Soil Association welcomes UK proposals on illegal deforestation

Proposals are designed to ensure UK companies reveal the sourcing for products– including as soy, rubber and palm oil. Using products which don’t comply with nature conservation regulation in source countries would constitute an illegal act.

“It’s brilliant to see new UK legislation on deforestation, the Soil Association has been calling for a legally binding target to end deforestation within UK agricultural and forestry supply chains,” said Andy Grundy of Soil Association Certification Forestry.

“We’ve also called for an obligation on companies that place commodities and derived products contributing to deforestation on the UK market, to cease these practices. This will help to ensure a safe climate, abundant nature and sustainable livelihoods.

“Soil Association Certification’s forest legality and certification work helps ensure the products of forest management around the world come from responsibly managed sources. However, the forest industries are not the biggest driver of tropical deforestation, agriculture is, so new measures are urgently required to tackle this, often illegal, crisis.”

The Soil Association Certification forestry team work in 61 countries, working with over 3,000 (COC) businesses, certifying 18.5m hectares to internationally recognised standards.