Posted on June, 13 2023

By Tim Cronin, WWF Forests Forward Lead

The private sector has a crucial role to play in halting deforestation and increasing healthy, resilient forest landscapes. Strong corporate leadership on forests can be a driving force to complement, demonstrate and accelerate government commitments on nature. Done right, this will provide a crucial breath of fresh air (quite literally) for wildlife, people and the climate. A failure to act will see risks and costs continue to mount for businesses that rely on, or impact on, forests.

For over three decades, WWF has partnered with businesses to raise the ambition of their goals to improve forest management and responsible sourcing of forest products. As with any goals, their effectiveness comes down to implementation and accountability — and you can’t have accountability without transparency. That’s why, when it comes to supply chains for forest products and other products that affect forests, transparency and disclosure are essential.

The business case for transparency

• Knowledge is power. Understanding where and how products are sourced is critical to identifying vulnerabilities (such as exposure to deforestation-risk), and for improving company-wide practices to become more sustainable in the face of increasing supply-side pressures, emerging regulatory requirements and changing consumer expectations.
• Transparency creates trust. Consumers want to know how big corporations are using their influence to drive positive change. In this age of heightened scrutiny and data availability, companies need to be open about their challenges — as well as their successes — in order to gain customer loyalty and retention. More and more consumers and investors are looking more closely at the origins of the products they purchase, and the labels stamped on them.
• Better sooner rather than later. While some companies are already using voluntary disclosure platforms such as GRI and CDP Forests, all companies must prepare to meet emerging transparency obligations. Many are already embracing this trend. For example, leading up to the UN biodiversity COP15 in December, over 400 leading business and finance institutions pressed for nature-related disclosures to be made mandatory. The commitments made by governments under Target 15 of the resulting Global Biodiversity Framework requires all large businesses and financial institutions to assess and disclose their risks, impacts and dependencies on nature by 2030. The financial and regulatory sectors in Europe and the US are also increasing requirements around transparency, while initiatives such as the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) are supporting businesses to prepare themselves for this new norm.

Moving the forest sector forward

WWF helps companies to responsibly produce and source forest products through its performance-based Forests Forward programme. WWF’s global reach and expertise helps companies make strategic decisions, improve their transparency and strengthen connections to other responsible players in the market. This can create a platform for collective ambition, action and innovation to tackle shared challenges and transform the entire forest sector.

Earlier this year, one WWF corporate partner, IKEA, took a bold step by releasing a public global wood supply map — the first of its kind in the sector — which identifies where its wood is sourced and which tree species are used. This is a monumental feat in traceability — considering the significant volumes of industrial wood IKEA uses (20 million cubic metres in Financial Year 2022) — and a giant leap in transparency.

WWF and IKEA have been working together for more than two decades*, including a goal of attaining ‘100% FSC-certified or recycled’ wood sourcing. Starting from a 2010 baseline of 10%, by FY20 IKEA had reached 98%, and by FY22, 99.9%. Of the 200 million FSC-certified forests in the world, the WWF and IKEA partnership has supported the certification of more than 36 million hectares — an area larger than Germany. IKEA has also supported critically important WWF forest projects in 19 countries.

The example that IKEA is showing helps set a precedent and fosters healthy competition that can motivate companies to do better. It’s about leading on forests; we need this leadership to become infectious, and quickly. This is not to say that IKEA’s supply chain is perfect; that the company’s journey towards responsible forest management and trade is complete. New challenges will always emerge, which is what makes transparency so important. Only by exposing risks and vulnerabilities can these be effectively and efficiently overcome.

As Ulf Johansson, Head of Global Wood Supply and Forestry at Inter IKEA, said during a WWF Forests Forward event at climate COP27 in Egypt: “The whole forest industry must step up and share the wood they are using, where it is from and how the forest is managed. It is fundamental for sustainable development.”

Nearly every company has a forest footprint

Participation with Forests Forward goes beyond responsible sourcing and forest management. For companies that are making strong progress in reducing their forest and climate footprints (such as IKEA), Forests Forward also offers opportunities to support high-quality nature-based solutions — such as forest restoration — in priority landscapes. By taking a holistic approach, Forests Forward helps a diverse array of companies understand and deliver on ambitious goals for both climate and nature, such as those established under the Science-based Targets Initiative. The Forests Forward Impact Portal transparently reports on progress towards commitments and showcases contributions to priority landscapes.

Many challenges remain and we must remember transparency is not an end goal in itself, but a tool. Transparency means open reporting of both the successes and shortcomings, and expectations around transparency are only going to increase.

So, if you’re a company — join forces with us to take a step forward for forests. If you’re an individual, read about a company’s sourcing and disclosure and remember your consumer choices can help transform a whole sector.

*Since 2002, WWF and IKEA have been working together to increase the amount of responsibly managed forests and to identify, map, and protect old-growth forests — pushing for better legislation and policies overall. In partnership, we continue to collaborate on many innovative forest projects in Europe and Asia.