Friends of the Earth U.S. Analysis on the Biden Administration’s Deforestation Policy Framework 

Yesterday, the Biden-Harris administration released a 6-point policy framework for reducing US imports of products tied to deforestation. Friends of the Earth US commends the outgoing Administration’s delivery of this framework and guidance on the direction of the US government’s commitment to halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030. 

Imports of seven forest risk commodities have exposed the United States to tropical and subtropical deforestation that represents an area the size of the city of Los Angeles in only two years. These commodities include palm oil, beef, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber and corn. Over a third of this exposure is to palm oil, of which over 95% is imported from Indonesia. Nearly a third of exposure was from cattle products from Brazil, Australia and Mexico.  

The 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment report found that the world is off track to meet the goal of ending deforestation by 2030 set by more than 140 countries at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. Deforestation rates have increased to levels higher than when that commitment was made. This deforestation policy framework is therefore of critical importance and welcome news on the same day that the European Parliament voted for the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) to take effect at the end of 2025. 

The Framework’s focus on strengthening supply chains and implementing demand-side measures, while promoting sustainable, deforestation-free agricultural commodities has been echoed in state-level procurement policies. These policies have been introduced in California, New York, and Illinois and under consideration elsewhere. Despite robust support in state legislatures, the California bill was vetoed, and as of this writing the New York TREES Act – which would require businesses contracting with the state to verify their products are not linked to deforestation – sits at the governor’s desk and has until the end of the year to be signed into law. The federal bipartisan FOREST Act, which would cut deforestation from government spending and eliminate US exposure to forest-risk commodities from illegally deforested land, is also moving through Congress. Thus, this policy framework is necessary and should be leveraged by lawmakers across the country.  

The framework dovetails with commitments from a 2022 Executive Order that outlines the interagency commitment to combating illegal logging and trade in wood products and agricultural commodities sourced from recently deforested land. Towards fulfilling the framework and the executive order, Friends of the Earth calls for the following analysis and consideration on each of its six points: 

1. The United States is committed to the goal of reducing global deforestation, both legal and illegal. For potential demand-side policy focused on demand-driven commodity-linked deforestation, however, the United States intends to focus its efforts on illegal deforestation, similar to the focus in the landmark U.S. Lacey Act. 

Illegal deforestation is tied to violations of international normative frameworks on human rights, including the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as well as land tenure and community land rights. Land grabbing occurs at alarming rates and is often tied to grave abuses against Environmental Human Rights defenders.  Weak governance and lax enforcement too often provide cover to agribusiness corporations and other extractive interests while Indigenous and frontline communities suffer dispossession and economic marginalization. In such a context, proving the illegality of land holdings in the agribusiness sector can be a great challenge; thus, it is necessary to take a holistic approach for all agro–commodities that drive deforestation to combat corruption and abuse of legal systems. 

2. The United States intends to focus potential initial demand-side efforts on areas and businesses associated with a high risk of agricultural commodity-driven deforestation. 

The US government can draw extensively from the wealth of research, environmental mapping data, and myriad documented cases of deforestation linked to agribusiness companies operating in critical biomes including the Brazilian Cerrado, Africa’s Congo Basin and much of the Global South.  

Examination of the businesses supply chain through subsidiaries and global trade mechanisms provides the US government with specific data on businesses associated with deforestation. Through the US National Contact Point for the OECD, the US has an opportunity to utilize a strong international and government-endorsed mechanism for responsible business conduct as a tool to fulfill this point of the framework, and to implement policy that reduces demand for these products while supporting local efforts for recognition of land rights and redress mechanisms where abuses of FPIC have occurred.  

3. The United States seeks to develop an effective and informed policy that would minimize unnecessary compliance costs––for example, costs stemming from excessive traceability and due diligence requirements in low-risk countries––to avoid implementing policy that imposes burdens without clear benefits. 

To avoid unnecessary compliance costs, the federal due diligence mechanism should be applied equally across all trade relations while noting countries of extreme risk and adjusting over time when countries demonstrate lower risk of deforestation. Given the global commitment to halt deforestation in the next six years and in concert with other international agreements related to biodiversity and climate change, there are major benefits to streamlining the due diligence requirements, including maintaining cohesive data to measure outcomes in countries that demonstrate lower risk related to their production of forest risk commodities. The recent establishment of the EU Observatory on Deforestation and Forest Degradation demonstrates that government can play a critical role in providing data to inform an enabling policy environment. 

4. The United States seeks to leverage private sector investments in supply chain traceability and due diligence systems to inform policy design and implementation. 

The development of a federal due diligence procedure outside of third-party certification schemes is critical to ensuring that traceability is conducted with transparency and held to the highest standards of responsible forest and land management, including respect for land rights and FPIC, and the inclusion of forest degradation such as through the use of hazardous pesticides that impact whole ecosystems. There should be no exemptions or loopholes such as offsets where forests can be cut down if their loss is compensated elsewhere, or if certain forest types are exempt from the traceability requirements. Therefore, private sector investments in supply chain traceability and due diligence systems must avoid any conflict of interest with the agribusiness sector to ensure that they are not leaving out entire parts of the supply chain or rating products as deforestation-free while some components of the same product are still linked to deforestation. We support the creation of a public and accessible system guided by experts and advisors in forest risk commodities including those on the front lines of deforestation. 

5. The United States seeks to leverage Earth-observation data to monitor agricultural commodity-driven deforestation and enhance policy enforcement. 

Significant mapping and Earth observation data exists that has informed reporting on cases of land grabbing and total area of land deforested. Federal investment in building out these observation platforms especially to utilize more precise location will contribute greatly to their effectiveness. 

6. The United States seeks to engage with national and regional governments, including as appropriate to identify capacity building needs related to sustainable forest and land management, good forest governance, and enforcement of laws and regulations to reduce deforestation. 

US engagement in capacity building for sustainable forest and land management must be undertaken in coordination with community level forest management. The United States could contribute greatly to existing funds that support such efforts, namely by making significant contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund created out of COP16 in November 2024, which seeks to combat global biodiversity decline. Enforcement of US regulations around illegal deforestation could be facilitated through the passage of the federal FOREST Act. The United States should engage cooperatively and towards common goals of combating deforestation with the implementing agencies in the European Union on the EU Deforestation Regulation. 

The Biden Administration’s deforestation policy framework lays out the intention to work with civil society and research institutions in addition to other governments and the private sector. Friends of the Earth and our wider networks are engaging in efforts to increase supply chain traceability and to halt deforestation and associated human rights violations. We stand ready to support governmental efforts to achieve these critical objectives. In anticipation of the incoming Trump Administration, we will watch closely and champion the continuation of this US commitment.