In a milestone for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, Brazil’s Supreme Court recently ruled in their favour in a case known as “Marco Temporal” – meaning their rights to ancestral lands were endorsed by the state. This decision follows the landmark summit in Brazil in August, when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva brought the leaders of eight nations – including Colombia, Peru and Venezuela – together with thousands of Indigenous activists to hear their hopes and fears concerning the rainforest’s future.

These events provide hopeful opportunities to catalyze action around protecting the world’s forests – the extraordinary biosphere that is home to many Indigenous Peoples. As a UN report highlights, Indigenous Peoples are the ultimate experts when it comes to forest conservation. They have practised it for millennia.

Yet despite this integral role in managing and safeguarding the Amazon rainforest throughout most of the course of human history, Indigenous Peoples are often excluded from talks on how we protect it.

The descendants of these societies are now the communities most severely affected by deforestation and the climate emergency. They are living on the front line of our ecosystems – with their unique insights into how to turn the situation around often going unheard. It is crucial that we respect their knowledge, culture and rights – especially considering that they own, occupy or use about a quarter of the world’s land.

The corporate world has a key role to play in raising Indigenous voices and creating a forest-positive world. A large proportion of consumer brands and retailers rely on forest ecosystems to provide essential commodities – like paper, pulp and packaging – while millions of the people employed in the global supply chains of consumer goods companies live and work in forests.

Companies should be integrating social obligations into their forest commitments, particularly in terms of any potential changes of land use that would affect Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Respect for their ancestral lands must go hand in hand with an open and inclusive approach that aims to protect their culture and improve their livelihoods.

Every business in global supply chains should make the same commitment. Companies should ensure not only that the products they source from suppliers are forest positive, but that all the products the suppliers create are forest positive too.

That means putting Indigenous Peoples at the heart of all forest-based products and commodities. We must put in place policies and actions that advance respect for Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights.

At The Consumer Goods Forum, we are striving to ensure that all businesses prioritize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and work closely with them to protect the world’s forests – through our Forest Positive and Human Rights Coalitions of Action.

As some of the world’s largest consumer goods retailers and manufacturers, our members are committed to collaborating with Indigenous communities, peers, supply chain partners, government bodies and civil society organizations to stop the collapse of the world’s forests.

There is no more time to waste. New scientific research from Rutgers University adds to the growing number of studies outlining that the escalating climate crisis risks turning vast tracts of the Amazon rainforest into dry grassland.

Let’s not forget that the world’s greatest forest stabilizes the global climate. Its loss would result in unprecedented volumes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere and prove catastrophic for us all.

The way forward is to listen to Indigenous Peoples, the original guardians of the forest.

Didier Bergeret is sustainability director at The Consumer Goods Forum

The post To achieve a ‘forest-positive’ planet, we must prioritize the rights of Indigenous Peoples appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Last month, the Church of England promised to set up a £100-million fund, looking to make amends for its links to the international slave trade. The fund will focus “on improving opportunities for communities adversely impacted by historic slavery.” But slavery is not just a thing of the past. 

Globally, 50 million people are living in modern slavery, including 28 million in forced labour, according to the latest research from the International Labour Organization. This is 10 million more than in 2016 – a spike in numbers greater than the entire population of London.  

No company can put its head in the sand when it comes to this problem. 

​​​​​Business has a key role to play in eradicating this reality. Nearly two-thirds of forced labour (63%) occurs in the private sector, and the consumer goods industry is deeply impacted, with most cases identified in agriculture and manufacturing.  

Undoubtedly, it can be challenging to take on a leadership role when it comes to excluding abuse from global supply chains. The issue is sensitive, often hidden and deeply rooted, and the complexity of global value chains doesn’t make tracing it any easier. However, forced labour is a lot closer to most companies’ operations and supply chains than they would think. Respecting workers’ rights is the first social responsibility of any business, and freedom from forced labour must be the top priority.  

As the world’s largest convener of consumer-goods brands and retailers working together to drive positive change, The Consumer Goods Forum is deeply concerned about the increasing prevalence of forced labour globally in the last few years. We are committed to driving corporate action against this mounting social scourge, which is the focus of our CEO-led initiative, the Human Rights Coalition (HRC). 

Nearly two-thirds of forced labour (63%) occurs in the private sector, and the consumer goods industry is deeply impacted.

Our #CloserThanYouThink campaign aims to push all companies to speak up and increase awareness on human rights. Silence is unacceptable. While legislation is providing frameworks to mandate human-rights due diligence, businesses may be hesitant, fearing the negative connotations of being associated with modern slavery and forced labour in any way. Even those taking a proactive stance against it still struggle to efficiently identify potential cases of forced labour and handle situations of victims with the highest level of protection required. Governments should acknowledge these difficulties and support business action with adequate measures to encourage transparency and provide protection and remediation for victims. 

Driving awareness of the issue is integral to its eradication. When companies start being transparent and explaining what they’re doing to combat adverse human rights impacts in their supply chains, then consumers will understand the sheer scale of the problem.  

Increasing multitudes of people being forced to work under the threat of violence, intimidation, debt bondage or coercion is deeply unacceptable. And the harrowing reality is that 3.3 million of the people in forced labour are children. Other vulnerable populations are disproportionately impacted, such as women and girls and migrant workers.  

Companies must not only acknowledge the scale of the issue, but also ensure they offer an enabling environment for decent, fair and safe working conditions for all.  

What does this mean in practice? Our members are collaborating to eliminate forced labour by working to make human-rights due diligence and responsible recruitment the norm in the industry. We urge all businesses to follow suit.  

Going forward, we urgently need globally harmonized policy and legislation to ensure all workers’ rights are protected. In the meantime, corporate collaboration and co-operation will be key. The truth is that no company or industry can eradicate forced labour alone. Businesses will have to work with each other, but also with governments and non-profits – because today’s complex supply chains often span many countries, if not continents.  

Collective action is required to increase the visibility of what’s happening along the way. The further down ​the ​supply chain you go, the more precarious​ the ​work tends to be, especially in sectors like agriculture or manufacturing. The risks of abuse are at their greatest on the ground. 

Everyone should have the right to decent, fair and safe working conditions. Yet we are currently a long way from that scenario. Forced labour is a lot closer than you think, and no business is immune. On behalf of the members of our Human Rights Coalition, I urge all businesses to think critically about their exposure to forced labour risks and keep action on this issue top of mind in 2023.  

Together, we have the power to reverse the troubling figures showing a rise in forced labour – never forgetting that there are people behind the statistics.

The post No company can bury its head in the sand when it comes to forced labour   appeared first on Corporate Knights.