In a recent article published by Food Navigator, The Consumer Goods Forum Director of Sustainability, Didier Bergeret, has explained how the CGF Forest Positive Coalition of Action’s approach to transforming the beef sector towards forest positive, which will then have a positive impact on the Amazon rainforest. Entitled “Beef Boycotts Aren’t Enough to Save the Amazon Rainforest,” the article focuses on explaining why the Coalition’s Forest Positive Approach, which is focused on multi-stakeholder supply chain management and integrated land use approaches, is the right approach to protecting the Amazon by making the beef sector more sustainable.

The article followed the publication of the Coalition’s first version of the Beef Roadmap and Guidance for Forest Positive Suppliers of Cattle-derived Products (Meatpackers in Brazil), which outline steps businesses can take to follow the Coalition’s Forest Positive Approach to sourcing sustainable beef and other cattle-dervied products. The Roadmap is available in English and Portuguese here, and the Guidance is available in both languages here.

“We need to enable beef to be sourced through sustainable supply chains domestically as well as internationally,” Didier wrote. “A more cooperative approach is essential to achieve this – working with local and national governments, smallholders, meatpackers, suppliers and NGOs – to transform the entire landscape of production into one that’s forest positive.”

He then shared some insight into the work of the Coalition’s Beef Working Group: “To ensure meatpackers can adopt sourcing practices that don’t deplete rainforests, we need to go further. To find out how, our Beef Working Group has been collaborating with stakeholders, including local and international NGOs, and large and medium-sized meatpackers in Brazil. The results are set out in our new Beef Roadmap – and despite the complexity of the problem we’re tackling, the overall approach is simple. It’s about complementing, supporting and increasing the use of best practices that already exist in Brazil, thanks to the efforts of progressive local cattle farmers, meatpackers and geomonitoring companies.”

The Forest Positive Coalition was formed in 2020 by The Consumer Goods Forum and brings together 21 of the world’s largest retailers and manufacturers, with a combined market value of around US $2 trillion, to take collective action to remove deforestation, forest conversion and degradation from key commodity supply chains. For more information about the Coalition’s actions to create a forest positive future, visit the Coalition’s website.

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