Today we launch our Together for Trees partnership with Tesco – a partnership that will provide much needed support for our rainforest programme.  Our programme now covers 240,000 hectares in seven countries - an area greater than the size of the Lake District - where we are working with our Birdlife International partners to save forests and their threatened wildlife.

This is a departure for the RSPB, but a very exciting one. We need to explore new and unconventional ways to find solutions to society’s major environmental challenges and this includes ending the destruction of the world's rainforests.  That's why I'm excited - it's only when companies as big as Tesco decide to step up and reduce their own footprint on the planet that we can have genuine cause for hope.

Tesco has not only agreed to support our rainforest programme, they have also committed to working with us on improving the sustainable sourcing of both tropical and domestic commodities.

Working with governments alone will be insufficient to save global problems such as saving forests.  Big companies like supermarkets can have a massive influence on the planet through their supply chains. This is why we are delighted that Tesco wants us to help:


- review their forest footprint as part of the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project, point out any areas for improvement and help them prepare for next year’s process;
- meet their commitments on zero net deforestation by 2020 and develop action plans for sustainably sourced commodities like palm oil, soy, beef and paper
- demonstrate how their supply chains impact on nature by mapping them against Important Bird Areas and other areas of conservation concern
- with advice and recommendations on sourcing cocoa, coffee and biofuels.

We will also be working with the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group to help develop nature friendly farming. And, as we develop our working relationship, we'll be getting a better understanding of the contribution that suppliers are already making towards the environment through their actions and operations.

Rainforests are incredible places.  They are home to 74% of the world’s threatened bird species and their ongoing destruction accounts for 15% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. 

I was lucky enough to spend some time in my twenties surveying butterflies in the Comores.  The noise, humidity and visual splendour of these places will stay with me forever.  But my experience also taught me how vulnerable these places are to human activities.  It is shocking that 6 million hectares are still being lost every year. That means that an area the size of a football pitch disappears every four seconds.

I have no idea if I will ever return to a rainforest but I do feel that we have a moral obligation to protect them. It's reassuring when big companies like Tesco feel the same way too.

What do you think about our partnership with Tesco?  How important do you think it is for the RSPB to work with business to tackle society's major environmental challenges?

It would be great to hear your views.

  • Have always been a fan of Tesco and think they take a lot of unnecessary flak.

    Have to agree with all you say and lets hope other businesses take up the challenge.

  • It is "great stuff" Martin and absolutely the right thing for the RSPB to do. Providing the business concerned is environmentally well intentioned, and most are (but a few are not), the more of these types of partnerships that help save wildlife, biodiversity and thereby local people the better, as I see it.