Tree Huggers

• Critics say the EU’s anti-deforestation law, the EUDR, uses a risk classification system that overlooks critical issues like governance, corruption and law enforcement capacity, missing systemic failures and enforcement gaps — the very conditions that enable illegal deforestation to flourish.
• A Forest Trends analysis warns that this approach may lead to misclassification of countries with weak enforcement and high illegality as “low risk.”
• These shortcomings in the benchmarking system have triggered growing unease among countries affected by the EUDR, including some that say their deforestation risk has been misrepresented.
• Set to take effect at the end of this year, the EUDR will ban imports of seven forest-linked commodities — soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and beef — unless they can be proven to be deforestation-free and legally produced.

archived (Wayback Machine)