Innovating for Sustainable Land Systems

on November 28, 2024

CLEVER Team at the GLP conference in Oaxaca, Mexico.

CLEVER’s contributions at the Global Land Programme Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico

CLEVER researchers are advancing solutions to tackle the impacts of global commodity trade on biodiversity producer countries. Representing research institutions in Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Austria, the team recently showcased their innovative work at the 5th Open Science Meeting of the Global Land Programme (GLP) in Oaxaca, Mexico. Held from November 4–8, 2024, under the theme Pathways to Sustainable and Just Land Systems, the conference brought together experts worldwide to explore sustainable land-use strategies and challenges. The CLEVER team shared groundbreaking research on biodiversity metrics, supply chain tools, and governance mechanisms, contributing to interdisciplinary discussions on sustainable agriculture, trade policies, and land-use modeling, while forging collaborations to address global land-system challenges.

Highlights across CLEVER thematic areas
Advancing biodiversity indicators

Andrea Pacheco from the University of Bonn (UBO) led a session on innovative biodiversity metrics, exploring how agriculture-driven land-use changes impact nature conservation. The presentation covered diverse scales, from local soil biodiversity in Michoacán to CLEVER biodiversity indicators in Brazil, highlighting the complexity of biodiversity metrics and their different applications. The session explored the challenge of selecting the right metric for different contexts and emphasized the importance of developing tools that go beyond species counts, integrating broader biodiversity aspects and their connections to human well-being.

Land use modelling and tools for supply chain traceability

Britaldo Soares Filho and Felipe Nunes (UFMG) presented innovative geospatial tools to trace deforestation-risk commodities, such as soy and cattle, to the farm of origin in Brazil. These tools also include Selo Verde, a freely accessible traceability platform to support the monitoring and evaluation of sustainable agriculture policies and practices in the State of Minas Gerais. Selo Verde provides a set of estimates on agricultural production and environmental suitability for rural properties registered in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and can be used to verify the compliance of rural properties that produce coffee, forestry, soy, cattle and sugarcane. The session also featured the work of the CLEVER researcher Ubirajara Oliveira, who is developing predictive models to estimate the spatial distribution of land uses and associated biodiversity loss at 1 km resolution, to be used for deriving quantitative indicators for deforestation-risk supply chains. All these tools can help producers and supply chain actors to certify their products in accordance with the EUDR.

Neus Escobar from BC3 contributed to the session ‘Achieving Sustainable Food Systems’ with her presentation on a new global multiregional input-output database that traces agri-food supply chains with an unprecedented level of products, based on official FAO statistics. The Agro-SCAN database includes physical flows of 640 primary products and derivatives across 181 countries, from producers to consumers, for the period 2013-2020. This is meant to become a revolutionary tool for supply chain transparency, as it allows actors to identify environmental hotspots, import dependencies, and more sustainable sourcing strategies. At the same time, it can be applied for estimating environmental footprints, including biodiversity loss and other land-driven impacts. Agro-SCAN can also inform the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR), since it provides information on potential high-deforestation-risk countries exporting commodities to the EU.

David Leclère from IIASA presented their most recent methodological developments of the GLOBIOM model for assessing future pathways on trade and biodiversity. GLOBIOM provides the central framework for the ex-ante simulation of policies in CLEVER, including leakage. Leclère presented an update of the bending the curve pathways exploring their impact on trade flows, and the impact of refined trade narratives – from exacerbated liberalization to trade frictions and coordinated trade greening. The model will be used to assess the market-mediated impacts of alternative international supply chain policy scenarios co-created with stakeholders, considering a wide array of strategies such as the EUDR, the EU-MERCOSUR trade agreement, national policies such as the Forest Code or the Soy Moratorium, and other demand-side initiatives. Results will shed light on how future agricultural trade can be affected by efforts towards ambitious biodiversity goals and to what extent alternative governance of agricultural trade can foster biodiversity conservation. David also chaired a session on equity and justice in model and scenario applications, in link with the pathways developed in RAINFOREST, another HEU project from the same cluster.

From coherence to stickiness: how a new forest and ecosystem-risk commodities governance regime is playing out globally and locally

Laila Berning from the University of Freiburg (UFR) and Andrea Pacheco (UBO) chaired the session on “designing for impact: success and failures of forest-risk commodity policies and governance mechanisms”.  In this cross-disciplinary session, we discussed how forest-risk commodity and supply chain policies are designed and then evaluated on the ground and how they are expected to contribute towards long-term sustainable goals such as biodiversity conservation.

