The Risk of Corruption and Forest Loss in Belgium's Imports of Commodities
February 2019 Risky Business: The risk of corruption and forest loss in Belgium’s imports of commodities Dr Steve Jennings & Lyra Schweizer Executive Summary Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost 129 million hectares of forest. Deforestation, forest degradation and the conversion of natural habitats are, in the tropics at least, largely driven by commercial agriculture and forestry. The production of agricultural and forest commodities can also be associated with serious social issues and abuses, including appropriation of land from communities and indigenous groups, forced and child labour. Belgium imports significant quantities of agricultural and forest commodities – both consuming them and trading them on to other countries – and therefore puts people, forests and other natural habitats at risk. This study estimates the quantities of beef and leather, cocoa, coffee, natural rubber, palm oil, pulp and paper, soy, timber that are imported, their provenance, and the land footprint associated with their production. The research presented here estimates that the total land area that was required to supply Belgium’s demand for these commodities was on average over 10.4 million hectares each year between 2013-17. This is equivalent to a land area more than three times the size of Belgium. Timber, pulp and paper has the highest land footprint, at over 4.5 million hectares, followed by soy (2 million hectares) and cocoa (1.5 million hectares), reflecting the large quantities of these commodities that are imported by Belgium (Figure A). Figure A: Land area required to supply Belgium with commodities (average 2013-17, hectares) 5,000,000 4,500,000 4,000,000 3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 500,000 0 Timber, pulp Soy Cocoa Beef & Palm Oil Coffee Rubber & paper Leather Consumption footprint Export footprint 1 The estimated consumption of these commodities by Belgium averages 33% of imports (or imports plus domestic production, in the case of beef and leather, timber pulp and paper).
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