Putting No Deforestation into Practice - The High Carbon Stock Approach submission for consideration of the Nature-Based Solution proposition for the UN Climate Action Summit

To implement ‘no deforestation’ commitments, the HCS Approach is a practical methodology that identifies high carbon stock forests in the humid tropics for conservation through an integrated land use plan, and allows degraded non-forest land to be developed for agricultural or plantation commodities. As of March 2019, close to 3 million hectares (ha) of HCSA assessment area was registered, over 575,000 ha of HCS forests was identified for conservation and an additional 7 million ha of tropical forest was prevented from deforestation. From small beginnings 5 years ago with a handful of companies, HCSA is now being scaled up to engage most of the palm oil, cocoa and rubbers sectors and adapted to different regions.