Soy, beef, palm oil, timber, cocoa and coffee will only be allowed for import if their provenance can be certified. The direction of travel is towards “zero-deforestation” products. Soy, beef, palm oil, timber, cocoa and coffee will only be allowed for import if their provenance can be certified. The direction of travel is towards “zero-deforestation” products.
Stopping deforestation, including through stricter rules on the import of products and raw materials that could be linked to it. This is the aim of the new regulation proposed by the European Commission, which seeks to minimise deforestation and forest degradation connected to the Union and its imports. A regulation that aims, on the one hand, to protect biodiversity by promoting the consumption of "zero-deforestation" products and, on the other, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This is the finding of a recent report by WWF, which shows that between 2005 and 2017 soy, palm oil and beef were the products imported by the European Union with the greatest impact on tropical deforestation, followed by wood products from plantations, cocoa and coffee. In 2017, Europe was found to be the second largest importer of deforestation, just behind China. Its responsibility can in fact be linked to the deforestation and conversion of 203,000 hectares of natural land, with the emission of 116 million tonnes of CO2. During the period studied, the European Union was responsible for 16 per cent of deforestation associated with international trade, surpassing India (9 per cent), the United States (7 per cent) and Japan (5 per cent). Our country, based on 2017 data, ranks second among the eight European countries responsible for 80 per cent of the deforestation embedded in products of tropical origin.
The regulation sets out obligations for operators, who will be required in primis to collect the geographical coordinates of the plots of origin of the raw materials they place on the market. A benchmarking system managed by the Commission will make it possible to identify countries as low, medium or high risk in terms of producing raw materials or products that contribute to deforestation or that do not comply with the legislation of the producing country.
Companies placing the relevant raw materials and products on the market will be required to establish and implement "due diligence" systems to prevent products associated with deforestation from reaching the Union market. They will be subject to checks and will be required to answer to the competent authorities if they fail to comply with the requirements of the regulation. The new rules require operators placing the selected raw materials on the market for the first time to ensure that these have not been produced on land that has been subject to deforestation or degradation after 31 December 2020 and that they have been produced in compliance with the legislation of the country of production.
To support the monitoring system, geolocation will play a key role in obtaining the geographical information essential for authorities to verify that such products have not contributed to deforestation. In the second phase, companies will be required to use information on the plot of origin of raw materials to analyse and assess risks in the supply chain.
Given that, according to the IPCC, between 2007 and 2016 23 per cent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions were generated by agriculture, forestry and other land use, and that 11 per cent came from deforestation, it is clear that if the proposal were approved and adopted by the Union, it would establish new rules and give new impetus to forest protection.
