UK consumption is having an “unsustainable” impact on the world, and contributing particularly highly to deforestation, a report by MPs has found.

Products such as soya, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather may be products of deforestation, and the environmental audit committee has found that the UK’s deforestation footprint per tonne of product consumed is higher than that of other countries including China, calling it “unsustainable”.

A deforestation footprint is similar to a carbon footprint. It signifies how much deforestation occurs per tonne of product consumed. Scientists have worked out the deforestation footprints of various countries by analysing trade patterns for goods which are linked to high levels of forest destruction.

MPs on the environmental audit committee are calling in the report for ministers to develop a target to reduce the UK’s impact on global deforestation as well as a Global Footprint Indicator. The report highlights that forests host 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, support the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people and provide vital ecosystem services to support local and global economies.

Deforestation contributes 11% of global carbon emissions. A study conducted by the RSPB and WWF found that UK imports of just seven forest-risk commodities – soya, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather, paper, rubber and timber – accounted for a land footprint of 88% of the size of the UK each year. In the same study, research showed that 40% of the UK’s overseas land footprint was in countries at high risk of deforestation, weak governance arrangements and poor labour standards.