Signatories of the Earth Day 2025 statement
This Earth Day, we urge the UK government to lead by example: honour its promises, raise its ambition, and stop the UK’s role in driving global deforestation.
The world lost over 80 million hectares of primary forest between 1990 and 2020 – an area larger than Turkey. A recent assessment shows we have “barely made a dent in curbing deforestation” in the 2020s. Over 90% of tropical forest loss is driven by agriculture.
Protecting the world’s forests has profound benefits for the climate, biodiversity and local communities. Research shows that, if we are to limit global warming to 1.5⁰C, deforestation must fall by 72% by 2035 compared to current levels.
At COP26 in Glasgow (2021), 145 countries pledged to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.” Recent analysis shows the world is not on track to meet this commitment. In 2023, the loss of humid tropical primary forests was over a third higher than what is required to be on track.
And even though the UK spearheaded this pledge and successive governments have promised to show leadership, we are not doing enough. The impact of the UK’s consumption of seven commodities – soy, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather, paper, rubber, and timber – on tropical forests is higher than that of China in terms of footprint per tonne. A study published last month concluded that UK imports of ‘forest-risk’ commodities in 2024 wiped out natural forests the size of Liverpool.
Back in 2021, the UK Parliament promised action by adopting the Environment Act. Schedule 17 of the Act was meant to ban the use in the UK market of commodities produced on illegally deforested lands or in contravention of local land laws. However, the legislation is still not operational as it awaits secondary regulations needed to implement it.
This delay has been costly for the world’s forests. Since the law was passed, the UK’s total deforestation footprint has amounted to at least 40,000 hectares of clearance – an area larger than the New Forest. This is a very conservative estimate as it only considers imports of raw commodities and not the products made with them.
On Earth Day, we call on the UK government to introduce ambitious secondary regulations to implement the Environment Act without further delay and before COP30 in the Amazon this November.
Crucially, Schedule 17 must be strengthened. In 2024, the UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) criticised its narrow focus on illegal deforestation, which leaves UK consumers exposed to goods linked to unsustainable forest loss where this is legalised by local governments in producer countries.
The law also fails to demand action from the finance sector. Since COP26 commitments to end the financing of deforestation, UK banks have provided over £1 billion ($1.4 billion) in financing to ‘forest-risk’ companies. The majority of these banks still lack commitments to remove deforestation from their portfolios.
Schedule 17 lacks clear provisions on human rights protections and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Enforcing Indigenous Peoples’ land rights is crucial for the protection of natural ecosystems as protected Indigenous lands are the best preserved. Local communities also rely on healthy environments to thrive. In fact, over 1.6 billion people around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods and well-being.
These weaknesses must be urgently addressed.
The UK’s law should include all relevant commodities, require traceability of every shipment entering the UK to the place of origin (at farm level), and demand that companies implement robust due diligence measures that reduce deforestation risk in supply chains to the lowest possible level. Without this traceability, businesses will be unable to confirm if they are complying with the law.
Businesses must be required to go beyond voluntary initiatives and to closely monitor their own supply chains to make sure their operations do not contribute to environmental or human rights abuses.
Secondary regulations should specify a variety of relevant local laws against which companies must verify the legality of their supply chains, including Indigenous customary laws, anti-corruption, labour, and environmental laws.
The current government should also propose amendments to Schedule 17 of the Environment Act to ban goods linked to all deforestation, demand that banks eliminate deforestation and forest degradation – as well as associated human rights abuses – from their operations, and require all companies to closely monitor and mitigate any human rights risks in their supply chains.
In addition, there must be clear obligations on businesses to monitor whether Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is being observed throughout their supply chains.
A strengthened Environment Act must address the needs of smallholders in producer countries. The UK government should put in place technical and financial support mechanisms to ensure small farmers are not disadvantaged by the legislation.
It will be crucial for the UK government to constructively and consistently engage with producer country governments to support local forest governance. This process must be transparent and inclusive, with accessible channels for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, smallholders, NGOs, researchers, trade unions and the private sector to contribute their voices.
The business case for an ambitious Environment Act is strong. The UK exports £5.5bn worth of commodities to the EU each year, which from 2025 will need to comply with the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR). Alignment with EU legislation will reduce uncertainty for UK exporters. It will also level the playing field and benefit businesses already implementing measures to reduce their forest footprint.
The UK government must show global leadership and drive action to protect the world’s forests and the communities dependent on them. This begins by adopting – and then strictly enforcing – ambitious legislation at home to halt UK consumers’ unwitting contribution to deforestation and related human rights abuses.
Signatories:
Earthsight
Environmental Investigation Agency UK
Fern
Friends of the Earth England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Global Canopy
Global Witness
Mighty Earth
