Publications & Insight

Briefing Notes

EU consumption of Palm Oil and deforestation

Palm oil is the world’s most commonly used vegetable oil. After beef and soya, palm oil is the third largest agricultural cause of deforestation. Global production has more than doubled since 1990, reaching 64.5 million tonnes in...

07/02/2017

Palm oil plantations in Cameroon ‘took away families’ crop land and burial lands’, hear participants at event in EU Parliament

Testimonies on the devastating impact of palm oil production in Colombia, Cameroon and Liberia were the subject of a high level event in Brussels today attended by several MEPs and policymakers. It comes just ahead of a crucial...

07/02/2017

EU Commission and Member States consolidate support for the FLEGT Action plan

From 6 to 16 February 2017 Fern and five of its partners from Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia toured Europe to discuss the future of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan with EU officials, Member States...

06/02/2017

NGO Statements

Biofuels are not a way to decarbonise aviation

This letter to Commissioner Bulc explains why NGOs are concerned about his statement that “Biofuels are the ‘best choice’ at this point to start to decarbonize the industry”. Relying on large-scale biofuel cultivation leads to...

26/01/2017

Reports

Community forests: A discussion document for Fern and partners

Anyone who works with forest dwellers across the world asks themselves the following question at some point or another: Can community forests be a viable alternative to industrial logging? If so, what form would this alternative...

12/01/2017

Blogs

A new beginning in the fight against illegal timber

The first batch of timber considered legal under Europe’s most innovative ever anti-illegal logging policy arrived in the UK this month. 

The timber’s seven week voyage across around 20,000 kilometres of ocean - from the heat and...

11/01/2017

The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan and forests: How and why NGOs should engage

This report looks at the European Union (EU) Circular Economy Action Plan, presented in December 2015 by the European Commission (EC) as the Communication “Closing the loop - An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy”. It...

06/01/2017

Press Releases

European Commission grants Drax a license to destroy forests at public’s expense

The UK’s biggest power station Drax can continue destroying forests and releasing greenhouse gas emissions at the taxpayer’s expense, after the European Commission today approved millions of pounds of additional UK renewable...

19/12/2016

Renewable energy proposal fails to act on bioenergy

On 30 November the EU Commission published its ‘Winter Package’, a 1,000 page document describing its climate and energy plans for after 2020. The package misses a crucial chance to end a bioenergy policy which damages forests and...

19/12/2016

SDG Communications: Commission overlooks forests

On 22 November 2016 the European Commission released a series of Communications on measures to take to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by the worlds’ nations in 2015 (FW 220). In them however, the...

19/12/2016