Rules to stop global deforestation

Global deforestation

Rome [ENA] There is at present no EU legislation prohibiting products that contribute to the destruction of forests outside the European Union from being placed on the EU market. Consequently, European consumers do not know whether the products they buy contribute to deforestation, including of irreplaceable tropical forests that are crucial for fighting climate change or protecting biodiversity.

Since 1990, 1.3 million km2 of forests have been lost - an area larger than South Africa. Reversing deforestation is key to protecting biodiversity, creating carbon sinks and sustainably supporting local communities. It is estimated that EU consumption represents around 10% of global deforestation with palm oil, meat, soy, cocoa, eucalyptus, maize, timber, leather and rubber among the main drivers of deforestation. Between 1990 and 2016, an area of 1.3 million square kilometres of the world’s forests was lost, with a destructive effect on biodiversity, climate, people, and the economy.

Afforestation, where trees are planted in an area not previously forested, could under certain conditions, help the EU to reach climate neutrality by 2050. However, newly planted forests cannot replace primary forests, which provide more carbon dioxide storage and more essential habitats than younger and newly planted ones. Therefore, the European Parliament on Thursday 22nd october 2020 adopted a report with 377 votes to 75 and 243 abstentions calling on the Commission to present an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation. Members of Parliament made use of their prerogative in the Treaty to ask the Commission to come forward with legislation.

Voluntary initiatives, third-party certification and labels have failed to halt global deforestation and binding measures to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation are needed. The European Parliament calls for a new EU legal framework based on mandatory due diligence for companies, meaning they must perform a risk assessment of their products to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how they address the issue of deforestation throughout the supply chain. All operators on the EU market must ensure that their products can be traced to be able to identify their origin and ensure the rules are enforced.

However, the administrative burden for SMEs must be minimum and operators with large numbers of suppliers should focus on those where the risk of detrimental impacts is most significant based on a risk assessment. Companies that fail to do so and place products on the EU market derived from commodities that endanger forests and ecosystems should face penalties. An EU legal framework should also be extended to include high-carbon stock and biodiversity-rich ecosystems other than forests, such as marine and coastal ecosystems, wetlands, peatlands or savannahs, to avoid pressure being shifted onto these landscapes.

Members of Parliament finally underlined how EU trade and investment policy should include binding and enforceable sustainable development chapters that fully respect international commitments and regretted that such provisions have not been fully included in the EU-Mercosur agreement.