EU deforestation bill in right direction, needs improvement, say Brazilian NGOs
Environmental organizations from world's biggest tropical country argue for wider protection to native vegetation and stricter controls against leakage
A group of three-dozen leading Brazilian environmental organizations issued a statement today asking for improvements in EU’s proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products.
The NGOs, which include the Brazilian branches of WWF, The Nature Conservancy and climate policy watchdog Observatório do Clima say in the letter that the new European legislation proposal to ban commodities produced with deforestation goes in the right direction towards meeting the goals of the Glasgow Declaration on Forests. The 2021 voluntary agreement aims to “halt and reverse” deforestation by 2030.
Brazil is the biggest tropical forest country in the world, home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest. If it doesn’t play ball, the Glasgow declaration and the Paris Agreement goal itself would be in jeopardy.
“It is a necessary and positive proposal,” the statement on the EU draft legislaion reads. However, it has some gaps that need to be addressed. Among them are the needs for wider protection to other ecosystems where deforestation could leak to, and for stricter control against within-property leakage.
The statement argues that, by using the FAO definition of “forest”, the proposal ends up by leaving important ecosystems unprotected which could be targeted by agribusiness expansion. Chief among them is the Cerrado, the Central Brazilian savanna, a biodiversity hotspot where Amazon conversion could leak to. Citing yet-to-be-published data from Brazilian mapping consortium MapBiomas, the NGOs, “in Brazil alone 75% of the Cerrado, 89% of the Caatinga, 76% of the Pantanal, and 74% of the Pampa would be at risk.”
The organizations also say there’s room for improvement in due diligence criteria. According to the European Commission proposal, the “plot” of land in a farm subject to audit is defined as the actual area of the property where a given commodity is being produced. Citing a 2020 Science study that found out that up to 20% of Brazil’s exports of soybeans to Europe are tainted by deforestation, including within-farm clear-cutting in plots where food commodities are grown for less strict markets, the NGOs suggest that “plot” be defined as the whole property for due diligence purposes.
The proposal also lacks on firm assurances about human rights, the NGOs say. The risk assessments provided for in the proposed legislation “need to explicitly consider international laws and standards on tenure rights, notably of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), such as the Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.”
The letter comes ahead of a meeting of the EU Environmental Council next Thursday (17th) to discuss the regulation.
Read the complete statement here.
Press contacts:
Solange A. Barreira – Observatório do Clima
[email protected]
+ 55 11 9 8108-7272
Claudio Angelo – Observatório do Clima
[email protected]
+ 55 61 9 9825-4783 “plot” be defined as the whole property for due diligence purposes.
The proposal also lacks on firm assurances about human rights, the NGOs say. The risk assessments provided for in the proposed legislation “need to explicitly consider international laws and standards on tenure rights, notably of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), such as the Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.”
The letter comes ahead of a meeting of the EU Environmental Council next Thursday (17th) to discuss the regulation.
Read the complete statement here.
Press contacts:
Solange A. Barreira – Observatório do Clima
[email protected]
+ 55 11 9 8108-7272
Claudio Angelo – Observatório do Clima
[email protected]
+ 55 61 9 9825-4783
