Agriculture group spokesman Martin Häusling (Greens, Germany) said on Thursday 12 March that he had written to the Commission asking for an immediate halt to illegal imports of Brazilian tropical timber.
His letter, addressed on 11 March to the Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan, and European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, refers to Reuters reports on 4 March that hundreds of shipments of tropical timber were exported last year without permits from Brazilian environmental authorities to the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United States.
"When European and US Customs discovered the banned practice, the Brazilian environmental authority Ibama was informed. But this practice has been approved by Brazil! The overexploitation of Brazil's tropical forests must not be supported, even indirectly, by the EU", Haüsling said in a statement.
In his letter, he recalls that "the protection of the Amazon is vital to stem climate change" and that in July 2019 the EU has adopted a framework for action to protect and restore the world's forests. "We need to send a clear signal to the Brazilian authorities that the EU is not a market for illegal timber that could exacerbate the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and its ecosystem", writes Haüsling. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)