The SAFE (Sustainable Agriculture for Forest Ecosystems) project is working on the just transition to sustainable and deforestation-free value chains as part of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) for deforestation-free value chains. SAFE is implemented in ten countries, as well as on a regional and global level. Together with other TEI Flagships projects and the private sector, around 7.3 million euros have been leveraged in Indonesia, Zambia so far.
Cooperation with the private sector is important for the fight against global deforestation
Forest protection is climate protection. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aims to minimise deforestation and forest degradation caused by agricultural production and to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The EUDR obliges companies to prove that certain raw materials and products, such as coffee, cocoa or palm oil, have been produced on land that has not been deforested since 2020. The companies concerned must submit a due diligence declaration that includes compliance with the regulations, including the geocoordinates of the production site. In order to fulfil their due diligence obligations, companies are required to collect relevant information and carry out a risk assessment. If risks are identified, risk-mitigating measures must be taken, such as support for smallholders. To implement this support, the EU, together with BMZ and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other EU member states, has launched the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) for deforestation-free value chains, SAFE, is a key flagship of the TEI.
One concern is that smallholder farmers will be excluded from supply chains to the EU in the future. Cooperation with the private sector can be beneficial here, as companies can go beyond simply fulfilling their legal obligations to support smallholders and provide good examples that are further disseminated.
By the May 2025, a total of around 7,3 million euros had been generated through contributions from the private sector for activities to promote deforestation-free value chains.
Cooperation with the private sector: SAFE Indonesia
In Indonesia, the «SAFE Challenge» ideas competition was launched in 2024, in which partners from the private sector could apply in cooperation with civil society organisations or technology providers. Within this framework, so-called «integrated development partnerships with the private sector (iEPW)» have been set up. Here, SAFE works together with companies, for example, to improve market access for smallholders, promote sustainable cultivation methods and thus protect adjacent forests. Concrete examples in the field of natural rubber are the cooperation with the companies Kirana Megantara and Agridence in West Kalimantan and a cooperation with Olam Agri in Lampung. In terms of supporting smallholder farmers in the cocoa sector in Central Sulawesi, SAFE is working in a cooperation project with Mondelez and GCB Cocoa Singapore and in another project with Mars, JB Cocoa and Ofi. This is mainly supported by the GIZ project Sustainability and Value Added in Agricultural Value Chain in Indonesia (SASCI+), which is also part of the Team Europe Initiative.
In fact, cooperations established with the private sector by SAFE in Indonesia builds upon previous experiences from other projects like SASCI+, which has been operating in West Java and East Kalimantan in addition to SAFE’s three working areas in Indonesia. In most cases, GIZ implements its part of the agreement through contracts with civil society actors, finances service providers and coordinates partnerships with state actors at local and national level.
Spotlight Zambia
In Zambia, cooperation projects have been launched with the Export Trading Group (ETG) and 260 Brands to support smallholder farmers in soy cultivation. An important aspect is support for traceability, but other topics such as organic certification and awareness raising regarding the importance of forests are also part of the agreements.
In almost all other of the ten SAFE countries, there are concrete plans and ideas regarding cooperation with the private sector. The aim is to expand activities together with actors from the private sector, to open up further target groups and to increase impact. In many cases, international companies are the main partners, in other cases SAFE works with small local companies to help them and their producers or suppliers prepare for the EUDR regulations.
Lessons Learned
Thorough coordination at the beginning of the cooperation is crucial to bundle ideas. If this succeeds, the public contribution can be increased by the private sector and more can be achieved together. In addition, access to supply chain actors can have an additional impact. The planning and negotiation phase is essential, as a detailed clarification of the respective responsibilities prevents later discrepancies and misunderstandings.
An important component of the work is the geolocation of the areas on which the agricultural commodities were produced in order to prove that no deforestation has taken place. In order to prevent incompatible systems that exist in parallel in companies from causing additional burdens for producers, SAFE supports the development and testing of digital public infrastructure on a global level. In particular, the use of openly accessible and usually cost-effective open source applications, such as for traceability or geodata collection, is recommended.
This project contributes to the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI). SASI promotes green, fair and inclusive agricultural supply chains. Together with politics, business and civil society, it puts sustainability issues on the agenda and shapes the political discourse. The initiative is being implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMZ.
