BEDROCK: Building an evidence-base for deforestation-free landscapes: supporting equitable outcomes in and beyond commodity supply-chains

Our food systems are major drivers of global change and are in urgent need of a sustainability transition. Recent years have seen a groundswell of commitments from companies, financial institutions, and governments to make supply chains for key commodities (such as palm oil, soy, and beef) more sustainable, including by eliminating their link to tropical deforestation. But delivery on these pledges has been extremely poor to date.

BEDROCK analyzes what measures are likely to be more effective by addressing two inter-linked objectives: (i) what theories of change, data and methods are needed to create an evaluation framework that can provide a more system-level understanding of the impact of supply-chain interventions, (ii) which are the “best-bet” policy portfolios that are most synergistic in their ability to drive down deforestation while also minimizing the risk of undesirable or unintended consequences.

The research consortium brings together experienced researchers with a strong track record across land-use science, economics, political, natural and sustainability science. Importantly, BEDROCK has been designed to allow strong co-development by stakeholders to ensure the relevance and uptake of policy insights generated