Welcome to the first issue of a new monthly newsletter from NEPCon on the NEPCon Sourcing Hub!
We launched the NEPCon Sourcing Hub in August last year to share information, risk data and tools to help companies source responsibly. Here at NEPCon, our roots (no pun intended) run deep in the forest sector. We created the Sourcing Hub to help the companies trading in forest impacts commodities, timber, palm oil, soy and beef understand their supply chains, and use a risk-based approach to reduce the negative social and environmental impacts of those supply chains.
The response to the Sourcing Hub since we launched has been, for the most part, positive – I have heard from many of you that the Sourcing Hub is a great tool to help you understand a risk based due diligence approach to supply chain management, and that it has helped you get a better understanding of how to analyse and treat risks in your supply chain.
Here at NEPCon, we are always thinking of more ways we can help companies on their sustainability journey. Some of you may have attended one of the many free training sessions or workshops we have conducted over the past six months, I had the pleasure of meeting some of you there.
Since January 2018, we have added a new feature to the Sourcing Hub – the news and resources section on each country page. Every day, a NEPCon responsible sourcing expert scours the news from around the world to update the Sourcing Hub with information relevant to legal and responsible sourcing. We know that you are all busy people, so we filter and curate the news to deliver the stories most relevant to sourcing responsibly.
This is why we have now decided to launch this newsletter, in it, you will be able to skim through the news from the past month, take a deep dive in to a couple of the major stories that are affecting the forest impact commodity space and be updated on any new developments on the NEPCon Sourcing Hub.
Please share this newsletter with your networks, and of course let us know if you would prefer not to receive this newsletter in the future. If you think there is something missing from this newsletter, especially news from the past month which should be featured on the Sourcing Hub, please get in touch.
Cheers,
Alexandra Banks
Sourcing Hub Programme Manager
Sourcing Hub Updates
Database development
Since we launched the Sourcing Hub in August last year, we have been exploring ways to ensure our data management system lives up to our needs in developing the data, and our user’s needs. As we have been working on the risk assessments for more than four years, our methodology for carrying out the evaluations has evolved considerably. We are currently developing an integrated, flexible and API enabled database of all the risk assessment data to make the maintenance and revision of the data easier.
Sourcing Hub survey
For the month of April, we conducted a user survey on the Sourcing Hub to get feedback on the website and ideas for how things could be improved. The responses we received have been very useful to us in considering our next steps on the Sourcing Hub, and we are very grateful to all those who took the time to take the survey.
Work on risk assessments for Cambodia and Solomon Islands
We are currently working on new risk assessments for timber form Cambodia and the Solomon Islands. We expect these risk assessments will be completed in the coming months, and we will inform you all through this newsletter when they have been published.
Top News Stories
Operation ‘Soy Sauce’ leads to millions in fines for large Brazilian soy traders, including Bunge, Cargill
Mongabay reported that Operation Soy Sauce was launched by IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. The investigation resulted in 105.7 million Brazilian reais (US $29 million) in fines to transnational soy commodities traders and farmers for illegal deforestation in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savannah grasslands east of the Amazon. Cargill Inc, Bunge Ltd, ABC Indústria e Comércio SA, JJ Samar Agronegócios Eireli, and Uniggel Proteção de Plantas Ltda – were fined more than 24.6 million Brazilian reais (US $6.5 million) for buying soy grown on lands without deforestation licenses. Non-compliance with environmental policies was found on 77 Cerrado properties, using geospatial data gathered via satellite monitoring.
Find out more about sourcing soy from Brazil on the NEPCon Sourcing Hub
Sabah’s New Chief Minister targets forest sector with logging ban and review of all logging concessions
Free Malaysia Today has reported that Shafie Apdal, who was recently sworn in as Chief Minister, has instructed the state Forestry Department to immediately impose a ban on the export of logs. However, Shafie said this was only a temporary measure designed to safeguard the resources in Sabah. Speaking to reporters after being briefed by the Sabah Foundation today, he said the ban would be in force until further notice.
