Addressing the UK’s deforestation footprint

Global Canopy’s response to the DEFRA consultation on due diligence requirements for forest risk commodities

We welcome the government’s initiative in proposing due diligence legislation to address the UK’s overseas footprint from forest-risk commodities, which results in the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity on which we all rely, as well as associated greenhouse gas emissions, but believe it must go further to minimise the UK’s impact overseas.

Read the full response here

We urge the government to:

• Recognise legal deforestation as a problem,
  • Accept responsibility for deforestation linked to imports, not delegate responsibility to producer countries,
  • Level the playing field for companies seeking to achieve zero deforestation – 81% of the biggest UK companies in forest-risk supply chains already have targets to remove all deforestation from their supply chains,
  • Recognise the practical challenges of identifying illegality
• Include human rights
• Extend beyond large companies
• Include the finance sector.

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