Deforestation & biodiversity loss in Africa: an important business risk

While it is often not the first thing that comes to mind when doing business, biodiversity and forests are essential to African business contexts. They provide important ecosystem services including clean air, food, water. Furthermore, it helps with flood protection, climate regulation and tourism value. These services form the basis of many sectors such as agriculture, mining, tourism, and manufacturing. 

Nevertheless, deforestation and biodiversity loss continue in numerous African countries on a massive scale. For example, in the Ivory Coast, 90% of the forest area has already been lost, largely to the establishment of cocoa plantations. Mining activities across the continent continue to also cause wide-ranging deforestation and biodiversity loss. As a result, Africa loses forest areas roughly the size of the Netherlands every year.  

The continued loss of these forests and the ecosystem services they provide, pose big risks to operations taking place in Africa and in turn all the supply chains reliant on their results.  

Protecting African forests and biodiversity goes hand in hand with securing long-term business interest and viability. A first step for many companies is identifying and monitoring deforestation-related in the countries they source products.  
Not only will this support the protection of African forests, it will also help businesses prepare for the EU Deforestation Regulation  (EUDR). This policy will go into effect for businesses of all sizes from June 2027 onwards, prohibiting the placement of products on the European market that are causing deforestation.  

The CSR Risk Check can serve as a practical tool to help you get started with assessing the deforestation and biodiversity risks in your supply chains. Along with country- and product-specific risk factors, the Risk Check provides relevant resources and organisations that deal with the current topic and EUDR compliance.  

Businesses need to be very careful in their supply chain assessment, as they might encounter unreliable assurances by suppliers. Assessing what the situation is like in production countries far away from the main office can be difficult, especially when your supply chain is complex.  

While some certifications and external assessments can be a useful tool for companies to close this information gaps, there are also “Net-Zero Deforestation” that do more harm than good. More about this can be found on the page of the international NGO World Rainforest Movement. We therefore suggest looking for third-party verification and using reliable partners. If you would like to know more about deforestation and biodiversity, the CSR Risk Check will provide you with up-to-date risk information and valuable information sources to get started on your due diligence journey.  

For further guidance, platforms such as A-Track, Business for Nature, WBCSD and the Science Based Targets Network offer international tools, methodologies and examples to help companies assess nature-related risks, set priorities and define measurable biodiversity targets. They also provide step-by-step frameworks, sector-specific actions and indicators to support businesses in moving from risk assessment to implementation and progress tracking.