In another article from Free Malaysia Today, it is further reported that Apdal has also ordered a review of all timber concessions in the state in a bid to catch illegal loggers and firms that breach their logging contracts. “There are illegal logging activities (going on), I know. I can’t pin down the ones operating it (but) I have heard this for quite a while,” he told reporters after chairing the state cabinet meeting today. He said some timber concessionaires that were supposed to rehabilitate the forest were instead illegally logging in forest reserves.
Find out more about sourcing timber from Sabah on the NEPCon Sourcing Hub
Ongoing stalemate between DR Congo Environment Minister and international funders, including Norway
A moratorium on the allocation of new forest concessions and a ban on the exchange, relocation or rehabilitation of old titles has been in place in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2002. In February of 2018, a number of international news outlets, including CNBC Africa andMongabay reported that 6,500 square kilometers of logging concessions in the DRC’s central Congo had been awarded to two Chinese companies, Forestière pour le Développement du Congo (FODECO) and Société la Millénaire Forestière (SOMIFOR) by the Environment minister Amy Ambatobe. This was an apparent violation of a 2002 logging moratorium. Wabiwa Betoko of Greenpeace Africa Senior Campaign Manager was quoted as saying:
“We are alarmed that the Minister of Environment has illegally reallocated these concessions in breach of the 2002 moratorium on new industrial logging titles despite their earlier cancellation. Greenpeace Africa calls on the Congolese government to revoke these concessions once more and, this time, sanction the perpetrators,”
Climate Home News also reports Ambatobe has started a process to allocate 14 more concessions. This would open an area of rainforest the size of Belgium to industrial logging.
DRC receives significant international funding through the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), gets the bulk of its funding from Norway, and aims to combat deforestation and the degradation of forested zones in central Africa. In early March, CAFI released a statement on illegal logging concessions awarded in DRC. It says:
“This measure taken by the Government is in direct breach of the 2002 moratorium and the partnership principles outlined in the CAFI Letter of Intent. […] As a result, CAFI has urged DRC to immediately revoke the concessions, and stipulated that no new transfers would be made to CAFI projects in Congo until this occurs.”
In April, CAFI hosted a roundtable with International NGO’s, at which it was confirmed that CAFI funds were frozen post concession reinstatement and remain so, until their reversal. A wider group of donors including US and Japan wrote to Cafi’s national funding channel Fonaredd, expressing concerns.
In late May, Climate Home News stated that they have obtained a meeting note which show “Ambatobe refused to back down to international criticism last month, his top official walking out of Fonaredd’s technical committee.”
Climate Home News also reports that Norway’s Office of the Auditor General issued a highly critical report on its international forest protection programme, including Cafi’s precursor in DRC. Norway has spent almost a billion kroner ($120m) in DRC over the past decade, but deforestation continued to rise.
Read more about sourcing timber from the Democratic Republic of Congo on the NEPCon Sourcing Hub
News from May 2018
Timber
Honduras
- Hong Kong Customs seizes suspected Honduras rosewood. Hong Kong Customs seized about 23 800 kilograms of suspected Honduras rosewood from a container at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound.
Brazil
- Nature reports Brazil's lawmakers renew push to weaken environmental rules. Legislation includes proposals to open up the Amazon rainforest to agriculture.
- Mongabay reports Brazilian Amazon oil palm deforestation under control, for now - Brazil’s Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program (SPOPP), launched in 2010, aims to prevent primary and secondary forest clearing for new oil palm plantations in Legal Amazonia.
- Mongabay report Brazil has the tools to end Amazon deforestation now: report - A coalition of environmental NGOs known as the Zero Deforestation Working Group has developed a practical plan called “A Pathway to Zero Deforestation in the Amazon.”
- Survival International reports “Guardians of the Amazon” seize illegal loggers to protect uncontacted tribe - Members of an Amazon tribe patrolling their rainforest reserve to protect uncontacted relatives from illegal loggers have seized a notorious logging gang, burned their truck, and expelled them from the jungle.
- Reuters reports Brazil fines five grain trading firms, farmers connected to deforestation - Five grain trading houses, including Cargill Inc and Bunge Ltd, and dozens of farmers have been fined a total of 105.7 million reais ($29 million) for activities connected to illegal deforestation, Brazilian authorities announced on Wednesday.
