Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit an historic high for January with rates nearly five times higher than they were in January 2021. The news is a continuation of a troubling, decade-long trend of increasing deforestation in the region.

This calls into question the commitment made by more than 140 countries, just three months ago at the COP26 climate negotiations, to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. The signing of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration was a long overdue recognition of the stark scientific truth: Nature loss and climate change are inextricably linked and must be tackled together.

However, this commitment is worth little if it fails to deliver. And just over 100 days in, the lack of progress threatens to completely derail our chances of preventing catastrophic climate change.

Beyond Brazil, oil exploration in 2022 is reaching deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon on the ancestral homelands of indigenous communities.

And the Democratic Republic of the Congo has missed a key deadline, agreed to at COP26, to publish an audit of logging concessions. Since this was a condition of accessing a potentially game-changing $500 million to be directed towards restoring nature, the country is yet to receive these donor funds.

Of course, change was never going to happen overnight, but these trends are enough to discourage even the most stubborn optimist. While there is still time to turn the tide, it is quickly running short.

But rather than giving up, companies should take this as a call to action. Governments can’t solve the nature loss crisis alone. And with less than eight years left to turn the tide, the race is on.

Here are 5 ways companies can lead the way on deforestation:

  1. Cut emissions from nature loss in corporate value chains
  2. Advocate for trade policies to ban commodity-driven deforestation
  3. Bring agriculture to the top of the agenda
  4. Invest beyond value chains
  5. Hold governments accountable

Read the full article about deforestation by María Mendiluce at GreenBiz.