INFORM, The International Forest Risk Model
Deforestation in Supply Chains
Over 70% of tropical deforestation in the last decade has been driven by agricultural expansion to produce a small number of globally-traded commodities: soya, beef, leather, palm oil, pulp and paper, and timber. The equivalent of fifty football fields of forest is lost every minute. This is responsible for 15% of global carbon emissions, destroys precious habitats and ecosystem services that underpin regional water, food, and energy security, and is harmful to the rights and livelihoods of local people. While there is an increasingly well-understood business imperative to mitigate deforestation-related risks, the limited accessibilit, transparency and utility of information on these complex supply chains is a critical barrier to action.
INFORM is a decision-support platform that aims to help private and public institutions across sectors worldwide to reduce the deforestation risks associated with their supply chains and investments. Through criteria-based assessments and probability calculations using a wide range of global data sets, INFORM will assess the risk that a product or commodity is linked to deforestation (see case study below). Users will be provided with a simple risk assessment related to their procurement or investment, as well as guidance on how to reduce business risk.