Implementation of Zero-Deforestation Commitments
GRAS provides companies with the tools they need to implement, verify and monitor zero deforestation commitments throughout their supply chains. Whether you are committed to stop deforestation, need to demonstrate your commitment or want to track deforestation over time, GRAS provides the technology and insights to support and sustain your efforts to protect the forest.
Detecting historic and recent global deforestation activities
GRAS enables reliable and cost-effective verification of Zero-Deforestation commitments across your supply base.
Our innovative approach offers a time- and cost-efficient robust approach to mapping, analyzing, and monitoring large supply bases. It combines semi-automated processes with detailed risk assessments, ensuring thorough assessments from sourcing regions to individual farms and plantations.
Using advanced remote sensing technology, high-resolution satellite imagery and highly specialised algorithms, GRAS delivers accurate and reliable analysis results. This ensures that deforestation risks are recognised and addressed with the highest accuracy.
By utilising our robust tools and methodologies, companies can reliably verify their non-deforestation commitments, achieve their sustainability goals and improve transparency in their supply chains. GRAS is your trusted partner in promoting responsible sourcing and protecting forest ecosystems. Explore the range of services:
Zero-deforestation commitments for certification support
Identify illegal activities even in remote areas which are difficult to access. GRAS offers a land use change analysis to identify the point in time when deforestation took place in an area of interest. Using an efficient robust approach first locations of high deforestation risk are identified and subsequently the point in time and type of change on plantation or field outline level are verified. This pre-audit assessment helps to exclude non-compliance within the supply base and to facilitate certification processes.
Crop-driven deforestation
Investigate the drivers of deforestation and evaluate the risk for your own suppliers with the analysis of crop-driven deforestation. The focus of our assessment is the expansion of different crops (e.g., sugarcane, palm, soybean, or others) in areas where deforestation has occurred. This enables you to identify potential suppliers linked to land use change and make informed decisions for sustainable supply chains.
Land Cover and Land Use Change
By applying the latest remote sensing technology GRAS produces maps on land cover, land use and land use change based on recent and historical satellite imagery. Our expertise includes, but is not limited to, mapping protected areas, areas of high carbon stock and High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, as well as land cover types such as forest and grassland. Knowledge on the land cover and its changes is crucial for making the most sustainable decisions for your supply base.
Monitoring
GRAS offers the solution to develop a monitoring system for an annual land use change analysis for the assessment area. The monitoring system can include a baseline mapping and the annual assessment of different land use change types (deforestation, grassland conversion) for the area of interest. State-of-the art remote sensing technologies and various satellite products are used for the monitoring to achieve the most accurate results.
Further Information
What is the difference between Land Use Change and Deforestation?
Land Use Change includes any conversion of one land use to another type (e.g., grassland to cropland or forest to a non-forest stage), as well as replanting activities. However, deforestation is a specific type of land use change in which forest area was converted to another use (e.g., agricultural use or urban areas) or the tree cover became lower than 10%, according to the FAO definition.
What is the advantage of using remote sensing technologies to analyse global deforestation?
With remote sensing, you can conduct objective analyses on deforestation on a global scale, including in hard-to-reach areas, at low cost. In the context of monitoring, you can take immediate actions and trace back the land use history to gain knowledge on the past. Additionally, applying remote sensing techniques ensures transparency through reproducible and objective measurements.