WWF and Tapestry back new $10 million fund for forest-safe leather

The World Wildlife Fund and Tapestry are asking for help in financing efforts to protect South American forests from cattle ranching.

With an announcement March 4, the conservation nonprofit and leather goods giant have invited other businesses to participate in the $10 million Deforestation Free Leather Fund. The goal: to back supply chain traceability efforts, including tagging 1 million head of cattle, and foster regenerative practices and recovery of degraded land, starting in Brazil.

WWF appealed to corporations seeking to reduce regulatory risks as the European Union anti-deforestation rules come into effect for imports this year, and to address reputation risks as consumers increasingly scrutinize product supply chains.

Land-hungry beef production slashes and burns more forests than any other industry; in fact, nearly half of the Amazon rainforest faces collapse by 2050. The industry imperils other ecosystems as well; in 2020, for example, ranchers burned one-quarter of Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland. Weak enforcement of Brazil’s 1965 Forest Code is partly to blame, but so is a “see no evil” posture by big business, according to activists.

“We don’t have the intention to say that this fund is going to solve all the problems, but at least it helps the sector to move to the right direction,” said WWF’s senior director of beef and leather supply, Chains Fernando Bellese, in an online press event March 3.

Rainforest-free handbags

“When we look at environmental impact, we know that leather, our highest volume material, also has the highest impact,” said Logan Duran, vice president of ESG and sustainability at Tapestry, the New York umbrella company of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. “So we’ve been really trying to take a strategic long term view on how we address the impacts of leather across the entirety of the value chain.”

• Leather makes up 53 percent of Tapestry’s materials, followed by textiles at 32 percent and metals at 15 percent. Leather Working Group (LWG)-certified tanneries provide 90 percent of the company’s leather.
• Tapestry says it is on track to fully trace and map its raw materials by the end of 2025. 
• The company maintains a goal to purchase 10 percent of leather containing recycled or “next-generation” materials, or from ranches verified to use regenerative production methods.

The Tapestry Foundation has teamed up since 2021 with WWF on deforestation, and in 2022 granted $3 million to improve leather traceability in Brazil.

“After going at this for several years directly with WWF, we’re really really excited about the Deforestation Free Leather Fund, and the opportunity to bring in partners — other brands — to really elevate, escalate and amplify the work,” Duran said of the fund’s call to action. “How do other brands not only contribute financial resources, but commit and support the broader transitions within the industry that we need?”

Next steps

The raising of cattle is responsible for 11 percent of global emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. But hides account for only 1 percent of the total value of beef, which leaves leather makers with little leverage in influencing the industry, according to WWF. The nonprofit hopes to draw on its nearly three decades of work in South America to help companies amplify their influence there. WWF has been central to related efforts, including promoting (with the nonprofit Textile Exchange) the LWG’s traceability efforts and the Amazon Monitoring Protocol.

The new fund focuses on three priorities:

• Leather origins. The partnership seeks to tag and trace 1 million head of cattle on verified farms within three years. The focus is on suppliers, not what happens later at tanneries.
• Efficient, responsible practices. The goal is to promote regenerative practices on 37,000 acres. For instance, Bellese noted, packing more cows into less pasture dramatically slashes emissions.
• Innovation. For lower-performing ranchers, WWF seeks to speed up the adoption of best (or better) practices, not least by offering proof that the market will respond positively to such changes.

Problems to overcome

Existing efforts to curtail the emissions of cattle ranching reveal some potential obstacles to “deforestation-free leather.”

McDonald’s, for example, was pivotal in launching the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in 2012. But the company has struggled to both define and pursue “sustainable beef” in its supply chain, which comprises hundreds of thousands of ranches in 100 countries.

And simply selecting better suppliers while blocking low-performing ones will never be as effective as it could be if the latter aren’t brought to compliance. That’s because a parallel market undercuts conservation efforts. “We need to make sure we bring the entire sector where we want in terms of deforestation goals,” Bellese said.

Another challenge: Downstream brands and retailers are thousands of miles away from upstream production. “Sometimes it’s very hard to identify relevant projects and departments to support supply chains,” Bellese said. “We want to make that connection.”

To reach its $10 million goal, WWF expects participating companies to contribute between $50,000 and $250,000 over the first three years, depending on their annual revenues. Leather processors and manufacturers have expected contributions of 1 to 3 cents per hide.

Leaders of the effort hope to have a governance structure in place by early fall so work can begin.