Tropical deforestation embodied in agricultural and forestry imports. The case of Belgium

Over the past two decades, more than 200 million hectares of forest across the tropics have disappeared. About 60% of deforestation have mainly been driven by agricultural expansion responding to a growing population, dietary changes and increasing biofuel demand. With international trade responsible for about one-third of agricultural expansion, the increasing geographic separation between production and consumption makes it difficult to assign responsibility for environmental and social impacts to consumers. As new legislation on a EU level is being discussed, other national measures should follow for tackling deforestation. The objectives of this thesis are therefore to quantify the environmental impacts embedded in Belgian agricultural and forestry imports and Belgian consumption, then to compare it with other EU countries. The next objective is to locate deforestation hotspots and main commodities imports with the highest impacts. The last step consists in analysing companies linked to some commodity-country combinations. The results indicate that Belgium has a high consumption of forest-risk commodities and the majority of its embedded deforestation area and CO2 emissions are found in seven imported commodities that are mainly sourced from only a few countries, i.e. palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea; soybean from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay; cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Liberia; coffee from Honduras, Peru, Uganda and Indonesia; rapeseed from Australia; wood products from Brazil and Indonesia and beef and buffalo meat from Brazil and Argentina. About 60% of biodiversity loss embodied in Belgian imports are suffered in 10 tropical countries and more than 90% are due to coffee, cocoa, palm oil, bananas, rapeseed, coconuts and soy production. Moreover, at a subnational level, for Brazilian soy for example, the origin of deforestation embedded in Belgian imports is concentrated in 8 municipalities, mainly located in Mato Grosso. Finally, more than 92% of Belgian imports of Brazilian and Argentinian soy, Ghanaian cocoa and Brazilian beef and more than 65% for cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire were traded by only 10 companies (not the same companies for each commodity). Furthermore, zero-deforestation commitments are not covering the majority of soy imports, the achievement of them have been undermined by leakage and there are far from being met. Lastly, implementation of policies towards producers, supply-chain actors and consumers as well as actions taken by individuals, governments, civil society and private sector need to operate together for achieving zero-deforestation targets.