China signs up to combat forest destruction, but critics say it’s not enough
- China is among more than 100 countries that have committed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030
- But its supply chains fund production of ‘forest-risk’ commodities like palm oil and beef cattle – and that’s a big part of the problem
China’s commercial supply chains lean heavily on so-called forest-risk commodities, or agribusiness materials such as palm oil, soy beans and beef cattle, which involve forest destruction, Rod Taylor, global director of the forests programme at the World Resources Institute, said in an interview on Monday.
“There is a good chance that you are causing problems unless you’re doing the due diligence,” said Taylor. “It’s both on the financing and the sourcing of commodities … so you can say exactly where this is coming from and whether or not it is linked to deforestation.”
Taylor, however, said improvement in China’s domestic environmental policies now needed to be extended across its own borders.
“We’ve seen some encouraging signals that they want to extend the concept of ecological civilisation … there seems to be some kind of political will to extend that up internationally,” he said.
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First COP26 pledge: world leaders agree to end deforestation by 2030
A report published in June by eco-watchdog Global Witness said China is the world’s second-largest financier of deforestation after Japan, because it funds the production of forest-risk commodities.