Laila Berning presented a book chapter on the emergence of a new governance regime for forest- and ecosystem-risk commodities, co-authored by Rafaella Ferraz Ziegert and Metodi Sotirov from the University of Freiburg (UFR), and Mathias Cramm and Sven Wunder from the European Forest Institute (EFI). In her presentation, Berning showcased the interplay between legally binding and non-binding policy instruments governing forest and ecosystem-risk commodity (FERC) value chains, highlighting the hybrid logics underpinning regulatory and voluntary governance approaches on case studies from the EU, Brazil, Cameroon, and Gabon. Berning demonstrated that anticipated synergies between these instruments often fall short in practice. Her analysis revealed misalignments between international frameworks and regional implementation, challenging the presumed “win-win” scenarios across environmental, social, and economic policy domains. These findings call into question the effectiveness of current governance regimes in harmonizing diverse policy objectives across demand- and supply-side regions.

Relatedly, Rafaella F. Ziegert (UFR) presented an empirical analysis of policy coherence, focusing on the EUDR as a transnational trade regulation. She examined the interaction between EUDR and national forest laws and hybrid public-private governance mechanisms in Brazil, Cameroon, and Gabon, proposing a taxonomy to categorize such interactions into four dynamics: coordination, cooptation, competition, and chaos. While the EUDR aligns well with certain overarching goals, such as forest protection, and shares implementation tools with select national policies, Ziegert identified critical inconsistencies. Specifically, cooptation and competition emerge where regulatory requirements and enforcement mechanisms diverge, possibly undermining policy effectiveness and delegitimizing national regulations. Her findings underscore the need for greater coherence between EU regulations and producer country policies to mitigate regulatory fragmentation, conflicting standards, and operational uncertainties, which risk delegitimizing existing frameworks.

Gustavo M. Oliveira (UBO) shared research insights on the role of traders and trade-specific factors in shaping the effectiveness of forest protection policies, using the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM) as a case study. His research identified “stickier” soy traders as pivotal actors in reducing deforestation. These traders were responsible for approximately 540 km² of avoided primary forest deforestation under the ASM between 2006 and 2018. Oliveira further demonstrated how contextual factors, including demand-side preferences in international markets, varying degrees of supply chain stickiness, and market power, positively moderated the ASM’s impacts. These findings emphasize the essential influence of trade dynamics in bridging policy implementation and conservation impacts.

Building Connections, Bridging Ideas

Beyond their presentations, CLEVER team members relished the opportunity to connect with peers from around the world. The conference’s vibrant setting in Oaxaca provided a welcoming space to engage in meaningful discussions, share ideas, and forge new collaborations. The team met with representatives from other prominent projects in the GLP network, exchanging insights on effective sustainable land use, predictive modeling, and community engagement strategies. The CLEVER researchers’ participation in the 2024 GLP Conference not only elevated their own research but also strengthened the global land-system science community, laying the groundwork for impactful collaborations and innovative solutions in the years to come.

Co-authored by Neus Escobar, Rafaella Ferraz Ziegert, Andrea Pacheco, Laila Berning, David Leclere and Gustavo Magalhaes de Oliveira.

Photos provided by the CLEVER Team.

Reflections on the global discussions on biodiversity and trade

Fernanda Martinelli on October 18, 2023

SDG Summit

Every September, New York City hosts the UN General Assembly and countless events on sustainable development. It is easy to imagine the city as a real debate arena, where politicians negotiate solutions for the multi-crises of the planet, while the entire world watches, expecting tangible outcomes to materialize . The debate reached its peak over a span of three days (18-20 September), when worldwide representatives had to juggle their schedules to attend various equally relevant events, such as the High-level UN Meetings (including the SDG Summit), the Climate Week NYC and the Columbia’s International Conference on Sustainable Development. I attended sessions of these three events, which made me reflect on the role of those policy meetings on protecting biodiversity under trade agreements. These are my main impressions:

There is a clear effort to respond the critic that global multilateral meetings privilege discourse over actions. The SDG Action Weekend and the Climate Week were specifically designed for participants to develop actions together, avoiding speakers to use this space only to reiterate the already-known sustainable development challenges. However, little of those actions addressed the role of trade on biodiversity loss, even on specific biodiversity events. Speakers rather emphasized trade as an instrument for boosting economic development, or, more often, for reducing emissions on agri-food systems throughout value chains. Indeed, climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, however biodiversity loss and climate change are twin crises, and should be addressed together.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s growing influence in foreign affairs has not gone unnoticed, as it assumes leadership roles within both the G20 and BRICS. With the world’s attention focused on the country with the highest biodiversity, there has never been a better time to generate knowledge in support of nature protection. Projects like CLEVER highlight the importance of conserving biodiversity under trade in Brazil while influencing the political agenda by informing policy-makers on trade’s biodiversity impacts.

I left New York City without any doubt that the intentions and knowledge to put the world back on track to achieve the SDGs are there. However, the world is in a hurry and I expect that events like these, above all, accelerate decisions to safeguard future generations. This year, the events took place against the backdrop of a year projected to be the hottest ever on record. Their results should nothing less but guide political agendas with science-based knowledge and urgency.

Learn more about the mentioned NYC sustainability events:

Written by Fernanda Martinelli / University of Bonn

Photos by Fernanda Martinelli / University of Bonn