EU agrees new law to ban deforestation from supply chains
'EU agrees new law to kick deforestation out of supply chains'
EU legislators reached an agreement in the early hours of Tuesday (6 December) to pass a new law... [It] will require all companies to issue a due diligence statement in order to sell products like coffee, cocoa and wood on the EU market. Those linked to deforestation will be banned from import and export into the EU...
The amount of inspections carried out will depend on the country of production...
“We have made history with this world-first law against deforestation,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, Senior Forest Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office...
Greenpeace hailed “a major breakthrough for forests,” adding that the new EU law “will make some chainsaws fall silent and stop companies profiting from deforestation.” It regretted, however, that the regulation offers only “flimsy protection for the rights of Indigenous People who pay with their blood to defend nature”...
One concession from the European Parliament was over the inclusion of financial institutions, which will not be directly obliged to analyse their investments for deforestation risks.
Instead, the European Commission will have to present an assessment two years after the law comes into force, looking at whether existing EU legislation is sufficient to tackle the role of financial institutions... in global deforestation...
Despite the concessions, [MEP Delara Burkhardt] told EURACTIV that the law sets “a global gold standard for due diligence requirements for deforestation-free supply chains”.
“Against the will of the Council of Ministers and the European forestry lobby, we managed to cover larger forest areas by improving the definition of forest damage. Against the tyre manufacturers’ lobby, we were able to include rubber, a major driver of deforestation, in the regulation. And we were able to strengthen the role of indigenous communities,” she added...
The law will enter into force 20 days after its formal adoption by the European Parliament and EU countries, expected next year, but will not apply to big and medium sized companies until 18 months and micro and small companies for 24 months.
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