Leather Now Has a New Role: Helping to Prevent Deforestation

Nothing drives deforestation in Latin America more than beef production. In Brazil, deforestation to create pasture for cattle grazing amounts to more than double the land cleared to grow soy, palm oil, and wood combined. And because leather is inextricably linked to the beef industry, the leather sector carries a shared responsibility in addressing the issue.

Now, the leather industry has a new opportunity to make a significant contribution to addressing the environmental impacts of beef and leather production. Today, WWF is launching the Deforestation-Free Leather Fund, a way for companies that use leather in their products to financially support strategic initiatives to improve the traceability, sustainability, and resilience of their leather supply chains.

The Deforestation-Free Leather Fund will support projects that increase transparency by investing in systems to verify responsible sourcing and enabling end-to-end traceability in cattle supply chains. It also will make farm-level investments to promote more efficient practices, reducing the need for new, cleared areas. And it will support farmers to achieve legal and voluntary environmental compliance to support market access, assisting the rehabilitation of degraded farmland and creating continuous pathways for improvement in their operations.

Leather companies have an important role to play in the removal of embedded impacts and emissions from the supply chain. Their position within the supply chain gives them leverage to encourage and support more sustainable practices. By working collectively and with WWF, leather companies can influence beef operations to improve the traceability of cattle back to their point of origin, support more sustainable farming practices, and eliminate deforestation and conversion from supply chains. In addition, when managed appropriately, cattle can actually support the protection of critical ecosystems like grasslands, savannas, and rangelands, and provide ecosystem services, livelihoods, and food security for local communities.

It is through collective action and financial support that leather companies can help to make and sustain positive changes in the leather supply chain. Doing so will send strong market signals to cattle ranchers, beef producers, and leather processors that deforestation needs to be addressed. The result can help drive changes that lessen the environmental impacts of beef and leather production.

Given leather’s status as a luxury good and its association with quality products, consumer pressure for sustainable practices in that industry is higher than for many alternative products. Companies in the fashion, automotive and furniture industries use leather to make their products more valuable, and that demand gives those industries the ability to influence change in their partnerships with upstream suppliers.

While the Deforestation-Free Leather Fund will not have, on its own, the reach or resources to solve all the challenges in implementing more sustainable leather supply chains, it has the potential to accelerate the adoption of important sustainability practices, build a more resilient production system for the future, and show others what they can do as well.

For more than 25 years, WWF has worked with companies to build more sustainable supply chains. With the Deforestation-Free Leather Fund, the leather industry now has the opportunity to step up and bolster efforts to collaborate with beef producers on deforestation-free efforts, driving change and reducing the loss of at-risk habitats.

For more information on the Deforestation-Free Leather Fund, write to [email protected].