In 2006,  the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industry Association (ABIOVE) and the Brazilian Grain Exporters Association (ANEC) together with their respective member companies, made a pledge in agreement with Brazilian NGOs WWF, Greenpeace, TNC, Ipam and Imaflora, to not trade and finance soy produced after 2016 from deforested areas within the Amazon Biome. This unique initiative, known as the “Soy Moratorium”, seeks to reconcile environmental preservation with the region's economic development, through the responsible and sustainable use of Brazil's natural resources. This has allowed to reduce deforestation due to soy to almost zero in the Amazon, in just a few years.

In 2017, WWF, along with 60 other NGOs and partners launched the Cerrado Manifesto in Brazil calling on companies and investors to take urgent action to prevent the loss of native vegetation, and not to buy soy or beef from recently deforested or converted areas. It produced an immediate response from the private sector, with more than 100 leading global companies and financial institutions currently supporting the Manifesto.

Today, WWF is helping to turn these deforestation and conversion-free commitments into concrete action on the ground

Established in 2017 as a stand-alone entity, responsible for reaching an agreement between producers, industry, consumer organizations and civil society, and establishing an action plan to eradicate deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado biome. The GTC is composed of industry members, NGOs including WWF, producer organisations, government and financial institutions and well as Brazilian consumer goods companies.

The China Meat Association and its 64 top member companies (of a total of 8.000) joined WWF in 2017 in the Chinese Sustainable Meat Declaration calling for action and strong commitments to sustainable meat production, trade and consumption, by avoiding land degradation, deforestation and conversion of natural vegetation in livestock production and food value chains. The CSMD has now started its implementation process with the participation of WWF-China, WWF-Brazil and other partners with support from NORAD.

Also started in Brazil, in 2018, aligning conservation, business and social development to consolidate a sustainable future for the Cerrado landscape. Activities include implementing the GTC Action Plan and a large-scale low carbon sustainable agriculture, sustainable finance, the restoration of soils and natural ecosystems, and the sustainable use of the Cerrado ecosystems by traditional communities and smallholders, among others.

A partnership between the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, WWF, The Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation is developing practical tools to support companies implement and account for their commitments to deforestation-free soy and beef supply chains from the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco in South America.

The China-South America Sustainable Soy Trade Platform (SSTP), jointly organized by four organizations (WWF, Solidaridad, TNC and Paulson Institute) seeks to promote the responsible procurement of soy in the Chinese market. WWF is actively participating in this platform and promoting alignment of its soy sourcing guidelines with deforestation and conversion free (DCF) criteria used by CFT, criteria of the AFI and the Sustainable Meat Declaration.
 

The accountability framework initiative (AFi)is a collaborative effort to accelerate progress and improve the accountability for deforestation and conversion free commitments in agriculture and forestry supply chains.  As a founder and member in the AFi's Steering Group, WWF strongly advocated for the inclusion of zero-conversion of all natural ecosystems in the Framework, and promotes the use of AFi as  a reference in all soy-related zero deforestation and zero conversion initiatives.

The partnership convenes stakeholders and initiatives to reduce deforestation and enable sustainable development in three global commodity supply chains: soy, beef and palm oil.