The Agriculture-Forestry Nexus: Why Global Value Chain-Driven Governance is Failing to Protect the Rainforest

In the fight against tropical deforestation, multinational corporations around the world have made ambitious commitments, pledging to half commodity-driven deforestation by 2020 and to end it by 2030. Embedded in their global value chains (GVCs), private governance programs are a key instrument to achieve these objectives. However, while there certainly is no lack of high level commitments, evidence suggests that implementation on the ground is lagging behind. With a focus on the palm oil sector in deforestation-ridden Indonesia, this paper explores the potential and limits of GVC-driven governance. Adopting a political economy perspective, it unravels the agriculture-forestry nexus – that is, the various political and economic factors at the global and local level that drive agricultural expansion and tropical forest conversion in Indonesia. It shows how private governance interventions are failing to address some of most destructive dynamics that characterize this nexus today. In light of these findings, the paper raises critical questions about GVC-driven governance and the effectiveness of corporate zero deforestation movement.