Loopholes in EU regulations appear to be driving unsustainable and fraudulent palm oil trade. EIA’s new briefing The Palm Oil Black Box – EU trade loopholes analyses EU trade patterns for palm oil and reveals a significant increase in the imports of waste and residues used to make biofuels. Biofuels are renewable fuels used as […]
Senior European lawmakers have been urged to ensure human rights and deforestation issues are kept at the heart of a new forest products risk-ranking system for countries. The proposed country risk benchmarking system will operate under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which seeks to prohibit trade in timber, beef, leather, chocolate, soy, palm oil and […]
This year is a big one for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), with the 78th meeting of the Standing Committee (SC78) kicking off in Geneva, Switzerland from 3-8 February. This will be followed by the much larger 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP20) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan later in the year. EIA […]
A new species of pangolin has been discovered, but already it is deemed to be threatened by illegal trade. The Indo-Burmese pangolin (Manis indoburmanica ) is the tenth to be found and was identified by scientists who were conducting routine examination of pangolin scales seized in India. Some of these scales were identified as coming from […]
What was expected to be the fifth and final session of the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee met in South Korea last month, but ultimately it failed to agree a Global Plastics Treaty. Instead of cause for celebration, our campaigners came away from the talks concerned that the process had been hijacked by vested financial interests. […]
Thailand’s newly announced ban on plastic waste imports is a monumental victory for the health of the country’s people and environment. The South-East Asian country is one of several in the region to accept and process plastic waste from other nations. However, history has shown that such bans, while necessary, often displace the problem rather […]