EIA and 225 other global groups join forces to urge: ‘Hands off the EU Deforestation Regulation!’
EIA has joined with more than 225 civil society organisations from at least 42 countries to call on the European Parliament and national EU governments to reject the European Commission’s bid to stall a major forests protection law.
The Commission is proposing a delay of 12 months to legally applying the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
EU member states’ ambassadors are expected to give the green light to the Commission’s proposal in a meeting scheduled for today (16 October). The European Parliament will vote on the proposal in one of its upcoming plenary sessions, but has not yet set a date.
Forest in Papua, Indonesia
The EUDR will replace the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which prohibits supplies of illegal timber from anywhere in the world from entering the EU market.
EIA Senior Forests Campaigner Vanessa Richardson said: “The world cannot afford any delays in our collective fight against global deforestation and averting runaway climate change.
“Policymakers must act now and listen to all voices from producer countries and ensure the EUDR is effectively implemented.”
For more than a decade, EIA has campaigned and supported the implementation of the EUTR. Building on this experience, we have since been working to put in place a new, more comprehensive regulation which will prohibit even more commodities and products that are linked to deforestation or that are illegally produced from being sold in, or exported from, the EU market.
The production of these commodities and products, so called ‘forest-risk commodities’, leads to the expansion of agricultural land, which is a major driver of global deforestation and forest degradation and is often associated with abuses of people’s land rights.
Forest-risk commodities under the EUDR include cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber and some of their derived products such as leather, chocolate, tyres and furniture.
The EU is a major consumer of these commodities and the EUDR is expected to reduce the EU’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss and improve forest governance. It will also make the market fairer for businesses adhering to rules and regulations and it will enhance transparency.
Land cleared for palm oil in Indonesia (c) EIA
But this ground-breaking legislation to protect global forests is being threatened by the European Commission’s proposal to delay the entry into application of the law and events are now moving forward very quickly.
EU Member States’ ambassadors are expected to give the green light to the Commission’s proposal in a meeting today and ahead of this we and more than 225 partners have signed a joint statement in support of the EUDR’s integrity and existing timeline.
The EUDR was adopted with broad support from legislators in June 2023 and seeks to ensure EU citizens’ consumption of these commodities does not contribute to the destruction of forests around the world.
We believe that postponing this agreed legislation will send mixed signals to global markets, undermine the EU democratic process and lead to millions more hectares of forest being destroyed.
Read the joint statement and full list of signatories.
