Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 The Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020) is a global partnership that aims to bring about an end to deforestation. It does this by mobilizing action by governments, the private sector and civil society organizations to reduce tropical deforestation related to the sourcing of key agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, and pulp and paper. The aim of the alliance is to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. At the United Nations Climate Summit in September 2014, more than150 signatories embraced the New York Declaration on Forests. The Declaration states that “Forests are essential to our future” and unveils the first global timeline to end deforestation. It is supported by national and subnational governments, companies, indigenous peoples’ organizations and non-­‐governmental and civil society organizations. More than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their daily livelihood and human and economic development. Forests also play a vital role in global climate patterns by sequestering carbon and supporting biodiversity underpinning growth, development and environmental health. Yet, average global forest loss is estimated at 13 million hectares per year – or 36 football fields every minute. The New York Declaration further notes that the production of commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, pulp and paper is responsible for roughly half of global deforestation. TFA 2020 focuses on tropical deforestation in South-­‐East Asia, Central and West Africa and regions of South America, focusing on a limited number of priority actions that have the greatest potential to deliver results at scale. The TFA 2020 Secretariat The World Economic Forum will host the TFA 2020 Secretariat for at least three years from spring 2015 through the end of 2017, supported by international donors including the Governments of Norway and the United Kingdom. The TFA 2020 Secretariat is the administrative entity responsible for coordinating and facilitating TFA 2020. It will support and help to inform the direction and actions of the TFA 2020 Steering Committee (a subset of the full TFA 2020 partner group responsible for making management decisions on behalf of TFA 2020 Partners). The Secretariat will be “forward leaning” (i.e. will use technical expertise to recommend new areas of activity for Partners) with input from Partners, the Steering Committee, and additional technical sources. The TFA 2020 Secretariat will report to the Steering Committee, which will decide which activities the Secretariat will undertake. The TFA Secretariat will help TFA 2020 Partners deliver on their commitment to reduce commodity-­‐driven tropical deforestation. Specific objectives include: 1. Facilitate a marketplace for ideas and initiatives where governments, companies, NGOs and other stakeholders can form coalitions to address specific tropical deforestation challenges. The focus will be on catalysing practical action, which includes assisting Partners to develop projects with clear outcomes. 2. Advise government partners on how best to create the tools and enabling environments that help support specific commitments by companies and other stakeholders to eliminate tropical deforestation from supply chains. 3. Provide a neutral forum for the discussion and resolution of divergent views and perspectives, with the intention of achieving compromise and solutions to reach common goals. 4. Track progress on achieving TFA 2020 objectives and communicate major achievements/lessons learned. The TFA Secretariat is expected to deliver the following: • Establish TFA 2020 as a leading global alliance for sustainable commodity production, tropical forest management and sustainable development • Organize a TFA 2020 Annual Meeting and regional meetings, linked to World Economic Forum regional meetings, where relevant • Develop the TFA 2020 global Partner network, including drawing up a target TFA 2020 Partner list (governments, the private sector and civil society organizations, among others.) to engage in TFA 2020 by the end of 2017, as directed by the Steering Committee • Design TFA 2020 as a community of practice, bringing together vital global players to interact, engage and partner to solve this complex global challenge • Produce the TFA 2020 Annual Report, which will set out the progress made by the alliance • Develop and update a TFA 2020 public website and social media hub with comprehensive information about TFA 2020 and, more generally, on commodity-­‐driven tropical deforestation issues and activities • Deliver excellent TFA 2020 Partner management, including regular progress updates. • Engage in wider communications and awareness-­‐raising outside of TFA 2020 • Develop and manage a secure, user-­‐friendly TFA 2020 intranet for TFA Partners to enable first-­‐class digital project management. TFA 2020 Partners plan to lead and manage TFA 2020-­‐related initiatives in a relatively decentralized manner, with the TFA 2020 Secretariat providing a global platform to support, facilitate and enhance the network of TFA activities, rather than a centralized project delivery unit per se. To this end, the TFA 2020 Secretariat will be positioned as a resource platform to develop and promote TFA 2020 activities, support various regional or technical initiatives and share best practices: it will not act as a central implementation agent in itself. Consequently, the Secretariat will remain lean and highly networked. Annexe: Additional Information on TFA 2020 • The Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA) is a global public-­‐private partnership born out of the Consumer Goods Forum commitment to achieving zero net tropical deforestation by 2020.1 •
About 1.6 billion people depend on tropical forests for their income, including many smallholder farmers. •
Scientists estimate that 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. •
Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce poverty and reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be much harder if tropical deforestation is not slowed or stopped. •
It is estimated that the production of soy, beef, paper and pulp and palm oil account for about half of the world’s current tropical deforestation. •
The TFA is designed to help slow tropical deforestation through public-­‐private cooperation. TFA Partners include governments, producer and consumer goods companies, NGOs and other stakeholders. Through TFA they commit to voluntary collaboration to promote actions that support the goal of creating sustainable supply chains in these key agricultural commodities by 2020. •
From January 2015, the World Economic Forum will host the Secretariat of the TFA. Funding for the TFA Secretariat and its associated regional programmes is provided by Ministry for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, Norway NORAD, UK DFID and USAID. •
Company commitments to sustainable production are growing fast, now covering over 90% of the global palm oil supply chain. The World Economic Forum will help the TFA to expand the level of similar company commitments in other key agricultural commodities and to work with forest nation governments and other stakeholders to help implement these commitments. •
For many tropical forest nations there is an economic advantage for smallholder farmers if deforestation is slowed, due to associated land tenure and farm productivity improvements. Environmental economic risks such as forest fires, floods and soil fertility loss are also reduced. •
The TFA Secretariat will raise awareness about tropical deforestation. It will share examples of government actions and innovative public-­‐private partnerships that are reducing tropical deforestation. It will curate a new global digital network of TFA partners. It will convene meetings that leverage the networks and summits of the World Economic Forum to help coordinate and advance action with governments on tropical deforestation globally and in key regions. •
The Banking Environment Initiative supports the TFA 2020. The BEI is a collaboration of global banks that support sustainable commodity production through sustainable commodity financing 1
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) is a global network of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other
stakeholders in the consumer goods industry. Member companies have combined sales of EUR 2.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10
million people with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. www.theconsumergoodsforum.com
2
The Banking Environment Initiative currently comprises of 12 banks from Asia, Europe and the Americas including Barclays, BNY
Mellon, China Construction Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking Group, Nomura, Northern Trust, Santander,
Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui and Westpac http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Business-­‐Platforms/Banking-­‐Environment-­‐Initiative.aspx To find out more about the New York Declaration, the TFA 2020 and the World Economic Forum’s work on forests, please go to: • New York Declaration on Forests • Public website of the TFA 2020 • Global Agenda Council on Forests • Session Summary: Reducing Tropical Deforestation Related to Key Agricultural Commodities, Davos Annual Meeting 2015