Abstract Multiple sustainability initiatives have emerged in response to the environmental impacts of soy production, especially deforestation and climate change. But company commitments to reduce deforestation in their supply chains are not leading to outcomes on the ground. Achieving concerted action by supply chain actors requires consideration of their diverse perspectives. We investigate the mental models of Producer Associations, Traders, Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies (FMCGs), NGOs, and financial institutions to identify the key similarities and differences in the factors perceived to promote or inhibit a reduction of deforestation from soy production in Brazil. Our results show general agreement across participants that NGO pressure and reputational risk are external motivators for companies to move towards sustainability, but only certain actor groups recognised that internal motivators are additionally needed for alignment between a sustainability agenda and a company’s corporate strategy—highlighting the importance of internal motivators to stimulate companies to translate commitments into actionable policies. Our results suggest that implementation of commitments to reduce deforestation is hampered by different perceived financial risks, differences in the levels of influence and power held by different actors, and a perceived entitlement to deforest that prevails over a sense of urgency for environmental sustainability. We highlight that any policy that threatens this “right to deforest” mindset can lead to the erosion of producers’ conservation behaviour through unnecessary clearing of land before such policy is implemented. Our findings highlight an opportunity for the organisations driving sustainability initiatives to consider and explore these differences as they seek transnational corporations to transition to a more sustainable soy industry and supply chain. Moreover, our study provides an example of how mental models can provide valuable insights for the achievement of sustainability in agricultural supply chains more broadly.

中文翻译：

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什么影响和抑制了大豆供应链中森林砍伐的减少？心智模型视角

摘要 针对大豆生产对环境的影响，尤其是森林砍伐和气候变化，出现了多项可持续发展举措。但公司在其供应链中减少森林砍伐的承诺并没有带来实地结果。实现供应链参与者的一致行动需要考虑他们的不同观点。我们调查了生产者协会、贸易商、快速消费品公司 (FMCG)、非政府组织和金融机构的心理模型，以确定被认为促进或抑制巴西大豆生产造成的森林砍伐减少的因素的主要异同。我们的结果表明，参与者普遍认为 NGO 压力和声誉风险是公司走向可持续发展的外部动力，但只有某些行为者团体认识到，为了使可持续发展议程与公司的企业战略保持一致，还需要内部激励因素——强调了内部激励因素在激励公司将承诺转化为可操作政策方面的重要性。我们的研究结果表明，减少森林砍伐的承诺的实施受到不同的感知财务风险、不同参与者的影响力和权力水平的差异，以及感知的森林砍伐权利压倒了环境可持续性的紧迫感。我们强调，任何威胁这种“森林砍伐权”心态的政策都可能通过在实施此类政策之前进行不必要的土地清理而削弱生产者的保护行为。我们的发现强调了推动可持续发展计划的组织在寻求跨国公司向更可持续的大豆产业和供应链过渡时考虑和探索这些差异的机会。此外，我们的研究提供了一个示例，说明心智模型如何为更广泛地实现农业供应链的可持续性提供有价值的见解。