Wales steps up to tackle deforestation

You’ve probably noticed that Wales has been used to help illustrate the scale of global deforestation – in 2020, for example, an area of primary (or virgin) forest more than twice the size of Wales was destroyed. But we don’t often hear about the impact that Wales as a nation has on forests overseas.

So, in 2021, we worked with our friends at RSPB Cymru and Size of Wales to produce a report examining Wales’s overseas land footprint. Wales and Global Responsibility revealed that an area equivalent to 40% of Wales is used overseas to grow a handful of commodities imported into the country – palm oil, soy, beef, timber, cocoa, paper and rubber.

Most concerning is that 30% of this land is in countries where there’s a high or very high risk of deforestation, habitat loss or social exploitation. This is putting pressure on 2,800 species threatened with extinction, fuelling climate change and risking a negative impact on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and workers.

In previous research, we’ve shown that the UK as a whole needs an area 10 times the size of Wales to meet its demands for imported commodities, but this was the first report to focus specifically on Welsh consumption.

We shared the findings at an online event and during the COP26 climate summit. We were privileged to be joined by Kerexu Yxapyry, a representative of the Indigenous Guarani people in Brazil, who gave an emotive talk on the impact soy production is having on her community.

We also teamed up with Welsh celebrity supporters to find a creative way to shine a spotlight on the issue. Nathan Wyburn, famous for his celebrity portraits made from unusual materials, created an amazing portrait of Games of Thrones and Misfits actor Iwan Rheon using sustainable examples of products highlighted in the report. The artwork is now on display in Ansh, Cardiff’s newly launched sustainable burger restaurant.

As a result, the Welsh minister for climate change, Julie James, promised to deliver all the recommendations in our report, and use the Welsh government’s powers to make sure Wales doesn’t contribute to deforestation overseas.

Now, we need to make sure the Welsh government lives up to this commitment. And we want the rest of the UK to follow suit. The UK government’s Environment Act 2021 aims to tackle deforestation resulting from products we import, but it contains gaps and loopholes that allow habitat destruction and human rights violations to continue.