The European Union has approved a law aiming to curb deforestation by prohibiting products obtained from degraded or deforested land. While some have hailed the legislation, critics point to the near-impossibility of applying the law in reality.
The European Parliament this week voted almost unanimously in favour of a law to ensure that products imported by the 27-state trading bloc do not come from deforested land.
The EU regulation applies to cocoa, palm oil, soya beans, coffee, beef, rubber, charcoal and timber, as well as derived products such as chocolate, printed paper and leather.
The law requires companies selling the goods to the EU to provide a due-diligence statement and verified information proving that their products were not obtained on land deforested after 31 December 2020.
The statement will have to include information such as the quantity and the geolocation of all plots of land where the commodities were produced.
The EU is the second largest market, after China, for consumption of the targeted products. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the EU is responsible for 16 per cent of deforestation associated with international trade.
Companies that fail to comply with the new regulations will face fines, have their products confiscated and be denied access to the EU market.
The case of Côte d'Ivoire
With over one million growers, Côte d'Ivoire is the world largest producer of cocoa. According to CIRAD (the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development), illegal plantations destroyed 60 percent of the protected forest of Bossématié in just a decade.
🌳DeforestationParliament adopts new regulation to fight climate change and biodiversity loss. Companies must now ensure that products sold in the EU have not led to deforestation.Press release with vote results and quote by @CHansenEU⤵️https://t.co/HBK4Z8VFlS pic.twitter.com/ETpkYbhn4q-- ENVI Committee Press (@EP_Environment) April 19, 2023
Francois Ruf, a CIRAD researcher and cocoa specialist, told RFI that that even if the law is an ambitious one, it will be totally useless on the ground.
"I really can't see how this European law is going to make any difference regarding deforestation. The cocoa planters need more and more land, they are going further away from roads and deeper into natural reserves and protected forests," Ruf said.
"Take the magnificent forest of Bossématié, it is protected yet tons of cocoa beans come from the forest. I challenge the EU to get any concrete results there."
Ruf added that it is quite easy to falsify documents and claim that the cocoa beans were obtained from regular plantations and not deforested areas.
"It's a national sport in Côte d'Ivoire and all the official documents will not stop the last indigenous forests from burning down," he said.
Côte d'Ivoire claims it has pre-empted the EU law with a traceability programme, including GPS mapping.
Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumanu, Minister of Agriculture, told RFI that unlicensed Ivorian planters cannot sell their produce.
"If a planter usually produces five tonnes of cocoa but happens to have a higher yield, then the planter will be investigated," he said.
Implementation challenges
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Even though MEP Christophe Hansen has hailed the law as "a milestone in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss", he is aware that "it comes with implementation challenges".
EU member states will need to cope with the administrative burden of carrying out inspections. Each of them will have to appoint a designated authority tasked with checking statements and due diligence processes.
Hansen said that tracing the product to the field where it has been produced will not be an easy task. "But although tracking will be difficult, it is not impossible".
The Council of the European Union, representing the 27 member states, will endorse the final text within the next month or two.
The law will enter into force shortly after its adoption but will not apply to large- and medium-sized companies until 18 months later, and 24 months later for small and micro-businesses.
