Regulatory measures to combat deforestation

Subject: Regulatory measures to combat deforestation

Although the EU is not home to the Earth’s largest and most important forests, our habits as consumers do have a major impact on those forests, as the EU is the final consumer of 10% of the products associated with deforestation.

In its communication entitled ‘Stepping up EU action to protect and restore the world’s forests’, the Commission mentions the FLEGT action plan, the Timber Regulation designed to minimise the risk of importing illegally harvested timber, as well as a number of other examples of policies geared towards making the supply chain more transparent, with a view to better assessing the impact that various kinds of products have in terms of deforestation. The Commission also puts forward new measures, such as tightening up certification, creating a platform to foster dialogue, and looking into other regulatory and non-regulatory actions to mitigate the risks of importing products associated with deforestation.

1. Does the Commission take the view that these measures go far enough in order to achieve a policy of ‘zero deforestation’?

2. What regulatory and non-regulatory actions is the Commission referring to?

3. Will the Commission be coming forward with rules to prohibit all imports of goods associated with deforestation and implement a ‘non-deforestation import’ certification scheme, or a scheme involving effective checks on ‘non-deforestation export’ certificates issued by exporting countries?

Answer given by Mr Vella on behalf of the European Commission

(29 November 2019)

The communication referred to in the question includes an analysis of the problems, a discussion on how to tackle them and proposes a series of initial actions to step-up EU action to protect the world’s forests, in particular primary forests. The communication also paves the way for additional measures which are for the incoming Commission’s political leadership to consider and decide upon.

The Commission will assess additional demand side regulatory and non-regulatory measures — where all possible options will be assessed — with a view to put in place effective measures to ensure level playing field and a common understanding of deforestation- free supply chains, in order to increase supply chain transparency and minimise the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with commodity imports in the EU.

In parallel, the Commission has launched a call for tender (1) for a study on certification and verification schemes, which will assess schemes related to the forest sector and for wood-based products and evaluate the applicability in relation to other products originally from converted land.

Action by the EU alone will only have a limited impact in reducing deforestation and forest degradation globally. It is therefore important to strengthen cooperation, to encourage consistent action and to avoid diversion of trade in commodities related to deforestation to other regions in the world.

⋅1∙ https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft-document.html?docId=61586 | | ( | | )