Focusing on forests, without considering human rights in countries where tropical forests are destroyed for cultivation, risks undermining the future draft European legal framework to curb global deforestation due to EU imports, warned MEP Delara Burkhardt (S&D, Germany) on Thursday 16 September.
At issue is a working document from the Commission, which the MEP, the Parliament’s rapporteur for this dossier, considers to be incomplete. This is a draft impact assessment of the various options available, which will form the basis of proposed legislation, expected in December, to impose an EU-wide due diligence along the supply chain.
“I am concerned about the seemingly limited scope of the Commission’s current approach. The narrow focus on forests alone ignores the fact that other important ecosystems, such as the Cerrado savannah or the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil, are also converted for agricultural products sold on the European market. The fact that people who live in and of these ecosystems, especially indigenous communities, are being driven off their lands and become victims of violence, must be addressed by a future law”, said the MEP.
In October 2020, the European Parliament called for European companies to demonstrate that their supply chains do not contribute to the destruction of forests or other vital ecosystems - such as savannahs, grasslands, peatlands and mangroves - or to human rights abuses, if they want to place products on the EU market (see EUROPE 12587/6).
“We cannot speak about the destruction of forests without speaking about the violation of human rights. The Commission’s study remains weak on the nexus between deforestation and human rights violations and only speaks about protecting human rights as enshrined in the law of the country of origin. This does not go far enough, because some countries only have very fragmented legislation”, Ms Burkhardt told EUROPE, on Friday 17 September.
According to the Commission document, the most viable option to minimise the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market is Option 2, which would consist of a benchmark system and a list of offending operators, combined with an improved mandatory due diligence system based on a definition of ‘deforestation-free’.
Within the European Commission, the environment services (DG Environment) is the head department for future legislation.
In the European Parliament, the Committee on Environment (ENVI) will most likely take the lead, but other relevant parliamentary committees, notably the Committee on International Trade (INTA), will be involved. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)