Data or statistical facts on the situation and perspectives of agri-food systems and the impact of policies
4.7 million hectares per year represents the global net loss of forest area from 2010 to 2020, a reduction from 7.8 million hectares annually in the 1990s (Larrea et al., 2021).
2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are absorbed by forests every year, making them critical for climate change mitigation (Larrea et al., 2021).
80% of terrestrial biodiversity is home to forests according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Larrea et al., 2021).
1.6 billion people rely on forests for their livelihoods according to FAO (Larrea et al., 2021).
2005 is the cut-off date established by RSPO for not certifying operations that have converted areas with high biodiversity conservation value after this date (Larrea et al., 2021).
2003 was the year of entry into force of the EU FLEGT regulation that seeks to combat illegal logging and deforestation (Larrea et al., 2021).
5 years is the period prior to certification that the Organic standard requires farmers to show they have not converted valuable natural environments to agricultural land (Larrea et al., 2021).
4 main forest commodities (cocoa, palm oil, soybean and timber) have been identified as drivers of deforestation and are subject to various VSS (Larrea et al., 2021).
100% of the analyzed VSS include required criteria to maintain critical and sensitive ecosystems, except Fairtrade which has it as recommended (Larrea et al., 2021).
89% of the analyzed VSS (8 out of 9) include required criteria for spatial planning to avoid biodiversity loss, excluding only Fairtrade (Larrea et al., 2021).
