As part of a significant regulatory initiative, the European Union (EU) is considering a ban on imports of foods originating from deforestation-prone areas. The proposed target, outlined by EU Commissioner for the Environment and Oceans Virginijus Sinkevicius, would cover six agricultural products: beef, palm oil, coffee, cacao, and timber, which collectively represent around 19% of commodity imports into the EU.
The draft anti-deforestation law is set to be published on November 24th and aims to reduce the impact of European consumer demand on global forests and indigenous communities. Under the law, companies would be required to prove that the products they sell in the EU’s single market have not contributed to legal or illegal deforestation or forest degradation resulting from agricultural activities (based on activity from December 31, 2020). Failure to provide accurate information, verified through satellite images, to national authorities could lead to fines of up to 4% of a company’s annual turnover.
While some environmental activists have welcomed the proposed regulation, others have criticized the limited scope of the ban and called for the inclusion of rubber. Rubber plantations have been linked to significant deforestation, with 5 million hectares of tropical forests cleared for rubber production in mainland Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa between 2003 and 2017, according to Current Biology. Sinkevicius stated that the targeted products were focused on addressing the worst cases of “embedded deforestation” and that the law would be regularly updated to address other patterns of deforestation. There is a possibility that rubber may be included in the negotiations, as some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have indicated. The draft law will require approval from EU governments and the European Parliament.
