Publications

Reports

Restoring more than forests

How rights-based forest restoration can empower communities, recover biodiversity, and tackle the climate crisis

Forest restoration is gaining traction around the world as a key strategy to mitigate climate change and...

13/11/2020

Getting the incentives right

Why partnership agreements should be at the heart of EU efforts to end deforestationConverting forest land for agricultural crops is the main cause of tropical deforestation. The EU is a major importer of forest risk commodities...

23/10/2020

Reports

Enforcing due diligence legislation ‘plus’

Our latest policy analysis on how to end EU imports of Forest Risk Commodities looks at the type of regulation the Commission should adopt to halt and reverse global deforestation and how it could be enforced. 

The report draws...

15/10/2020

How the EU Biodiversity Strategy can protect and restore forests and rights

Unsustainable forestry, agriculture and mining have a devastating effect on the global environment. Wildlife is in terminal decline and there is precious little nature left to provide the food, resources, and space that humans...

12/10/2020

Reports

Key elements for an agreement between the EU and cocoa-producing countries, to ensure sustainability in the cocoa sector

The European Commission is exploring bilateral agreements with the governments of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to ensure sustainability in the cocoa sector, and in particular to tackle deforestation, farmer poverty and child labour. 

...

22/09/2020

Briefing Notes

Letting trees age: an effective climate strategy

French forests are currently at a crossroads. Ever since the 2007 Grenelle Environment Forum, France, like many European countries, has allowed industrial wood energy projects to proliferate. Now the urgent need to deal with the...

14/07/2020

NGO Statements

Direct threat to Indigenous territories of Mato Grosso and Brazil

Cuiabá, June, 22nd 2020 Civil society organisations are concerned about Brazilian State Bill 17/2020, proposed by the governor of Mato Grosso, Mauro Mendes. Contradicting the federal legislation, this Bill authorises the...

26/06/2020

Briefing Notes

Biodiversity first: How European forests can help tackle the climate crisis

The European Union (EU) has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. This will require us to both drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to increase carbon dioxide removals – negative emissions.

This briefing shows why...

25/06/2020

NGO Statements

Fern stands with the Black Lives Matter movement in the struggle for justice

A joint statement from all of us at Fern 

Fern’s vision is a world in which environmental, social and economic justice is fully integrated at all levels. To achieve this, we work with partners to uncover and end the systemic...

03/06/2020

Briefing Notes

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement: What is it, and what could it mean for forests and human rights?

In June 2019 the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay) announced that they had reached an ‘in principle’ agreement on the content of a bilateral trade agreement which they had been negotiating,...

02/06/2020