Anti-deforestation law: EU bans imports of goods from deforested areas

Status: 06.12.2022 12:19 p.m

The EU Parliament and the member states have agreed on a law to protect the rainforest. It aims to ensure that no more deforestation-related products are manufactured or sold in the EU.

The EU has agreed to ban various goods and raw materials from deforested areas. From 2023, this will include cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soybeans, wood, rubber, charcoal, printed paper products and meat. Products that contain these raw materials also fall under this new law.

For example, if a cow was fed with soy that was grown on areas deforested after December 31, 2020, neither its leather nor meat may be imported into the EU. If the cattle are bred in the EU and fed illegal soy from the rainforest, the meat will also become illegal.

The same principle applies to furniture made from tropical wood and to cocoa and palm oil in food. Overall, the 27 EU countries hope to significantly reduce deforestation. According to the EU Parliament, one tenth of the deforestation over the past 30 years is attributable to consumers in the EU. In total, a forest area corresponding to the total area of ​​the EU was cut down worldwide during this period.

The forest is often removed with the particularly harmful fire clearing. Many animals have no chance to escape.

Image: AFP

The provisions of the new law will come into force after just 20 days, although transitional periods of 18 months still apply to some parts. If you want to sell goods that contain raw materials that could come from deforestation, you now have to state where the respective raw materials come from. It must therefore be guaranteed that the products do not contain anything that is associated with new deforestation of forests or rainforests.

Important step according to the EU and environmental protection

According to Czech Environment Minister Marian Jurecka, the EU is a big consumer and trader of goods “that contribute significantly to deforestation”. So far, from a legal point of view, it has not been a problem to clear trees in the Amazon in order to breed cattle on the freed-up land and offer their meat in German supermarkets. “This will soon be over,” said SPD MP Delara Burkhardt.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) also welcomes the new law to a large extent. “As EU citizens, we received a law today that redefines the protection of the forest,” says Susanne Winter, head of the forest program at the WWF tagesschau.de. The newly defined control system is also a good tool for enforcing the regulations that have now been passed. However, even with the new rules, forests and species-rich savannahs could continue to be used economically.

controls and penalties

EU law provides for the classification of regions of origin of raw materials into three categories: low, medium and high risk. Depending on the risk to which an area is assigned, between one and nine percent of the goods imported from there should be checked. “It must be clear that control authorities now have to completely reorganize themselves,” said Winter. If violations are identified, penalties of up to four percent of a company’s EU-wide annual turnover are threatened.

The new law also stipulates that so-called “evasion offenses” will also be punished. So if someone finds a loophole in the new law and is shown to be intentionally exploiting it, they face the same penalty as a direct violation.

The controls are to be carried out using, among other things, satellite images, global position data and genetic analyzes of the goods and raw materials. “If the law and the control mechanisms provided for in it are implemented well, we are on the right track,” said Winter from the WWF.

The EU still has to formally approve the law before it comes into force. Traders then have 18 months to implement the new rules.

A burnt down forest in the Amazon region of Brazil.

Image: AFP

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