Another year down, another year closer to the 2020 deadline of the New York Declaration on Forests. In 2014, more than 50 companies, including household names like Unilever, Cargill, Nestle and Walmart, signed the declaration, committing to eliminate deforestation in four key commodities by 2020: beef, soy, palm oil, and pulp and paper. This enormous undertaking is a stepping stone to the even bigger goal of eliminating deforestation in all supply chains by 2030.

The 2020 goal isn’t going to happen, but that’s okay. I’m here to tell companies: don’t despair.

I understand the angst that some corporate leaders may be feeling. From their standpoint, there’s only a year left before failure to meet the 2020 deadline—and before NGOs come after them for dropping the ball.

But I see things a little differently. Companies have much to be applauded for—as long as they have a solid plan in place to further ramp up progress toward their commitments.

The 2020 deforestation goals represent the first serious attempt to implement deforestation commitments. Companies made timebound plans and pulled business units in key producing countries into cross-company planning on deforestation (often for the first time). These companies gained a much better sense of their deforestation footprints, which allowed them to prioritize strategies and resources. For example, many companies decided to focus on palm oil in Indonesia, soy in Brazil, and cocoa in Cote D’Ivoire. None of that would have happened without the urgency created by the 2020 commitments.

Meanwhile, NGOs mobilized in two key areas: tools and transparency.