San Francisco, CA – Global consumer goods companies are still failing to meet their public promises to eliminate deforestation and human rights abuses from their supply chains.
Rainforest Action Network’s 2025 Keep Forests Standing scorecard reveals slow, uneven and inadequate progress across the world’s most influential brands. In preparation for the pending full implementation of the European Union’s regulations on deforestation-free products (EUDR), many brands have made commitments to assure investors that the companies will be in compliance. Yet brands continue to rely on ineffectual certification schemes such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or self-reporting mechanisms from historically problematic suppliers. In this context, some of the world’s biggest brands continue to run the risk of exposure to deforestation and human rights violations.
“Major companies have pledged to achieve deforestation-free supply chains in anticipation of new regulations. But before forests are destroyed, the people living in these forests often face violence and intimidation or see their land stolen. It is critical that companies take meaningful action to uphold rights throughout their supply chain,” said Daniel Carrillo, Rainforest Action Network’s Forest Campaign Director. “Major brands know the limits of relying on certification schemes. They know these schemes do not eliminate deforestation and they do not protect human rights — because RAN has published the evidence. This isn’t a knowledge gap. This is a leadership gap. What’s missing is the will to turn commitments into action and make the protection of people and forests non-negotiable.”
The Keep Forests Standing scorecard evaluates the public policies and implementation practices of ten major corporations — Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, Kao, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever — across twelve indicators focused on No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies, human rights protections, and supply-chain transparency.
Protections for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are among the most critical metrics in this year’s assessment. Between 2015 and 2024, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center recorded over 6,400 attacks, including more than 1,000 killings, of Defenders in 147 countries. While some brands have taken initial steps toward implementing Defender protections, corporate action remains piecemeal and inconsistent given the scale of the crisis.
Unilever set an early benchmark by publishing the first HRD policy in 2022. Brands including Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo, and Nestlé have all made commitments to zero tolerance of intimidation, criminalization, and violence towards Human Rights Defenders in their supply chain. These brands need to demonstrate leadership by turning these commitments into procedures to prevent intimidation towards Human Rights Defenders.
This year Mondelēz and other companies worked to address Human Rights Defenders issues in the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The result was the publication of a “Human Rights Defenders Best Practice Note for Business.” However, the Note remains largely symbolic, offering guidance but falling short of the concrete actions and implementation mechanisms needed to drive change.
Nissin Foods joined seven other brands by issuing a public commitment to zero tolerance of intimidation, criminalization, and violence towards Human Rights Defenders. Mondelēz, producer of brands such as Oreos, was the lowest scoring company overall and the only company to receive zero marks under the HRD policy criterion. Although its 2025 Palm Oil Action Plan includes an expectation of suppliers to respect activists who are defending human rights, the company still lacks clear, explicit commitment to zero-tolerance of intimidation, violence, and criminalization towards Defenders.
The Keep Forests Standing scorecard also highlights a sector-wide failure to implement actionable policies that respect Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples. No company demonstrated a consistent process to ensure Indigenous and Local Community rights are upheld before land is developed. Mondelēz and several others now expect suppliers to respect FPIC, but companies still need to move from expectations to verification. In an important step forward, Unilever has agreed to become the first major company to launch a trial process for independent verification of FPIC. Nestlé remains the only company with a Land Rights Action Plan, released in 2023, with a commitment to publishing a progress report by the end of 2025.
Many companies are turning to landscape programs as partial responses to the need for full FPIC policies and to mitigate risks to local land rights. Mondelēz, Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestlé are participating in a landscape program in Indonesia that addresses land rights conflicts; Nestlé also commissioned stakeholder consultations on land rights in Brazil and Colombia. RAN welcomes rights-focused landscape programs and their positive outcomes, but emphasizes that these cannot replace company-wide policies and procedures.
Across forest-risk supply chains, weak or absent FPIC processes continue to enable land grabbing and coercive land acquisition. This results in displaced communities and erodes the customary tenure systems that protect forests. These unresolved conflicts are often flashpoints for violence faced by Human Rights Defenders.
While these systemic gaps persist, a few companies are showing what stronger action can look like. Unilever continues to lead the sector with comprehensive NDPE policy alignment. PepsiCo’s new grievance tracker means that half the brands assessed now publicly disclose actions taken on deforestation and rights violations. Nestlé has improved transparency in its grievance process, but still lacks a public grievance log. In contrast, Mondelēz scored the weakest overall, with just four out of a possible twenty four points.
“If the world’s largest brands can’t prove that their products are free from deforestation and abuse, their commitments mean nothing,” said Carrillo. “Promises don’t protect forests, action does. Until these corporations make transparency, enforcement, and the protection of Human Rights Defenders non-negotiable, they will remain part of the problem.”
The latest Keep Forest Standing scorecard can be found at: RAN.org/KFS-scorecard