Environmental Policy Instruments across Commodity Chains (EPICC): Comparing multi-level governance for Biodiversity Protection and Climate Action in Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia

If not well governed, large scale agri-food production and mineral extraction lead to biodiversity loss and exacerbate to climate change. They may also generate or intensify social and political conflicts at the local level. Despite the visibility of the risks, land-use change for intensive agriculture and mineral extraction continues to increase in pace, in direct clash with the Paris Agreement and the private and public commitments to the SDGs and the Agenda 2030. These environmental and social issues are often made invisible by long value chains. However, in Europe and elsewhere there is a rising demand for adopting safeguards for biodiversity and human rights protection in countries of origin of these ‘risky commodities’ and for leveraging value chains node to effectively respond to these multiple threats. Our trans-disciplinary project focuses on six different commodity chains originating in three biodiversity-rich countries (Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia) and ending in the European market. The project adopts a network mapping and multi-level governance approach to assess the existence and effectiveness of regulatory and business strategies, bottom-up and top-down programmes, policies and standards aimed at protecting biodiversity and implementing climate mitigation or adaptation. The focus is on key actors (e.g. small-scale producers, workers, corporations, governments) and their possibilities to mobilize resources and influence sustainable production, consumption and procurement. Moving along (vertically) and across (horizontally) these chains, the project provides a unique opportunity to map consistency, tensions and trade-offs. We will make a substantial contribution to the understanding of how to effectively address ecological challenges while ensuring local communities’ capacities to adapt, influence and redirect policy in salient ways.