Entrepreneurship & Organization Management

Innovating Solutions to Deforestation: Cross-Sector Collaboration in the Amazon

Abstract

Hull BR, Kimmel C, Robertson D

Global supply chains bring jobs and opportunities to developing regions but also can cause problematic impacts to businesses, governments, communities, and environments where production occurs, such as the deforestation occurring in the Amazon. Innovative strategies are being developed in response to these challenges. This case study examines how an international agriculture corporation (Cargill), collaborated with local farmers, farmers union, government agencies, and an international environmental organization (The Nature Conservancy) to innovate solutions to deforestation in Brazil caused by soybean production. Collaborators developed and delivered a program that increased soybean production and decreased deforestation. They did so by making compliance with existing laws financially feasible, easily monitored, evenly enforced, and reliably rewarded.