Ranking Priority Jurisdictions with Recent Deforestation for Specific Commodities

By Christy Melhart Slay and Forrest Follett

Last Updated July 13, 2020

Version 1.0

Overview

In this analysis we focused on beef cattle, cocoa, palm oil, paper pulp, and soy with the aim to 1) identify the top producing jurisdictions by volume for regions supplying to the U.S. and globally, 2) rank priority jurisdictions with high levels of commodity-driven deforestation across endangered and vulnerable ecoregions. To identify the jurisdictions most likely to have produced commodities entering U.S. and global supply chains, we utilized a model that analyzes production regions using import and export statistics. For domestic production we utilized U.S. production statistics to identify states contributing a given commodity to the U.S. supply chain. To rank the priority jurisdictions for commodity-driven deforestation we created a new model incorporating commodity-driven deforestation, tree cover extent, crop production, and priority ecoregions.