- Mongabay reports Illegal loggers ‘cook the books’ to harvest Amazon’s most valuable tree - A new study finds that illegal logging, coupled with weak state-run timber licensing systems, has led to massive timber harvesting fraud in Brazil, resulting in huge illicit harvests of Ipê trees.
- Mongabay reports Brazil has the tools to end Amazon deforestation now: report - A coalition of environmental NGOs known as the Zero Deforestation Working Group has developed a practical plan called “A Pathway to Zero Deforestation in the Amazon.”
- Carbonated TV reports Brazil Provides Armed Support To Activists Fighting Illegal Logging - Over the weekend, a team of Ibama [Brazil's environmental protection agency] and environmental military police arrived in response to the Guardians' call for help.
Vietnam
- Vietnam Net reports Border guards suspended over major illegal logging case. Four border officials in Dak Lak Province have been suspended after the police raided a huge forest illegal logging site in the Yok Don National Park.
- Vietnam Net reports Vietnam deforestation cases in decline - As many as 200 forest destruction cases were reported in April, down by 42% compared to the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry
- Vietnam News reports Illegal logging found in Quảng Nam- An illegal logging site has been found in part of the Kôn River protected forest – the fourth recorded case of logging violations in the central province since January.
- Vietnam Net reports Yok Don forests “attacked” from all four sides - Migrants have step by step encroached on forests from the outside, while illegal loggers have been dismantling trees in the core area.
- Vietnam Net reports VIPs build wooden houses as illegal loggers continue to decimate forests - Top businessmen and high-ranking state officials in the Central Highlands have spent billions of dong to build wooden villas.
Colombia
- Mongabay reports Colombia’s supreme court orders government to stop Amazon deforestation - Colombia’s supreme court granted protections, filed by 25 children and other young people, that affirm that deforestation in the Colombian Amazon violates their rights to health and life
Laos
- Radio Free Asia reports Lao Government Launches New Push Against Corruption - Lao government officials have launched a new push against corruption in the one-party communist state, with state inspection authorities stepping up investigations across the country and reporting in February that they had discovered up to U.S. $120,000 missing from state funds.
Peru
- Phys Org reports Peruvian Amazon undergoing deforestation at accelerating pace: official - The Peruvian Amazon lost nearly two million hectares (five million acres) of forest between 2001 and 2016, or more than 123,000 hectares (300,000 acres) a year, figures made public Tuesday by the ministry of the environment.
- Human Nature reports In a first, a drone helps nab illegal logger in Peru - On Nov. 17 of last year, a man was caught illegally cutting down trees in Peru’s Alto Mayo Protected Forest.
Australia
- The Guardian reports VicForests banned from logging greater glider habitat pending legal challenge - Court grants injunction to Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum to protect mountain ash forest until 25 February 2019.
- The Financial Times reports Australia divided over ‘Brazilian-scale’ land clearance - Pristine eucalyptus forest near Great Barrier Reef becomes political battleground.
Liberia
- Front Page Africa reports Liberia: Civil Society, Communities to Reduce Deforestation in Oil Palm Concessions - Civil society organizations and communities affected by oil palm concessions across Liberia have grouped themselves in addressing urgent issues in the oil palm sector, demanding more access to mechanisms that can make concessionaires more accountable in line with laws and regulations.
- Front Page Africa reports FAO Helps Capacitate Community Forestry Development Committee - FAO has signed a US$80,000 agreement with the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees (NUCFDC) to strengthen the capacity of communities to effectively monitor the benefits of commercial logging in Liberia.
Indonesia
- Greenpeace slams APP/Sinar Mas over links to deforestation, ends all engagement with company - Asia Pulp & Paper, Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper company, is still linked to forest destruction for pulp, new mapping analysis by Greenpeace International has revealed.
- UN Environment report Fighting fires on Indonesia’s peatlands - The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.
