Sustainable commodity sourcing requires measuring and governing land use change at multiple scales

• DOI: 10.1111/conl.13016
• Publication Date: 2024-04-12T12:09:46Z
• Authors: Erasmus KHJ zu Er...; Cécile Renier; Andrea Garcia; Tomás Carvalho; Patrick Meyfroidt
• Keywords: Deforestation

Abstract The increased availability of remote sensing products and new legislative agendas are driving a growing focus on farm‐level traceability monitoring to tackle commodity‐driven deforestation. Here, we use data land change in Brazil (1985–2021) from Mapbiomas demonstrate how analyses the drivers deforestation sensitive scale analysis: while pixel‐ or property‐level identify proximate deforestation, at larger scales (subnational regions countries) capture more complex dynamics, including indirect change. We argue that initiatives which seek monitor address deforestation—such as European Union's due‐diligence regulation World Business Council Sustainable Development's Greenhouse Gas Protocol—must be conscient these wider dynamics. Only by measuring progress defining success multiple can for sustainable commodity sourcing create right mix incentives addressing