Perrine Fournier

Fern position on the EU-Mercosur agreement

This EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement will increase trade in the agricultural products that are the main drivers of deforestation in South America. This is opposite of what needs to happen for the EU to achieve its commitments to...

27/01/2021

Pushing EU trade in the right direction?

Perrine Fournier analyses the French-Dutch call for making trade more sustainable in EU free trade agreements.

20/05/2020

Indonesia’s response to coronavirus threatens to increase illegal logging

Perrine Fournier explains how the EU should react.

27/04/2020

The proposed Mercosur deal throws fuel on the Amazon fires

Hope remains: the deal can still be rejected, as a first step toward requiring that companies and consumers do better.

18/09/2019

Long road to legality

Abandoning the timber trade deal between the EU and Vietnam would derail the fight against illegal logging, says Perrine Fournier

06/12/2018

Draft Decree of Vietnam’s timber legality system lacks teeth says the Vietnamese NGO FLEGT network

Vietnam’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union (EU) is designed to end the illegal timber trade by tackling its root causes. At its heart is a commitment to adopt a robust timber legality assurance system,...

11/07/2019

Forests and forest people in EU Free Trade Agreements

The EU has made strong commitments to mitigate climate change, stop deforestation and respect human rights, including community rights to land. The trade agreements the EU is currently negotiating with highly forested countries...

20/10/2018

Vietnam VPA at a milestone as it receives government approval

Guest Blog by Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) Vietnam

25/04/2019

Rooting for change - VPA Update, June 2018

One year ago, forests and their crucial ecological and economic role were again at the forefront of the EU’s policy agenda. In June 2017, at the EU conference on illegal logging and deforestation, EU Commissioner for International...

10/06/2018

A year on from FLEGT licensing - VPA Update, November 2017

LoggingOff and Fern publish occasional Forest Watch updates detailing events in countries negotiating a Voluntary Partnership Agreement from a civil society perspective. In the November 2017 edition, the main article focuses on...

15/11/2017

Could EU-Indonesia free trade deal end palm oil conundrum?

As a new round of free trade negotiations between the European Union and Indonesia begins in Brussels, improving forest governance should be central to any agreement.

Palm oil has had a lot of bad press. Shocked by numerous land...

10/07/2018

Deep in Denial

When the head of the WTO says trade does not impact the environment we should all be worried.

05/02/2019

Mercosur: Don’t sacrifice our food standards and tropical forests for trade

The trade agreement currently being negotiated by the EU and Mercosur will increase deforestation and accelerate the demise of European farmers by subjecting them to unfair competition, argue Perrine Fournier and Yannick Jadot.

A...

07/06/2018

The EU’s trade challenge

The international trading system is facing a crisis – but protectionism isn’t the biggest test EU leaders must deal with.

27/11/2018

EU-Japan free trade deal threatens the fight for legal timber

While moves towards greater international cooperation are welcome, the EU’s growing number of new free trade deals must be scrutinised. And in the case of the Japan-EU free trade agreement, the deal’s impact on the fight against...

12/09/2018

Sacrificing South America’s forests on the altar of EU market access

The first trade talks between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc of nations - Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – began almost 20 years ago. Since then they have stuttered through 28 rounds of negotiations, but this...

12/10/2017

Blog: Trading in incoherence? EU trade policy needs improving to give forests, communities and the climate a fair chance

When it comes to global trade, it is difficult to overestimate the EU’s importance. It is the world’s second largest importer (after the US), and the second largest exporter (after China), and has an overall share of world trade...

26/06/2017