Independent monitoring provides a market-level solution for new rules on deforestation-free supply chains
Efforts to address the continued connection between irreplaceable ecosystems and the global food system have taken a significant step forward today with the launch of a revised sector-level independent verification standard. The revised monitoring system, named ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard, is the first sector-wide system that has been collectively developed, monitored, and reported with producers, shippers, feed manufacturers, livestock producers and civil society to provide a credible solution to addressing deforestation and land conversion.
The revised ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard is a monitoring system that comes at a time when all supply chain actors in Europe need to demonstrate that there is a negligible risk of deforestation in their soy supply chains as part of the recently adopted EU Deforestation Regulation. This legislation will enter into force on 30 December 2024, leaving just one year for companies to provide evidence needed to satisfy this new market requirement.
As a sector-wide solution, ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard provides a clear mechanism for going beyond the legal minimum requirements of the European regulation by ensuring that supply chains not only are free from deforestation, but also that all ecosystems are protected as the companies participating have committed, and are being verified, to not source from any land connected to deforestation and conversion from December 2020.
Key features of the system that enable these outcomes include:
- Company-wide commitments: All buyers committed and verified under the ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard have committed to ensure 100% of their purchases, regardless of market, comply with a deforestation and conversion-free commitment.
- Procurement controls: Independent assurance that procurement controls are effectively blocking purchases by commodity buyers that contravene the 2020 cut-off date.
- Independent oversight: Periodic third-party audits of participating companies to ensure that the system is working and independently verified.
Earlier versions of ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard were used by a working group, including the European salmon sector, to prove that their supply chains were fulfilling the ambitions of three soy protein concentrate manufacturers to draw a line under the purchase of commodities linked to deforestation and conversion after 2020. The successes and challenges in reaching all aspects of the supply chain have now been incorporated into this revised system to provide even greater alignment and transparency.
Skretting, one of the feed producers that have been part of the initiative for the past two years, say “it is important for us as feed producers, our customers, the salmon farmers, and the consumers of salmon plus other stakeholders to know that our Brazilian soy suppliers continue to uphold the historic commitment they made to have a 100 percent deforestation and conversion free supply chain.”
The launch of the new standard marks a new milestone in our global efforts to transparently deliver deforestation and conversion-free supply chains. With less than a year until all companies will have to be part of systems that provide the evidence needed to exercise the due diligence required by regulatory authorities, ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard presents a tested solution that can be readily applied in other sectors.
The ProTerra Monitoring and Verification Standard is convened by the Proterra Foundation and draws on decades of experience in promoting sustainable soy cultivation whilst developing, implementing, and monitoring chain of custody systems.
For more information on the ProTerra MRV Standard, contact us at: info@proterrafoundation.org.
