We cooperate in an informal Amsterdam Declarations Partnership with private sector and producer country actors and their initiatives. In 2016, we defined our AD Partnership Implementation Strategy v1Dec2016, which is still valid today. The strategy includes four main strategic lines and we use existing formal processes, partnerships, initiatives and networks as much as possible.

1. Facilitate European action on Climate, Deforestation & Trade: Deforestation from agricultural commodities should be more closely linked to discussions on the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, the CBD Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, European trade negotiations and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
2. Stimulate the Global Value Chain approach for agricultural commodities, in particular palm oil: Advance partnerships on the production side as well as the consumer and market uptake side, and work with producer countries on integrated landscape approaches.
3. Enhance the dialogue with major consumer and producer countries: Expand global market coverage by engaging partner countries and through diplomacy.
4. Enhance transparency and use of voluntary CSR reporting: Integrate deforestation and climate / carbon footprint in reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility and enhance third party monitoring as well as transparency of data.

The focus is on forest-risk commodities such as cattle (beef & leather), cocoa, palm oil and soya but actions on other commodities such as natural rubber are also considered. Dialogue and partnerships with frontrunner and supportive companies and alliances (example Forest Positive Coalition, Consumers Goods Forum) are promoted.

Representatives of the signatories  meet in a Coordination Meeting every six weeks besides regular government to government contacts. Regularly technical meetings with external experts from  civil society organisations, companies, industry alliances and academia are organised.

Every year the chair of the ADP hosts and organises a ADP Multi-Stakeholder Meeting in May-June.

Because many of the ADP signatories are also European Union member states (with the exception of Norway and United Kingdom), promoting deforestation-free production and trade at the European Union level is considered our main upscaling effort. This resulted in the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products. This regulation is supported by many civil society organisations (link), companies and industry alliances and farmers’ organisations from Côte d’Ivoire (link), Ghana (link) and Indonesia (link), and Indigenous Peoples Organisations (link, link).