Cerrado is left out of EU anti-deforestation regulations

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The European Union approved, this Tuesday morning (6), a new regulation to combat the importation of products that contribute to deforestation. It was established that the European common market will reject the entry of a series of commodities —meat, soy, wood, rubber, cocoa, coffee and palm oil (dendê)— from areas that have been deforested, even with legal permission, after December 31, 2020.

The measure was celebrated by environmentalists from several countries, but it should have a special impact in Brazil, since Europe is the second largest consumer market for Brazilian commodities.

The ban also includes items derived from those on the list, such as paper, chocolate and leather, and will have its items regularly reviewed and updated, “taking into account new data, such as changes in deforestation patterns”.

In addition to providing detailed information on the geolocation of production areas, companies interested in exporting to the European Union will also need to document that the entire process was done in accordance with the legislation of the country of origin, including in relation to the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. .

Although he points out that the text has important gaps, the legislation was classified as “a historic milestone for forests” and for the Amazon by the Climate Observatory, an entity that brings together 77 organizations linked to the preservation of the environment.

“What this law demonstrates is that the fence on the issue of deforestation is closing worldwide”, evaluates the executive secretary, Marcio Astrini.

Although the regulation offers protection to the Amazon, the Atlantic forest and the chaco, the typical forest biomes of South America, environmentalists criticized the exclusion of the cerrado from the agreement.

The second largest biome in Brazil, with about 204 million hectares, the cerrado showed an 8% growth in the area deforested in 2021. The exclusion of the new European rules could further encourage the loss of forest cover.

“Once again the cerrado is placed as a sacrifice biome. The Europeans gave an important signal to the world, but missed the opportunity to make an effective law. The cerrado is the main source of deforestation imported by Europe today. For us, it increases the risk of water resources being depleted, a water and energy supply crisis for the country’s largest urban centers, and the intensification of violence in the countryside”, says Guilherme Eidt, Public Policy advisor at ISPN (Institute Society, Population and Nature ).

“The regulations must serve as a shield, a type of environmental safeguard, to unlock the EU-Mercosur agreement. And the result of this for the cerrado will be a greater acceleration of deforestation and violation of the rights of peoples and traditional communities”, considers Eidt.

Up to one year after the formal entry into force of the new rules, a revision of the text is foreseen, which may include the cerrado in the list of biomes provided for in the legislation.

For Márcio Astrini, from the Climate Observatory, European legislation “is just the beginning”.

“The same debate is being held in the United States, through a bill. China has even said that it will start studying how it will remove products that cause deforestation from its list of imports. This means that the largest consumer markets in the world are already taking action against deforestation.”

The potential for international influence of the European position, as well as the proximity of the COP15 (UN conference on biodiversity), which takes place between December 7 and 19 in Montreal (Canada), was also highlighted by the Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries , Virginijus Sinkevicius.

“Through this agreement, on the eve of the crucial global conference to protect biodiversity in Montreal, the European Union is sending a strong signal to the rest of the world that it is determined to tackle global deforestation, which is a massive contributor to the climate crisis and the loss of our natural environment,” said the Finnish commissioner in a statement.

The decision announced has now been agreed by negotiators from the European Commission, the European Council (representation of the EU Member States) and the European Parliament, the so-called “trialogue”. Before taking effect, however, the regulation needs to be formally approved by MEPs and the Council.

Once in force, operators and merchants will have 18 months to adapt and implement the new rules. Micro and small companies will have longer deadlines, among other special measures.

One of the points of the legislation, according to the European Commission, is to ensure that the origin of products can be rigorously traced, allowing monitoring of the entire production chain.

In order to be able to export their articles to the EU, companies will need to provide detailed audits, known in the market as “due diligence”, simultaneously proving two essential questions: that the products do not come from areas deforested after December 2020 and that they are in compliance with all applicable laws in the country of origin.

In addition, traceability mechanisms are planned that even involve DNA analysis of exported products.

European authorities promise to work on supporting countries and producers to adapt to the new rules, but have not yet announced concrete details about what will be done.

The European Commission will also create a deforestation risk classification system for countries. The obligations of exporting companies and the intensity of inspection work will take this assessment into account.

With deforestation on the rise in recent years, Brazil should, in principle, be classified as a high-risk country by Europeans.

“The desperate thing is that we spent four years in Brazil encouraging deforestation. While the world is moving in one direction, Brazil has lost four years”, stated Astrini.

“The new government will have to do the work that was not done in the last period, to reduce these current high rates of deforestation. It is possible to do that, but now it becomes a legal imposition, at least for the European bloc, and probably to other countries as well,” he added.

So far, the Brazilian government has not commented on the European Union’s decision.

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