Tracing Commodity Supply Chains

Supply chain governance has emerged as a key approach to reduce deforestation.

For more than a decade, GLUE researchers have been leading new approaches to track and understand commodity supply chains across Latin America and the US. We combine data science, remote sensing, GIS, field surveys, and econometric statistics to map the supply chains across the ground and link them to the companies and countries that purchase the commodities. Our work has helped to inform decisionmaking and identify key risks and opportunities within specific supply chains.

Publications
Gibbs, H. K., L. Rausch, J. Munger, I. Schelly, D. C. Morton, P. Noojipady, B. Soares-Filho, P. Barreto, L. Micol, and N. F. Walker. 2015. “Brazil’s Soy Moratorium: Supply chain governance is needed to avoid deforestation.” Science 347(6220): 377-378 [Abstract] [Link] [Portuguese version]
Rausch, L.L., and H.K. Gibbs. 2021. “The Low Opportunity Costs of the Amazon Soy Moratorium.” Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.[Link]
Skidmore, M., F. Moffette, L.L. Rausch, M. Christie, J. Munger, and H.K. Gibbs. 2021. “Cattle Ranchers and Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Production, Location, and Policies.” Global Environmental Change. [Link]
Carvalho, R., L. Rausch, J. Munger, and H. K. Gibbs. 2021. The role of high-volume ranches as cattle suppliers: Supply chain connections and cattle production in Mato Grosso. Land.
L’Roe, J., L. Rausch, J. Munger, H.K. Gibbs. 2016. Policy intersections, land registration, and forest clearing patterns in the Amazonian state of Para. Land Use Policy 57: 193-203
Rausch, L. R. and H.K. Gibbs. 2016. Property arrangements and soy production in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso: Implications for supply chain governance. Land, 5(2), 7; doi:10.3390/land5020007.
Moffette, F. and H. K. Gibbs. 2020. “Agricultural Displacement and Deforestation Leakage in the Brazilian Legal Amazon.” Land Economics vol. 97, no. 1, 2021. [Link]
Rajão, R., B. Soares-Filho, F. Nunes, J. Börner., L. Machado, D. Assis, A. Oliveira, L. Pinto, V. Ribeiro, L. Rausch, H.K. Gibbs, and D.Figueira. 2020. “The rotten apples of Brazil’s agribusiness.” Science vol. 369, Issue 6501, pp. 246-248. [Link]
Schelly, I., L. Rausch, H.K. Gibbs. 2021. Brazil’s cattle sector played large role in fires during 2020 moratorium. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
Lambin, E. F., H. K. Gibbs, R. Heilmayr, K. M. Carlson, L. C. Fleck, R. D. Garrett, Y. Waroux, C. L. McDermott, D. McLaughlin, P. Newton, C. Nolte, P. Pacheco, L. Rausch, C. Streck, T. Thorlakson and N. F. Walker. 2018. “The role of supply-chain initiatives in reducing deforestation.” Nature Climate Change. [Link]
Vale, P., H. K. Gibbs, R. Vale, J. Munger, A. Brandão, M. Christie, and E. Florence. 2019. “Mapping the cattle industry in Brazil’s most dynamic cattle ranching state: Slaughterhouses in Mato Grosso, 1967-2016.” PlosOne. [Link]
Vale, P., H. K. Gibbs, R. Vale, M. Christie, E. Florence, J. Munger, and D. Sabaini. 2019. “The expansion of intensive beef farming to the Brazilian Amazon.” Global Environmental Change. [Link]
Rausch, L.L., H. K. Gibbs, I. Schelly, A. Brandão Jr., D.C. Morton, A.C. Filho, B. Strassburg, N. Walker, P. Noojipady, P. Barreto, and D. Meyer. 2019. “Soy expansion in Brazil’s Cerrado.” Conservation Letters. [Link]
Lima, M., C. Antonio da Silva Junior, L.L. Rausch, H. K. Gibbs, and J.A. Johann. 2019. “Demystifying sustainable soy in Brazil.” Land Use Policy. [Link]
Garrett, R.D., S. Levy, K.M. Carlson, T.A. Gardner, J. Godar, J. Clapp, P. Dauvergne, R. Heilmayr, Y. le Polain de Waroux, B. Ayre, R. Barr, B .Døvre, H. K. Gibbs, S. Hall, S. Lake, J.C. Milder, L.L. Rausch, R. Rivero, X. Rueda, R. Sarsfield, B. Soares-Filho, and N. Villoria. 2019. “Criteria for effective zero-deforestation commitments.” Global Environmental Change. [Link]
Periera, R. L. R. Rausch, A. Carrara, H. K. Gibbs. Characterizing cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon: from pasture to markets. 2020. Tropical Conservation Science.
Buckley, K.J., P. Newton, H. K. Gibbs, I. McConnel, and J. Ehrmann. 2019. “Pursuing sustainability through multi-stakeholder collaboration: A description of the governance, actions, and perceived impacts of the roundtables for sustainable beef.” World Development. [Link]
Brandão Jr. A*, L. Rausch, H.K. Gibbs, A. P. Durán, C. Costa Jr., A. Balmford. 2019. Estimating the land available for agriculture and pasture in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes under different policy scenarios. Sustainability.