New laws require companies trading in forest products and the agricultural commodities that drive deforestation to avoid protected areas and land that was converted illegitimately, but enforcing them effectively depends on the delivery of actionable information to decision makers and action takers.

We ensure that our data has a meaningful impact on forests and the people that rely on them by working with companies, strategic litigators, certification schemes and enforcement agencies and prosecutors in countries with laws designed to tackle the trade in deforestation driving commodities like timber, soy and shrimp.

At the same time, we work with small-scale producers through partnerships with organizations like CMO and ECOCOA, as well as companies like Lush to collect samples from areas of forest and farm that are managed responsibly, to give confidence to retailers and consumers buying their products.

We focus on scaling the development and use of reference models through collaborative work with scientists at laboratories around the world, such as Virginia Tech, IPB University in partnership with WRI, CITEmadera in Peru in partnership with USFS-international programs and the University of Adelaide. 

Creating reference models fed by ground-truthed chemical data, and delivering it through impact partnerships does not just represent a scientific breakthrough; it also represents a challenge to the deep-rooted power asymmetry in the governance of global supply chains. Our approach brings transparency to the forefront, ensuring that the utility of our data and models is widely available. In this way we empower responsible choices and enable prosecution of environmental crimes.