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Trase is a data-driven transparency initiative that revolutionizes our understanding of the international trade and financing of agricultural commodities that drive tropical deforestation, such as soy, palm oil, beef, cocoa and coffee. The Trase team at SEI HQ is part of the global Trase initiative co-founded by SEI in 2016 at the UN Marrakech Climate Change Conference.
Trase’s free online tools and actionable intelligence have been used by governments, companies, financial institutions and civil society organizations to take practical steps to address deforestation. Trase has grown into a partnership with an on-the-ground presence in over 10 countries in China, Europe, Indonesia and Latin America.
The Trase team is motivated by an urgent need for accurate and reliable data and expertise on the dynamics and sustainability of commodity supply chains. Our role is to act as experts and information providers. We believe data and data transparency can accelerate progress towards more sustainable and just models of trade and development, but we do not see a lack of data as an excuse for inaction.
We are focused on being innovative with data that already exists and with identifying how, through greater transparency, it is possible to identify priorities for action and start change processes even when we do not yet fully understand the problems and solutions at hand.
Container ship transporting goods globally.
Photo: General_4530 / Getty Images.
Feature / Palm oil deforestation falls in Indonesia, but price surge and growth in exporters with lower standards are still putting forests at risk.
Press release / New study: Halting deforestation will require a step-change in approach and to be effective, measures must address underlying and indirect roles of agriculture.
Feature / The tool's creators explain how the free interactive dashboard can be used to visualize data on the global environmental impacts of consumption and production.
Feature / SEI partnered with Colombia to raise the country's sights on climate change and improve health to set an ambitious and achievable target to reduce black carbon.
Feature / Traders, food manufacturers, retailers and governments must take action to reduce deforestation risks associated with indirect sources sources of commodities.
Journal article / This review points to three key areas where a stronger evidence base would advance global efforts to curb agriculture-driven deforestation.
Journal article / This article examines indirect sourcing in sectors with high rates of commodity-driven deforestation – a major blind spot for sustainable sourcing.
Journal article / This study measures the carbon exchange of two fields in the Brazilian Cerrado (irrigated and rainfed) with rotations from different cultures.
Journal article / This paper examines the Bolsonaro administration in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, revealing malgovernance and deliberate transgressions
Tool / Trase enables governments, companies and others to address the environmental impacts of supply chains.
Tool / Trase permite a los gobiernos, empresas y otros abordar los impactos ambientales de las cadenas de suministro.
Project / Investigating trade-offs between water use, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with soy and beef production and exports from Brazil.
The work of Trase today is made possible through the generous funding of three major donors: Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF), together with additional support from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the European Union and UK aid from the UK Government.
The grant from NICFI, managed by Norad (Pb. 1303 Vika, NO-0112 OSLO, Norway) includes funds for the main grantee SEI and for sub-grantee Global Canopy (3 Frewin Chambers, Frewin Court, Oxford, OX1 3HZ, UK), Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348 Belgium), Auriga (Bukit Cimanggu City, Blok HH-17 No.16, Indonesia), as well as the significant sub-contractor Neural Alpha (Lambeth, London, SE11 5DP, UK). Please read the full Norad donor agreement for details.
Design and development by Soapbox.
