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The European Union’s divisive Deforestation Regulation (known as the EUDR) was supposed to come into force at the end of 2025. However, Kate Abnett and Makini Brice report for Reuters that legislators are now putting the EUDR on hold for another year until at least December 2026.
Designed to reduce deforestation-related imports, the EUDR was immediately met with controversy. Activists and environmentalists praised the law, with Greenpeace calling it “a major breakthrough for forests and for the people who stood up to protect them.” Industry groups and organizations like Fairtrade International worried about the impact on smallholder farmers who might not be able to comply with the strict reporting requirements.
The original implementation date was the end of 2024. However, lobbying from industry bodies, as well as countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, and Côte d’Ivoire, led the EU to postpone implementation until the end of 2025. Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said the latest postponement, which pushes implementation to December 2026, “was necessary to address concerns about the readiness of information-technology systems needed to support the law.”
Under the EUDR, importers seeking to bring certain agricultural products into Europe, including coffee, soy, beef, and palm oil, must demonstrate that the goods are not linked to deforestation. When the legislation was first introduced, coffee industry actors argued that it would be onerous and expensive to comply. In April, the EU relaxed some of these requirements, such as the requirement for companies to provide documentation annually instead of with every shipment.
A World Wildlife Fund report found that EU consumption was responsible for 16% of tropical deforestation in 2021. The EU estimated that a 12-month moratorium risked losing an additional 2,300 square kilometers of forest worldwide.
Environmental organizations criticized the delay, with the WWF calling the latest move “surprising and embarrassing.” The Rainforest Alliance described the postponement as “a blatant violation of all EU commitments to halt global biodiversity loss and climate change.”
Read more on the deforestation delay from Reuters here.
Photo by Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash
