responsible sourcing of commodities like soya and palm oil, but little progress has been made

Cargill – one of the world’s biggest agricultural commodities traders – has warned that it, along with the broader food industry, expects to miss its target to halt deforestation.

Cargill, along with household names like Nestle and Unilever, is one of 400 companies that have signed a pledge to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020 through responsible sourcing of commodities like soya and palm oil from producers. But in the decade since this agreement was penned, little progress has been made in tackling the global deforestation associated with food production. In fact, in that time an area twice the size of the UK of forest has been cut to grow our food.

The news sits uncomfortably next to accusations that major global firms are not disclosing their environmental impact – with disclosure group CPD calling out over 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, for a lack transparency.

At a time of big words and big intentions – like the climate emergency declared by the UK Parliament just weeks ago – we need to take real action if we're going to stop this impending crisis.

Theresa May, in her recent commitment to end the UK’s emissions by 2050, didn't even mention in her government press release the emissions generated through UK imports, like the impact of mass deforestation in other countries to grow the UK’s food.

In this frame, it wouldn’t be entirely cynical to suggest that Cargill’s warning last week is just an expectations management PR exercise, rather than a real willingness to reverse this troubling trend on global deforestation.

If the destruction of tropical forests were a country it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of CO2 – behind only China and the US. Forests act as vital carbon sinks, representing a quarter of all planned emissions reductions by 2030. Yet we are cutting them down ever faster: deforestation in the Amazon hit a decade high last year. If we don’t stop destroying our forests, we don’t stand a chance of slowing catastrophic climate breakdown.

And we’re not just in danger of failing to fulfil (potentially empty) emissions promises. Agribusiness and deforestation are an enormous risk and danger to human lives – a key driver of violence against land and environmental activists. These land and environment defenders are routinely intimidated, attacked and, in far too many cases, killed for resisting the seizure of their land for industrial agriculture and other environmentally destructive industries like mining and hydropower.

Last year, Global Witness reported on the death of Mexican activist Isidro Baldenegro. His work defending the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara was so widely admired it won him the prestigious global Goldman Award for activism. But it also caught the eye of local loggers and drug traffickers, and he was shot and killed by a suspected hitman – the same fate as befell his father 30 years earlier. These kind of attacks lie at the sharpest end of harmful deforestation, driven by major global businesses.

As businesses have shown they can’t get their own house in order, governments now need to step up. The EU is soon to announce overdue plans to step up their efforts to tackle deforestation. The UK also has an opportunity through the forthcoming Environment Bill. Pressures are increasing for policy makers to adopt new rules forcing companies to check their supply chain and investments for deforestation, environmental harm and human rights abuses.

But companies like Cargill – the largest privately held corporation in the United States by revenue – play a critical role too. Cargill’s moto is ‘Helping the World Thrive’, boasted on its website header with smiling videos of families walking through luscious fields of greenery.

But, as they warned, they themselves are falling short on their promise. As we hurtle towards environmental disaster, words are no longer enough. If Cargill wants to deliver on its pledges, and other companies like it really want to help the world thrive, they’re going to need to redouble their efforts to stop deforestation, protect the people who defend the environment and tackle the climate crisis face on.

2020 was supposed to be a crucial milestone in the fight to save our precious rainforests. There is still time for companies to rise to the challenge, but all the signs are that this will need real, swift and – crucially – lasting action.

Jo Blackman is head of advocacy at Global Witness