Top EU officials have drawn up a proposal for rules to prevent deforestation in, for example, rainforests.
The draft was announced two weeks after world leaders signed the plan for deforestation at the global climate conference in Glasgow.
Rubber excepted
In the proposal for new rules, the European Commission only wants to allow products that have not contributed to deforestation.
The proposal concerns a ban on imports of beef, palm oil, soy, coffee and cocoa into the EU.
However, rubber is not covered by the union, an exception that is criticized by certain environmental groups, states The Guardian.
For the first time, the EU is trying to regulate products that can be linked to all kinds of deforestation, not just illegal logging or forest burning.
In addition to the six main products, this also applies to processed materials such as chocolate, leather and furniture.
Importers must be able to report exact coordinates for where production has taken place, reports TT.
"What we are proposing is a pioneering initiative," said Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for the Environment.
He continues:
- EU action alone will not solve the problem.
We also need large markets such as the USA and China to clean up their supply chain and we need producers who intensify the protection of forests, but we are ready to help.
Deforestation means that an originally forested area is permanently converted into either arable land, grazing land or other open land through felling or forest fires.
Per Larsson, forest expert at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), welcomes the news.
- This is important.
The EU and China are the largest imports of these products, he tells TT.