Deforestation-Free Commodity Reporting Becomes Baseline for Forest Disclosure Credibility

Deforestation- and conversion-free status is becoming the central quantitative metric in corporate forest disclosure, enabling standardised evaluation of company progress against zero-deforestation commitments. In 2022, 383 out of 810 CDP forest disclosers — 47% — reported that at least some of their commodity volumes were already DCF-verified.

DCF designation confirms that materials did not originate from production units where conversion from forests or other natural ecosystems occurred after a specified cut-off date. Companies can establish DCF status through full traceability, sourcing from landscapes with negligible conversion since the cut-off date, or through certification schemes aligned with the Accountability Framework initiative. CDP requires companies to report DCF volumes relative to total commodity volume to ensure completeness, meaning companies cannot present partial sourcing data as representative of their full supply chain exposure.

The EU Deforestation Regulation creates direct regulatory demand for DCF verification. Companies importing soy, palm oil, cattle, timber, cocoa, coffee and rubber — or derived products — into Europe must demonstrate that commodities are deforestation-free or face market exclusion. CDP's forests disclosure scoring, which will begin assessing DCF progress against targets in future cycles, is designed to prepare companies for these requirements. The SBTi Forests, Land and Agriculture methodology and the SBTN Land Hub also require credible deforestation and conversion targets as components of science-based nature goals.

In 2022, more than 300 companies claimed over 80% of their sourcing was free from deforestation or conversion since their specific cut-off dates, and 165 companies planned to begin DCF reporting within two years. From 2023, CDP standardised DCF reporting under questions 1.5a and 1.5b, requiring a volume breakdown of known DCF commodities and best-available origin information for the remainder. Future scoring is expected to incorporate restoration, managed land quality, supplier engagement and landscape-level sourcing metrics, building a more complete picture of supply chain conversion risk.

Key figure — 47% of CDP forest disclosers reported at least some DCF volumes in 2022