Ceres has published “Working Across Landscapes: An Investor Guide to Managing Nature Risk at Scale,” alongside a Q&A with the report’s author Karen Mo, setting out the case for corporate participation in landscape initiatives as a way to manage escalating nature-related risks and strengthen supply chain resilience. The guide is aimed at investors engaging companies on whether participation in these initiatives is material, strategically aligned and capable of credibly reducing exposure to systemic risks. It highlights particular relevance for companies sourcing large volumes of high-risk agricultural and forestry commodities, including palm oil, coffee and cocoa, or operating in vulnerable regions. In the Q&A, Mo describes landscape initiatives as place-based, multi-stakeholder programs operating across a defined geographic area, typically much larger than company projects at individual farms, mills or facilities and averaging about 127,000 hectares. The report argues that they complement traceability and supplier monitoring by addressing risks that individual companies cannot manage alone, including regional forest loss, social conflict, drought and flooding that can disrupt sourcing and reduce crop yields. It also points to resilience benefits from protecting forests, grasslands and other ecosystems and from producer support measures such as training on agroforestry and cover cropping, income diversification and financial assistance. Examples cited include an initiative in Ghana involving Mondelēz International and other partners in a cocoa-sourcing landscape, where 266 hectares of degraded forest have been rehabilitated, and a Malaysia palm oil initiative supported by Nestlé, where forest loss across the landscape has fallen 75% since 2020 and no-deforestation action plans have been implemented at 85 mills.
Ceres2026-06-23
Ceres publishes investor guide on landscape initiatives to manage nature risk in supply chains
Ceres has issued an investor guide arguing that landscape initiatives can help companies manage nature-related supply chain risks that go beyond firm-level traceability and supplier monitoring. The report says these multi-stakeholder, place-based programs are most relevant for companies exposed to high-risk commodities or vulnerable regions and gives investors a framework to assess the materiality and credibility of company participation. Examples include projects linked to cocoa in Ghana and palm oil in Malaysia.