Rainforest Action Network applauds new commitments, including the first from a brand to highlight human rights defenders
Just weeks after Rainforest Action Network (RAN) released an analysis ranking global food brands‘ progress towards fulfilling their 2020 deforestation promises, Kellogg Company released revised palm oil and deforestation policies. In RAN’s prior analysis, Kellogg Company was found to be the worst-performing actor amongst its peers.
Robin Averbeck, Agribusiness Campaign Director at Rainforest Action Network (RAN) issued the following statement in response to Kellogg Company’s new policies:
“In the critical year of 2020, as the global climate crisis worsens and deforestation and human rights abuses continue to grow, multinational corporations must make meaningful commitments with never-before-seen ambition and back them up with robust and transparent actions. We applaud the Kellogg Company’s new palm oil and deforestation policies as an important step forward and urge the company to rapidly turn them into action on the ground for communities, workers, and forests. There is no time to waste.”
Kellogg Company’s policies make a number of meaningful new commitments, including pledging to (1) not only protect remaining forests but also restore forests and ecosystems that have been lost or degraded; (2) immediately suspend company groups which perpetrate threats and violence towards human rights defenders, communities, and workers; (3) undertake a consistent and transparent approach to grievance management and suspend offending suppliers at a company-group level; and (4) participate in and fund jurisdictional and landscape approaches which fully respect the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of local communities.