Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU Council have agreed on a proposal to postpone the implementation date of the EUDR regulation, which is intended to combat deforestation. The final vote on this matter will take place during the European Parliament’s plenary session in December. This means that companies and manufacturers will likely have an extra year to prepare for new responsibilities. However, the organisation Fairtrade has described this action as a step backwards in forest protection.
The EUDR regulation, adopted by the European Parliament in April 2023, is designed to combat deforestation. Enterprises marketing products in the EU from seven specific categories will need to demonstrate that these have not been sourced from areas where deforestation has occurred after December 30, 2020. These regulations apply to cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, rubber, cattle and wood, and products derived from them such as chocolate or paper. The regulation was due to come into force on December 30, 2024, but the European Commission has suggested a delay, citing the need for better preparation for the upcoming changes.
Michał Bryda-Przybyszewski, a communications manager for Fairtrade Poland, shared that the Parliament has also introduced additional changes, including a so-called extra category for benchmarking pertaining to the categorisation of countries based on deforestation risk.
This week, negotiators from EU institutions preliminarily agreed to defer the deadline. For this to take effect, the agreed text needs to be approved by both the parliament and the council, and published in the Official Journal of the EU before the end of the year. If that happens, the EUDR will commence on December 30, 2025, for large enterprises and on June 30, 2026, for the small and medium enterprise sector. The proposition to introduce a no-risk country category was rejected but the European Commission has stated it will consider simplified requirements for countries that implement sustainable forestry management.
However, this decision has been deemed by Fairtrade International as a step backwards in forest protection and climate change efforts. The organization fears that resuming work on the regulation may weaken many key initiatives aimed at reducing deforestation and potentially harm both farmers and firms. Bryda-Przybyszewski elucidates that for farmers and producers of cocoa and coffee, and other raw materials covered by EUDR regulation, it calls for geolocation work, or satellite mapping of plots to ascertain if deforestation has occurred on a particular farm after December 30, 2020.
More than 70% of Fairtrade-certified raw materials end up on the European market, so the loss of access to this market could significantly impact farmers. While large farmer cooperatives are advanced in this process and employ geolocation, it remains a considerable challenge for smallholder farmers who make up the majority.
The EUDR regulation brings with it substantial responsibilities and burdens for both farmers and businessmen throughout the supply chain. As a result, the new rules are met with considerable controversy and hostility, detracting attention from the global challenge of combating deforestation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 420 million hectares of forests (a region larger than the EU) were lost due to deforestation between 1990 and 2020. The EU’s consumption accounts for about 10% of global deforestation.
In the last few years, Fairtrade has updated its standards for cocoa and coffee, now requiring producers with Fairtrade certification to make greater strides in deforestation prevention. These updated standards are in line with EUDR requirements, including geolocation and data drafting for businesses’ due diligence declarations.
The over-harvesting of forests for cultivation is linked to the inadequate remuneration that farmers receive for their produce. If farmers were paid fair prices for their produce, they would not need to deforest additional land to increase their income. They would also have funds for investing in forest protection and practices like agroforestry. However, the constant struggle with extreme poverty often results in problems like deforestation. Fairtrade emphasizes the need to protect forests immediately, rather than waiting for another year to address deforestation.
According to the European Parliament, the agreement between EU institutions includes an “emergency brake”, which allows for a further postponement of the EUDR deadline. This can occur if the online platform for businesses is not fully operational by December 2025, or if countries’ risk classifications are not published at least six months in advance.
