A joint way forward on global forest loss
15 Mei 2025
Cooperative pathways for Europe and highly forested countries in a changing world
This policy brief discusses the EU’s engagement with highly forested countries. It argues that the EU has opportunities to both help regain trust and to tackle the root causes of deforestation. But this can only happen if the EU develops a more coherent, coordinated and tailored approach.
The brief first looks at shifts in how the EU has acted on tropical forests, and then discuss the changing landscape in which EU forest activities now take place. Finally we offer recommendations for what the EU could do externally and internally to assuage critics and build stronger partnerships with highly forested countries.
The briefing details the incentives beyond preferential market access that the EU could offer. It recommends that the EU:
-
Support public traceability systems to achieve compliance with EU forest measures and have a truly ‘transformative’ impact on smallholders’ livelihoods
-
Facilitate technical assistance and technology transfers while considering how to drive EU consumption away from the extractivist model
-
Dedicate financial support to forest governance measures that would help tackle the root causes of deforestation
Finally, we recommend that the European Commission signals to highly forested countries that it intends to better integrate and coordinate its approach to tackling global forest loss, while acknowledging existing national measures.
This briefing is partly based on an in-depth study by Tulip consulting commissioned by Fern, which interviewed with over thirty stakeholders from tropical forested countries.
Categories: Reports, EU Partnerships, EU Regulation on deforestation-free products, Forest conservation, Brazil, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Liberia, The Republic of Congo, Vietnam
