Forest provides several ecosystem services that are essential for nature and people. They are a biodiversity refuge, a key source of oxygen and the origin for the watersheds used to supply populations. Deforestation has massive negative impacts on these benefits, meaning risks for human health and high economic losses. Moreover, forest ecosystems provide an important contribution to climate mitigation by sequestering and storing carbon. Every year forests absorb 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide -around one-third of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels- from the atmosphere.

Therefore, deforestation is a major driver of climate change.

The Rondonia region in Brazil is in the heart of the Amazon, which is the largest area covered by tropical rainforest, the most biodiverse biome on earth. 10% of the world’s species and around 500 indigenous communities call the Amazon region home. This fact, combined with the significant role the Amazon Rainforest plays for global climate regulation and oxygen production, explains this area’s extreme high ecological and cultural value.

On the other hand, the increasing global demands for natural resources have triggered a fast-paced rate of deforestation worldwide. Despite its enormous importance, the Amazon region has not been an exception to this reality.

In 2020 the Brazilian Amazon deforestation reached the highest rate of the decade, with more than 11,000 km2 of forest loss in that year. This rate was 182% higher than the goal established in 2009 in the National Policy on Climate Change that aimed to reduce the deforestation rate by 80% by 2020.

Multiple governmental initiatives achieved meaningful reductions until 2012, compared to the historical peak of 2004 when more than 27,000 km2 were clear cut.

However, since 2013 there has been an upward trend in deforestation that respond to a set of environmental setbacks initiated with controversial changes in the local legislation.

The international community has reacted to this situation, expressing its concern about the increasing rates of deforestation in the Amazon region and worldwide. The coffee sector is also trying to minimize its impacts in this regard. Several companies have announced commitments and public investments to monitor and encourage the implementation of deforestation-free value chains.  

In the same direction, the European Parliament has already announced that legislation will soon be published to curb deforestation and forest degradation caused by the EU and focused on agricultural products, including coffee. EU citizens showed overwhelming support for this EU initiative which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity loss while having positive impacts on local communities.  

This initiative establishes that products must not come from deforested or degraded land after December 31, 2020, and must comply with the laws of the country of production. To comply with the new regulations, European-based coffee roasters and traders will have to assess deforestation risks in their supply chains, ensuring access to information linking coffee to the land of its production and implement concrete mitigation measures that should be reported. 

Brazil is the first coffee producer at the global level, and Europe concentrates many of the most relevant markets of this product. Complying with the regulations set out by the Brazilian government and the new international requirements is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for the smallholder farmers of the amazon Rondonia region. Yet, the industry is also increasingly interested in purchasing coffee from farms that can follow these guidelines. 

With increasing awareness of the impact of deforestation, global climate change and consumer demand for sustainably produced coffee, companies face a new challenge of implementing innovations to enable fully traceable deforestation-free supply chains.