Scaling Zero-Deforestation Monitoring for Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains in Colombia
By combining standardized verification tools, inclusive training, and public–private collaboration, CGIAR and its partners are helping Colombia strengthen agricultural traceability and create the conditions for scaling deforestation-free supply chains.
Colombia’s zero-deforestation commitments faced a critical implementation gap. Voluntary agreements covered cocoa, coffee, beef, dairy, and oil palm, but the absence of a unified monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) framework made it difficult to demonstrate progress consistently. Fragmented verification approaches also complicated efforts to respond to international sustainability requirements.
To address these barriers, the CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, brought together government agencies, producer associations, companies, and technical experts. Their collaboration supported the development and refinement of a national zero-deforestation MRV protocol, creating a common framework for assessing agricultural supply chains and strengthening transparency.
Scaling the protocol required more than technical guidance. Institutions needed to coordinate responsibilities, companies required practical verification procedures, and producers needed accessible ways to collect and share farm-level information. Differences in connectivity, literacy, land tenure, and access to resources also risked excluding smallholders from emerging sustainability opportunities.
The project worked with Colombia’s agriculture and environment ministries, the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), and Visión Amazonía to refine MRV Protocol 2.0 and advance an interministerial resolution for formal national adoption. Existing platforms, including the Zero-Deforestation Agreements and the Expanded Cocoa Traceability Roundtable, provided spaces to align expectations, resolve implementation challenges, and build shared ownership.
The intervention combined institutional coordination with digital tools, capacity development, and market engagement. A beta version of the GANABOSQUES platform brought together forest monitoring, protected-area boundaries, agricultural frontier limits, and livestock mobility data to support farm-level deforestation-risk assessments. GeoFarmer and Open Data Kit dashboards helped partners track farm mapping, surveys, and training progress.
Structured training equipped 52 technicians working across cocoa, beef, and dairy supply chains with skills in digital data collection, farm mapping, and MRV implementation. A Moodle-based training program created infrastructure for wider learning, supported by videos, manuals, and infographics. Materials and field tools were adapted for low literacy and limited connectivity, while participatory activities involved women, youth, Indigenous peoples, and Afro-descendant communities.
To strengthen incentives for adoption, collaboration with PROCOLOMBIA and the Green Business Office supported a market positioning strategy and work on a traceability annex for the Green Business Seal. A technical roundtable with FINAGRO also began exploring how MRV results could inform green credit eligibility.
Pilot implementation across nine departments mapped 60,000 hectares, while broader capacity-building activities reached 1,000 stakeholders, with women and rural youth accounting for half of participants. Six partner companies formally adopted the protocol within their sustainability and traceability systems. Additional cocoa companies also began using it voluntarily for origin verification and deforestation-risk assessments, indicating uptake beyond direct project partnerships.
According to the project’s reporting, the protocol has been included as a means of implementation in Colombia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0, while work toward formal national adoption continues. These advances strengthen the foundations for wider implementation; proposed links to green finance remain a developing incentive.
The experience highlights how standardized tools, institutional ownership, and inclusive support can work together to enable scaling. Embedding MRV within existing public systems and business practices offers a pathway toward lasting traceability capacity, while continued attention to producer workloads and digital access will be essential to ensure smallholders can participate.
Read the full Enabling Environment Success Story here.
Compiled by the CGIAR Scaling for Impact (S4I) program, the “Enabling Environment Success and Failure Stories” is a collection of accounts that chronicles both the successful and unsuccessful efforts in creating a supportive environment for scaling agrifood system innovations. Through compelling narratives that highlight specific challenges, key players, and outcomes, this series is designed to demonstrate how CGIAR actively influences and strengthens these environments to achieve a wider, more impactful reach.