How this affects our UK forests
The government is strengthening the approach to tackling deforestation across the UK.
At COP26, the UK committed to stop and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. Healthy forests are essential to climate stability, sustainable economic growth and the livelihoods of communities at home and abroad. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems strengthens our collective resilience, allowing us to secure supply chains, food and water resources, and long-term prosperity.
A mandatory due diligence framework for timber has been in place across the UK since 2013. We now intend to build upon these to further decouple UK consumption from global deforestation.
Text above sourced from www.gov.co.uk
This has actually been a long time coming. The law has been sitting there since 2021 waiting to be acted on, so it's good to see some movement. The plan is to use powers under Schedule 17 of the Environment Act 2021 to set up a Forest Risk Commodities scheme for Great Britain.
They're looking to align with the EU Deforestation Regulation — which covers coffee, cocoa, cattle, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood. A formal consultation with businesses and other partners is expected later this year, though no enforcement date has been set yet.
One difference worth noting — the EU rules apply regardless of whether deforestation was legal under local laws, whereas the UK version would only cover illegal deforestation. That's a meaningful distinction.
How does this affect coffee
Coffee and deforestation have a long, uncomfortable relationship, driven largely by demand from countries like ours. One recent study put coffee at around 1% of agriculture-driven deforestation globally. A report from Coffee Watch also flagged spreading deforestation in Vietnam's Central Highlands — a region that produces a big share of the robusta that ends up in espresso cups across the UK. And an April 2026 Forest 500 report found that only 47% of major coffee companies had published any kind of public deforestation-free commitment. That's not a great number.
The numbers
For context, the UK imported around 2.4 million 60kg bags of green coffee in the 2024/25 market year — roughly 10% of the US market by volume. We're not a small player in this.
Legislation like this matters, even if it's imperfect and even if enforcement feels a long way off.
It's at least an acknowledgment that the way we consume coffee has consequences somewhere else in the world — and that can't keep being someone else's problem.
What this means to us
At Dog & Hat, it's part of why we care about where our coffee comes from. We source from roasters we trust, who in turn build relationships with the farmers growing it. We're not at the farm gate ourselves, but we think the chain of trust matters — and choosing roasters who take that seriously is the part we can control.
