BCSDA submission on halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030
Updated: 2 days ago
On 31 March 2026, BCSD Australia lodged a submission with the COP30 Presidency in response to its consultation on the Roadmap on Halting and Reversing Deforestation and Forest Degradation by 2030.
Context
The Presidency is developing the roadmap as an implementation-focused response to the global commitment to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. The consultation sought practical evidence on barriers to delivery, potential economic, financial, institutional, social and technological levers, replicable experiences and how action can reflect different national circumstances, forest-cover realities and the rights and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
For Australian business, the issue reaches beyond forests alone. Commodity supply chains, finance, traceability, due diligence, trade requirements, land-use decisions and nature-related risk increasingly intersect with international expectations on deforestation-free production.
What BCSD Australia said
BCSD Australia’s submission argues that the roadmap will be most useful if it translates ambition into practical implementation by reducing fragmentation, lowering transaction costs, improving accountability and making credible forest protection, restoration and sustainable commodity transitions investable across different contexts.
We identified four priority implementation challenges:
Persistent economic incentives and market drivers that continue to reward forest conversion.
Limited investability at landscape scale, including high transaction costs, weak metrics and MRV readiness, and liquidity constraints.
Fragmented traceability and poor data interoperability across multi-tier commodity supply chains.
Uneven governance and enforcement capacity, including cross-border leakage, together with the need to embed Indigenous Peoples and local communities in governance, monitoring and benefit-sharing.
BCSD Australia recommended practical responses including a minimum interoperability package for traceability and MRV; blended and catalytic finance with aggregation and performance-linked structures; place-based delivery platforms that connect projects with finance; stronger trade and due-diligence coherence; scalable sustainable forest management; and pre-competitive business collaboration supported by credible transparency.
We also proposed that the roadmap offer a menu of implementation options suited to different contexts rather than a single global pathway, with safeguards for tenure, appropriate engagement, grievance mechanisms and transparent benefit-sharing.
What happens next
The COP30 Presidency has acknowledged receipt of BCSD Australia’s submission. Stakeholder submissions have been made publicly available through the UNFCCC, and the Presidency is using the consultation inputs to inform development of the roadmap. The acknowledgement received by BCSD Australia indicated that submissions would be forwarded to the COP30 President, who would determine the next steps.
When the Presidency releases the roadmap or associated response material, BCSD Australia will compare the final approach with the implementation issues raised in our submission and assess the implications for Australian businesses exposed to forest-risk commodities, nature-related finance, traceability and evolving international due-diligence expectations.
Comments