🌱 How can companies protect forests?
There are a number of ways that companies can contribute to protecting forests and biodiversity throughout their operations. Both circular and regenerative measures can play a significant role here. Not planting monocultures, leaving stripes of older forest standing when harvesting trees, reforesting lands with native species, and creating permacultures are all more obvious examples of more sustainable – or even regenerative – forestry practices.
🌱 What circular solutions are there?
Examples of circular solutions directly applicable to forestry, wood, and paper companies include using better wood harvesting technologies to reduce the waste produced in the wood harvesting process, recycling or upcycling wood and paper waste products, or simply making sure less products and materials from forests or deforested areas are used. More broadly, businesses across all different sectors can take a variety of circular actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra recently outlined six broader circular business models, with examples from practice, in a handbook they published in April 2024.[i] This acts as a good source of inspiration for circular ideas and steps to start taking as a company.
🌱 Why is compliance with EU law not enough?
the EU’s Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and the EU’s Nature Restoration Law should not be seen as a codification of the highest ambitions for companies. Companies willing to take on responsibility for protecting forests and their biodiversity should, therefore, not only carry out due diligence and risk assessments. They should also set up better company policies, collaborate with producers and other stakeholders, and shift over to using near to fully circular and regenerative business models. Moreover, companies looking to have a meaningful impact should also move away from using monocultures and clearcutting, create permacultures with native species, use single-tree selection methods where applicable, and help to defragment global forest areas.
This post has been adapted from a newsletter written by Christine Nikander and Heidrun Kordholste-Nikander. The newsletter titled “How can businesses protect forests and their biodiversity?” was originally published in “The Just Transition Newsletter” by Palsa & Pulk.
[i] Sitra: Circular Solutions For Nature: Handbook for businesses. https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/sites/default/files/2024-05/sitra-circular-solutions-for-nature-handbook-for-businesses.pdf (21.08.2024)