- Tempo reports Indonesia, FAO Renew Cooperation in Support of Forest Governance - Indonesia is one of the world`s largest exporters of a wide variety of tropical wood products ranging from plywood, pulp and paper to furniture and handicrafts and representing US$10.935 billion worth in trade in 2017.
- The Diplomat reports The Untold Story of Indonesian Deforestation - What’s happened to Indonesia’s forests? By Muhammad Beni Saputra.
Chile
- Intercontinetal Cry reports Indigenous Mapuche Leader Acquitted on Charges of Terrorism in Chile - The Criminal Court of Temuco, Chile issued an acquittal on all charges to Mapuche political and spiritual leader, Machi Francisca Lincona, according to a recent report from Ireland-based human rights group Front Line Defenders.
Ghana
- Ghana Web reports Ghana’s forest cover ‘almost gone’ - Proforest Africa Director - Ghana is almost losing all its forest cover due to neglect and lack of policy direction to protect the sector, an international pro-forestry organization has said.
- Ghana Web reports Initiative to plant 20 million trees to be launched this month - An initiative geared towards the planting of about 20 million trees across Ghana by the year 2028 is to be launched in Tamale, Northern Region.
- Ghana Web reports Deforestation threatens cocoa, oil palm production - Forestation experts and advocates have said Ghana’s hopes of increasing cocoa and oil palm production are under severe threat with the increase in deforestation.
- Modern Ghana reports Ghana Has Lost Almost Everything--Scientist Warns - Environmentalists fear Ghana’s healthy cocoa production sector is in severe danger due to the sudden influx of deforestation.
Myanmar
- Myanmar Times reports Resources ministry plans to reforest 600,000 acres over next decade - The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation targets to reforest 600,000 acres of denuded forest land in the next 10 years to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, Deputy Director General of the Forestry Department U Kyaw Kyaw Lwin, said.
- Myanmar Times reports Kachin State government, China chasing Chinese timber smugglers - The Kachin State government is cooperating with Chinese authorities to arrest Chinese timber smugglers who stole some 2000 tonnes of seized timber in Hsawlaw township, said U H La Aung, the state’s Environment and Natural Resources minister.
Sabah, Malaysia
- Free Malaysia Today reports Sabah to ban timber export - Shafie Apdal, who was sworn in as chief minister, says he will instruct the state Forestry Department to immediately impose a ban on the export of logs.
Peninsular Malaysia
- New Straits Times reports 100 Sungai Lembing residents suffering after water source is contaminated - More than 100 residents of Kampung Kuala Kenau in Sungai Lembing have been forced to use murky water for their everyday chores, including meal preparation, for the past week.
Kenya
- Standard Media reports State handed envelope with names of key suspects in illegal logging.
- All Africa reports Illegal Allocation of Land Laid Bare in Forest Audit.
- The Star reports Environment committee recommends reinstatement of suspended KFS officials.
- Standard Media reports Revealed: How rogue KFS staff stole millions in timber deals
- The Star reports Ex-KFS chair faces EACC probe, public office ban over corruption.
- The Star reports Three KFS bosses suspended over Dakatcha Woodland Forest cartels.
- The Star reports Government extends ban on logging for six months. This is in a bid to allow the appointment of the new board of Kenya Forest Service and implementation of the interim reforms.
- Mongabay reports Agroforestry gives Kenyan indigenous community a lifeline
Philippines
- Manila Bulletin reports P32-M forest products seized; 5 charged in anti-illegal logging drive.
- Sun Star reports P52,000 illegal lumbers seized.
- Sun Star reports 188 undocumented lumber seized.
Cambodia
- Reuters reports Sale of newspaper in Cambodia 'disaster' for media freedom: rights
- The Guardian reports Newspaper takeover is 'staggering blow' to Cambodia's free press
- Khmer Times reports Hunters take a bite out of wildlife population numbers
Democratic Republic of Congo
- Climate Home News report Norway at loggerheads with DR Congo over forest protection payments - International donors have frozen funding to conserve the world’s second largest rainforest, with the DRC environment minister said to have gone “rogue”
Palm Oil
Indonesia
- The Jakarta Post reports Govt urged to strengthen protection of plantation workers. Environmental group Sawit Watch has called on the government to issue a special regulation for oil palm plantation workers, arguing that the 2003 Manpower Law does not adequately address their needs.
