Land Use

Forests are crucial to life on the planet. They support four-fifths of terrestrial plant and animal life, and capture and store greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Forests also provide food, water, fuel, medicine and livelihoods to billions of people.

Yet many forests are at risk from deforestation and unsustainable land use. 

Cargill believes forests and farming can and must coexist in order to sustain the health of people and our planet. We are committed to working in partnership with our suppliers, customers, NGOs and governments to innovate and scale real solutions.

Our approach to protecting forests

Our principles

Our approach to protecting forests is grounded in these principles:

• Ensuring transparency of supply and practices in order to identify the most salient issues and create practical solutions based on shared understanding of the challenge
• Balancing the needs of the planet and people, including inclusive growth and sustainable development
• Transforming supply chains through collaborative efforts that drive change at scale

Our Commitment

We are committed to transforming our agricultural supply chains to be deforestation-free by 2030, in alignment with  the New York Declaration on Forests.

Learn more about our commitment to ending deforestation and the progress we have made to date.

Our supply chains

• Palm oil – Our Palm Oil Policy and time-bound action plan maintains and builds upon NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation) principles. We are committed to delivering a 100 percent traceable, transparent and sustainable palm oil supply chain that protects high conservation value (HCV) lands, and high carbon stock (HCS) areas and peatlands regardless of depth. Learn more about how we are advancing sustainable palm oil.
• Soy – Together with trusted advisors and local stakeholders, we are working diligently to develop a Policy on South American Soy and a time-bound action plan to launch this year. A key focus of our approach is to work with farmers to find real solutions that can be applied locally. Through our role in the Cerrado Working Group (GTC), we’re helping facilitate conversations to identify the right programs and policies for the region based on local environmental, social and economic conditions. We continue to focus on the effective implementation of the Brazilian Forest Code and uphold robust internal controls to prevent purchase of products that are from non-compliant areas. Learn more about how we are advancing sustainable soy.
• Cocoa – Our Protect our Planet Strategic Action Plan sets out how we will eliminate deforestation from our cocoa supply chain by 2030 while securing the resilience and prosperity of smallholder cocoa farmers. Our Action Plan supports the industry’s Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI) Joint Frameworks for Action for ending deforestation and forest degradation in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and will be implemented in five origin countries where we source cocoa: Brazil, Indonesia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Learn more about how we are advancing sustainable cocoa.

Our partners and actions

We work with global partners to develop and implement scalable solutions to protect forests, mitigate agriculture’s impact on climate change, and promote sustainable development.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC): Since 2004, we’ve worked with TNC in Brazil to protect forests by ensuring the soy we purchase does not come from newly deforested lands. We pioneered a satellite-based land monitoring program and work directly with farmers to promote and reward sustainable practices. Our efforts contributed to an 80 percent decline in deforestation in the Amazon in the last decade.

The partnership between The Nature Conservancy and Cargill has yielded significant results – hear from Mark Tercek, TNC CEO, how it works.

Proforest and The Forest Trust (TFT): In palm oil, we work with Proforest and TFT to advance our no-deforestation commitment. We began working with TFT in 2013 to map our palm oil supply chain and we joined TFT in 2014. Our work with Proforest includes analyzing land use on our suppliers’ plantations.

World Resources Institute (WRI): We’re working with WRI to monitor and manage deforestation and water risk across our supply chains. That work includes using WRI’s Global Forest Watch to accelerate implementation of our no-deforestation commitments starting with soy production in Paraguay and palm oil production in Indonesia. In Indonesia, our work with WRI includes building online monitoring systems that combine on-the-ground field work by Proforest, TFT and others.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF): We work with WWF to define better management practices in the trade and production of key commodities, including palm oil and beef. In partnership with WWF, we are working to define better management practices in the trade and production of key commodities. We have also partnered with WWF to create sustainable beef and palm oil supply chains.