UK to Make Deforestation Checks Mandatory for Business Supply Chains

The UK Government has announced plans to introduce new regulations requiring businesses to ensure that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation, including new mandatory due diligence requirements. A consultation on the rules is set to be launched later this year, marking one of the most significant steps yet by the UK to address the environmental footprint embedded in the goods its economy consumes.

The scale of that footprint is considerable. According to the government, the UK's consumption of internationally traded commodities is associated with roughly 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide every year, and around 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions. The pressure for action has not come from campaigners alone; businesses including supermarkets have been calling for stronger regulation to help them tackle deforestation in their product supply chains and to create a level playing field across the sector.

Under the new proposals, companies that trade in commodities sourced from rainforest regions, such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber, will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation. These forest-risk commodities sit behind a vast range of everyday products, from food and animal feed to consumer goods, making their traceability a central challenge for retailers and manufacturers alike.

In designing the rules, the government said its approach will propose covering the same core commodities and underlying information requirements used in the EU's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The intention is to help businesses avoid administrative duplication and to enable consistent data and traceability standards for companies operating across both markets. For UK firms that already trade into the European Union, alignment with the EUDR could reduce the burden of complying with two divergent regimes.

This story links to three UN Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 15 (Life on Land) is at its heart, as the rules aim to keep deforestation out of supply chains and protect forests. SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) reflects the due-diligence now required of business supply chains. And SDG 13 (Climate Action) is the wider prize, since halting deforestation is vital to curbing emissions.

The proposed requirements would be introduced using existing powers, including the UK Environment Act, alongside legislation strengthening the UK Timber Regulation. The government said it will consult businesses, civil society and international partners later this year on the details of the policy, including the shape of the mandatory due diligence obligations. The new measures, it added, will help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing.

Importantly, the government framed these proposals as a starting point rather than the final destination. Its stated ambition is to transition over time to a deforestation-free standard, which would require relevant products to be produced free from any deforestation, not only deforestation that is illegal under the laws of the country of origin. That distinction mirrors the more demanding threshold set by the EUDR and signals a direction of travel toward stricter expectations.

UK Nature Minister Mary Creagh said tackling global deforestation is “one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife,” underscoring the dual climate and biodiversity rationale behind the move.

For sustainability and procurement teams, the announcement is a clear signal to begin mapping forest-risk commodities now and building the traceability systems that mandatory due diligence will demand. With the consultation due this year and EUDR alignment on the table, the businesses that invest early in supply chain transparency will be best placed to adapt as the rules take shape.