Forests: Environment Protection
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' press release entitled Government steps up action to tackle illegal deforestation, published on 23 June 2026, what estimate she has made of the proportion of the United Kingdom's deforestation footprint attributable to (a) cocoa, (b) coffee, (c) palm oil, (d) soy, (e) cattle products and (f) rubber.
Answered by Mary Creagh
The proposed regulations target key commodities globally identified as possessing notable deforestation risk. The Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption indicator estimates the UK’s deforestation footprint by commodity. This indicator estimates that in 2023, cocoa accounted for 11% of the UK’s total deforestation footprint (in hectares), coffee 2%, palm oil 3%, soy 6%, cattle products 14% and rubber 3%. These six commodities alone therefore account for nearly 40% of the UK’s agricultural deforestation footprint in 2023, rising to over 60% when including wood products.
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