Drink your coffee with the assurance of not contributing to the disappearance of forests on the other side of the world: the EU sealed on Tuesday 6 December an agreement without equal to date to ban the import of products if they contribute to deforestation.

Cocoa, coffee, soy, but also palm oil, wood, beef and rubber are concerned, as well as several associated materials (leather, furniture, printed paper, charcoal, etc.), according to this agreement concluded after long negotiations between the European Parliament and the Member States of the EU.

"It's a first in the world! It's the coffee for breakfast, the chocolate we eat, the coal in our barbecues, the paper in our books. It's radical", said congratulated Pascal Canfin (Renew, liberals), chairman of the Environment Committee in the European Parliament.

About 16% of global deforestation

At the origin of 16% of global deforestation through its imports (mainly soy and palm oil, 2017 figure), the EU is the second destroyer of tropical forests behind China, according to the NGO WWF .

Importation into the EU will be prohibited if these products come from deforested land after December 2020. Importing companies, responsible for their supply chain, will have to prove traceability via crop geolocation data, which can be linked to satellite photos.

The text was proposed in November 2021 by the European Commission, and broadly taken up by the States.

But MEPs had voted in September to strengthen it significantly, by widening the range of products concerned, in particular to rubber, absent from the initial proposal.

The European Parliament had also called for the scope of the text to be extended to other threatened wooded ecosystems, such as the Cerrado savannah (Brazil/Paraguay/Bolivia), from which a large part of European soybean imports come.

The agreement reached between MEPs and States finally stipulates that this extension "to other wooded land" must be considered no later than one year after the entry into force of the text.

Similarly, after two years, the Commission is required to study a possible extension to other products (such as corn, which MEPs wanted to target immediately), to other ecosystems rich in carbon storage and biodiversity ( peatlands...), but also to the financial sector, another strong demand from Parliament.

The EU could thus consider obliging financial institutions to refuse financial services or credits if these risk being associated with deforestation activities.

>> Deforestation, global warming… trees are also threatened with extinction

Guarantees to protect the rights of indigenous peoples

On the other hand, "we have obtained a much more robust definition of forest degradation" to cover all forests, and not just primary forests", observed Christophe Hansen (EPP, right), negotiator for Parliament. 

Likewise, unlike the initial proposal, the text includes "guarantees to protect the rights of indigenous peoples, our best allies against deforestation", he argued.

Importers will also have to "verify compliance with the country of production's human rights legislation, and ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples have been respected".

On the eve of COP15 biodiversity in Montreal, the EU decision "not only changes the rules of the game for consumption in Europe, but creates a huge incentive for other countries to change their practices", welcomed Anke Schulmeister. -Oldenhove, from WWF.

It welcomes the rules of implementation: at least 9% of the volumes imported from countries where the risk of deforestation is high must be controlled (only 1% for those where the risk is lowest), and the fines, calculated according to environmental damage, may amount to up to 4% of total annual turnover in the EU.

However, the text is "imperfect", she insists, noting the absence of savannahs, "which would make a huge difference for ecosystems in permanent danger", and a definition of deforestation limited to "conversion" in cropland, not including all damage within forested areas.

"Make no mistake, this is a major step forward (...) But European governments should be ashamed of leaving loopholes", added John Hyland, of Greenpeace, judging that the indigenous peoples only received a "very precarious" protection since it is based on local law, unequal according to the country.

With AFP

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