Forests play a vital role in creating oxygen and absorbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. People, plants and animals also rely on forests for food, fresh water, shelter and other essential resources. Yet forests and other areas of high conservation value remain under threat. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 18 million acres of forest – an area equivalent to the size of Ireland – are being destroyed each year.
When we fail to protect forests, climate change effects worsen, critical biodiversity is lost and livelihoods and human rights are threatened – as are the natural ecosystems that we all rely on for the food we eat. Which is why supporting deforestation-free supply chains and promoting forests as a climate solution is not just our responsibility, it's core to our business.
McDonald’s has been on a journey to support sustainable food production and conserve forests for decades. As a global business, we set ourselves the goal of eliminating deforestation in our priority supply chains for our beef, chicken (including soy in feed), palm oil, coffee and the fibre used in guest packaging by 2020. We recognise that we have more work to do, particularly on soy. That’s why McDonald’s UK & Ireland are accelerating progress in this area and are committing to soy used as an ingredient and in the animal feed across our supply chains to be deforestation-free by 2026*. We acknowledge that in order to meet this ambitious commitment we will need to continue to collaborate to address underlying causes of deforestation.
