How to stop EU imports and consumption from causing deforestation?
On 29 June 2023, the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) entered into force.
It focusses on seven high-risk commodities, wood, soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, beef and rubber and the products derived from it like chocolate, leather and paper and will prohibit companies from putting products on the EU market unless they are deforestation-free, degradation-free and legally produced. Non-compliance would lead to significant penalties.
It represents an historic first in the fight against forest destruction. As the EU is the second biggest global importer of products that cause deforestation, the EUDR has the potential to drastically reduce forest loss and carbon emissions caused by the EU. However, the Regulation’s success now depends on effective implementation and enforcement.
How can the EU make the Deforestation Regulation work effectively? What are the next steps?
For the EU to actually reduce deforestation and human rights abuses it will need to also incentivise producer countries to tackle the root causes of deforestation, such as poor forest governance and unclear land tenure.
Success will depend on supporting measures and effective implementation and enforcement, in consultation and partnership with the producer countries and local communities who depend the most on these forests for their survival and livelihoods.
This work should be guided by the EUDR’s proposed Strategic Framework for Partnerships, which is set to include mechanisms and roadmaps to facilitate producer countries’ transition to sustainable agricultural production. Negotiation and implementation of these partnerships must include Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and smallholders (to ensure they don’t lose out to larger companies).
In addition, EU Member States must give Competent Authorities sufficient resources to check companies’ compliance.
The EU is assessing whether to extend the scope of the Regulation to other landscapes and Other Wooded Land and will then consider increasing the included commodities and products.
To be truly effective the EU will also need to work closely with major consumer countries like the United States, China and India.
Get to know producer countries' perspectives
Find out what of some of Fern's global partners think about the EUDR:
Ghana, Liberia, the Congo Basin, Brazil, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Vietnam and Indonesia
Fern's work on the issue
What do Fern and our partners want?
We want EU regulations that reduce human rights violations and deforestation, improve forest governance, and have a positive impact for smallholders.
What are we doing?
We influence - and where necessary trigger - EU policies such as the EUDR and linked initiatives, creating space for local civil society actors including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, ethnic minorities and smallholders, to be heard.
What has been achieved so far
Fern convinced the EU to regulate against imported deforestation
In March 2015, Fern Board member David Kaimowitz told a conference, that Europe’s supermarkets had been converted into crime scenes as tropical forests were being cleared illegally for soy, beef, palm oil and other commodities and ending up on Europe’s supermarket shelves.
The seemingly utopic aim was to encourage the EU to pass a Deforestation Regulation. Passing the EU Timber Regulation had been difficult - but the timber industry is minor compared with the huge multinational corporations trading in beef, palm oil and soybeans.
Yet it has happened! Thanks to the hard work of Fern, and its allies and organisations in Europe and the global South, we now have the EUDR which holds companies to account for deforestation associated with seven key commodities, and included a commitment to partner with producer countries to lower deforestation levels across the board.
Read more about our achievements or David Kaimowitz’s latest interview.
