Addressing equity challenges in the environmental governance of food supply chains: the case of deforestation-risk commodities in the tropics
Addressing equity challenges in the environmental governance of food supply chains: The case of deforestation-risk commodities in the tropics
Professor Rachael Garrett
Date: Wednesday 18 June, 16:00
Location: Oxford Martin School, seminar room 1 and online
Join us for a talk with Professor Rachael Garrett from the University of Cambridge on environmental governance of deforestation-risk supply chains.
Title: Addressing equity challenges in the environmental governance of food supply chains: The case of deforestation-risk commodities in the tropics
Abstract: This talk describes research findings on the environmental governance of deforestation-risk supply chains with a focus on cocoa, oil palm, soy, and beef in Brazil, Indonesia, and West Africa. I describe the results of 10 years of research on zero-deforestation commitments - policies initiated by companies and import regions to not source products associated with deforestation. Drawing on 4000 household interviews, 100s of semi-structured interviews, regional econometric and spatial models, and general-equilibrium approaches using newly developed trade and remote sensing datasets, I briefly summarise the current state of policies and their effectiveness. I describe what is working for tropical forest conservation in these cases, what is not, and where we need to go from here. I highlight how zero-deforestation policies have had a measurable, but often small impact on deforestation control due to problems with their scope, coverage, and implementation. I then focus more deeply on the politics of these policies and major equity considerations, highlighting many intractable tensions that require both new tools, but also a rethinking of dominant approaches to reconciling conservation and development objectives in tropical forest frontiers.
Rachael Garrett is the Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge Department of Geography. She has interdisciplinary degrees in environmental science, economics, history, and public administration from Boston University (BA), Columbia University (MPA), and Stanford University (PhD), and received post-doctoral training at Harvard University. Within the broad fields of conservation and sustainable development, Dr. Garrett conducts research on the drivers of land use change, agricultural sustainability and resilience, conservation policy effectiveness and equity, and just and transformative sustainability transitions. She has published over 60 scientific articles and numerous policy briefs on these topics. Among other roles, Dr. Garrett is the co-chair of the Global Land Program Science Steering Committee, serves on the UN Science Panel on Sustainability Standards, UN Science Panel for the Amazon, Cambridge Conservation Initiative Council, Cambridge Global Food Security Steering Committee, and Cambridge Zero Advisory Board, and chairs the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee at the University of Cambridge Department of Geography.
