ProTerra’s engagement with the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership
Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change emissions and biodiversity loss and the ProTerra Foundation, through its standard, is committed to biodiversity conservation, effective environmental management and environmental services, seeking to eradicate the clearing of native vegetation for agriculture. [1]
The Amsterdam Declarations (ADs) were launched in 2015 in the context of the Paris Climate Agreement and built on the New York Declaration on Forests’ (NYDF) commitments, with the goal to emphasize “the global importance to preserve primary forests and high conservation value areas, amongst others through responsible supply chain management” [2].
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and United Kingdom are the signatory countries joining this partnership (Amsterdam Declarations Partnership – ADP), which cooperates with the private sector, producing country stakeholders and national commodity supply chain initiatives. The aim of ADP is deforestation-free, sustainable commodity production and import.
Considering that in 2015 there were few national soya initiatives, the ADP started facilitating and supporting the development of European National Soya Initiatives (ENSI) and organized a regular exchange between them. April 2019, the ADP released a living document, which presented a concise overview of European National Soya Initiatives in nine European countries.[3]
European National Soya Initiatives Statement
European sustainable soya initiatives have been developed by a range of local conveners to support soya users transition to sustainable soya supply chains. “While some have been established and working towards this goal for several years (such as the Dutch and Norwegian) others are relatively recent such as those in Denmark and the UK” [4]. Under the umbrella of the ADP, and its member governments, signatory countries came together to explore how to support their members and how they could better collaborate to create more meaningful impact and provide a common market signal. This culminated in the signing of a joint statement, on 29th January 2020, that supports soya production that is legal and protects forests and valuable native vegetation. The commitment was to work towards Conversion-free Soya: “100% of our (countries’) soya consumption is produced according to the law and in a way that protects forests and valuable native vegetation (deforestation and conversion free). [5]
ProTerra has been involved and actively participating in the European National Soya Initiatives (ENSI) and ADP (Amsterdam Declaration Partnerships) and will continue to support such developments.