- Mongabay reports Major Islamic financier singled out for deforestation in Indonesia - Lembaga Tabung Haji is a Malaysian Islamic financial institution whose listed palm oil arm, TH Plantations, owns dozens of estates in Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Mongabay states Report Exposes Multinational Brands' Exposure to Palm Oil Abuses: New research into the activities of a major Malaysian financial institution has raised questions over the efficacy of major brands’ policies against buying from firms engaged in deforestation.
- Mongabay reports Typo derails landmark ruling against Indonesian palm oil firm guilty of burning peatland - A district court in Indonesia has shielded an oil palm company from a Supreme Court ruling ordering it to pay $26.5 million in fines for burning peatlands in a high-biodiversity area, citing a typo in the original prosecution.
- Reuters reports Indonesia plans to roll out 25 percent biodiesel rule from 2019 -
- Conservationist to corporate leaders: ‘Just doing the right thing is not enough’
Malaysia
- Malaysia Kini reports Women workers in palm oil plantations - a neglected sector of M'sian labour. Tenaganita calls on the government, labour unions and the palm oil plantation industries to respect women workers’ rights and dignity.
- Reuters reports Malaysia state palm oil agency Felda says chairman steps down - The chairman of Malaysia’s state palm oil plantation agency, the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), has resigned, an agency spokesman said on Monday, confirming earlier reports.
Sabah, Malaysia
- Boreno Post reports Sabah’s FMU5 timber concession now worth RM433.8 million. The Forest Management Unit 5 (FMU5) timber concession in Sabah, for which Priceworth International Bhd is proposing to pay RM260 million, has been valued significantly higher, at RM433.8 million.
- Asia One reports 6 pygmy elephants found dead on Malaysian Borneo - Six Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in Malaysian palm oil plantations in recent weeks, officials said Monday, the latest of the endangered creatures to perish as their rainforest habitat is devastated.
- The Star Online reports Landowners in Sabah should be held liable if elephants die on their land proposes WWF - This is one proposal by WWF-Malaysia, in response to the alarming finding of six carcasses of Borneo elephants in eastern Sabah within six weeks.
Ghana
- Ghana Business News reports Government urged to pass Oil Palm Development Authority Bill into law - Mr Ishmael Yamson, the Chairman of Board of Directors of the Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) has implored on the government to pass the Oil Palm Development Authority Bill into law.
- Ghana Web reports Deforestation threatens cocoa, oil palm production - Forestation experts and advocates have said Ghana’s hopes of increasing cocoa and oil palm production are under severe threat with the increase in deforestation.
Beef
Brazil
- Mongabay reports New film shines light on cattle industry link to Amazon deforestation - Approximately one fifth of the Amazon rainforest has already been cut down, and nearly 80 percent of this deforestation is attributable to the cattle industry, says a new nearly hour-long documentary, “Grazing the Amazon.”
- Wall Street Journal reports One Small Rancher’s Big Role in Saving Brazil’s Amazon - Mauro Lúcio Costa is crisscrossing the rainforest’s cattle ranches in a battle to preserve the land and transform the cattle industry.
Soy
Argentina
- EURACTIV reports EU unable to contain explosion in unsustainable biodiesel imports. Imports of Argentine soy biodiesel, which are among the most unsustainable of biofuels, have exploded in recent months because the EU lost a trade case at the WTO, writes Kristina Wittkopp.
Brazil
- Reuters reports Brazil to pass U.S. as world's largest soy producer in 2018 - Brazil will surpass the United States as the largest producer of soybeans this year, taking over the top ranking for the first time in history, oilseeds crusher group Abiove said on Friday.
- Reuters reports Brazil fines five grain trading firms, farmers connected to deforestation - Five grain trading houses, including Cargill Inc and Bunge Ltd, and dozens of farmers have been fined a total of 105.7 million reais ($29 million) for activities connected to illegal deforestation, Brazilian authorities announced on Wednesday.
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