Inside European Union's new deforestation-free products law

Impact of deforestation in Mt Kenya Forest. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

A new EU Deforestation Regulation has listed seven commodities that should be ‘deforestation-free’ for them to be sold to the EU markets.

Operators and traders will have to provide proof that their products did not come from farms where trees were cut down to pave way for farming or cattle grazing and their activites did not lead to degradation.

“Under the regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation,” the EU Commission noted.

EU further noted that the main reason for the new regulations is to avoid the consumption of products linked to deforestation or degradation as well as to address deforestation driven by agricultural expansion to produce the commodities.

EU also said that the new regulations are expected to reduce carbon emissions caused by EU consumption and production of the relevant commodities by at least 32 million metric tonnes a year.

In the new regulations, traders of these products, including Kenyan firms that export products like coffee, will have to pin the geolocation of all plots of land where the relevant commodities were produced as well as the date or time range of production or face dissuasive penalties.

The products must not be produced from lands that have been deforested since December 31, 2020. The new law came into force in June 2023. Between December 2023 and the end of January 2024, regulation on deforestation-free products enters into application.

As per the timelines given by the EU, it is expected that regulation on deforestation-free products enters into application for micro and small undertakings by June 2025.

On December 18, 2023, the EU announced that it was starting a pilot testing of the Deforestation Information System until the end of January 2024. The pilot testing entails the participation of 100 stakeholders. This, the EU said, will ensure a smooth transition at the end of 2024, when the rules enter into application.  

“The testing period will provide valuable feedback and observations about the system, to ensure it is easy to use,” the EU noted.

While the EU says this is part of its efforts to minimize global deforestation and forest degradation driven by its consumption of certain commodities and products, developing countries have raised concerns that the regulations disregard local circumstances and capabilities.

Countries including Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Ghana Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala among others are opposed to the regulations.

Developing countries say that smallholder farmers are especially vulnerable to the new EU regulation and may end up being excluded from international value chains not because they have deforested their land but due to their inability to show compliance with the stringent requirements.

They said the EU must acknowledge the efforts made by developing countries to improve their livelihood as well as the significant challenges including limited access to financing schemes and new technologies.