05 Jun 2025

Project

Identify good practices on data governance for production plot information in commodity supply chains

New demand-side requirements for commodity production (such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation – EUDR) have brought greater attention to production conditions, the need for traceability systems and geolocation of production plots. In some cases, these include information on thousands of individual plots, not least of smallholders and their cooperatives. Governments have also increased investment in farm registries, and international databases of plot boundaries are being built up.

Challenges

For smallholders, information on their plot boundaries and being part of such databases has become critical to market access. Still, at the same time, there are risks associated with a lack of control of this information, including data misuse by agribusinesses and traders.

Moreover, there is little operational guidance available for agribusinesses and traders, making it hard to enter into meaningful agreements with their supply base on date handling. This is exacerbated by a general lack of awareness and understanding of data rights among smallholders, making them vulnerable to unfair practices.

Beneficiaries

Smallholders
Civil society
Government agencies
Private sector

Objectives

Paving the way toward effective data governance and transparency, to bridge the gap between smallholders and agribusinesses, fostering trust and enhancing sustainable practices.

Preferred by Nature is conducting an initial targeted scoping study on data governance for information on production plot boundaries in commodity supply chains that will distil elements of good practice to help guide agribusinesses and traders interested in transparency and inclusion. This will inform the development and deployment of subsequent products and solutions for supply chain stakeholders.
The work is backed by consultations through the Data Standards Working Group (DSWG), established by the Forest Data Partnership in collaboration with AIM4Forests to build consensus and develop a shared understanding of such good practices and subsequent solutions needed. The goal is to consolidate efforts across various working groups, ensuring alignment and collaboration in producing widely adopted standardised approaches that meet the needs of key supply chain actors.