Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
New EU deforestation regulations to shift market’s supply chains
African countries, like Ethiopia, might be affected by new European measures, writes Lindi Botha.
Acup of coffee and a slice of chocolate cake will, from next year, carry somewhat less guilt for European consumers as the continent puts measures in place to eliminate products sourced from countries where deforestation is rife.
The EU’s Deforestation Regulation will come into effect in December this year, and has been designed to prevent deforestation-linked commodities and products from entering the EU market.
It is hoped the regulation will catalyse a much-needed reduction in deforestation on a global scale.
The commodities included in the regulation are soya beans, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber, cattle, palm oil and all their derived products.
Exporters wishing to access the EU market will need to submit a declaration to a relevant authority, which guarantees that goods have not been obtained from land where forest degradation or deforestation has occurred since 31 December 2020. Speaking during a webinar on the implications of the regulation, Emanuele Pitto, representative of the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment, said that deforestation mostly occurred to expand agricultural operations, which was why the regulation was focusing on the mentioned commodities being monitored.
However, he noted that deforestation often occurred in line with the producing country’s local legislation, and as such, not all deforestation was illegal.
The EU, however, deemed all deforestation unnecessary, which was why additional certification was needed when exporting to the European market.
While EU consumers and indigenous forests were set to benefit from the regulation, marginalised communities would likely be worse off.
Concerns have been raised that the smallholder farmers who supply a significant share of the targeted commodities lacked the technical and financial means to comply with the regulations. This meant that these producers were likely to be removed from EU supply chains, rendering millions of farmer livelihoods extremely vulnerable.
Tessa Meulensteen, senior programme manager for coffee at sustainable trade initiative IDH, said the regulation posed a prime opportunity for collective efforts across countries
“to get their houses in order”.
“If the mapping and traceability is done correctly, it could set a whole country apart from its competitors and provide a huge advantage. It is, however, a very complicated process and the risk is big that some countries or areas will just fall out of the supply chain,” Meulensteen said.
‘WE WILL HAVE MORE TRANSPARENT SUPPLY CHAINS [...] WHICH WILL REDUCE DEFORESTATION’
She added there was no risk that Europeans would run out of coffee, but rather that supply chains would see massive shifts. “Areas that have their deforestation certification on board will (benefit) until the other areas get on board. We are already seeing, for example, that contracts for coffee supply from Ethiopia are being cancelled because they do not have the certification in place.”
In the lead up to December, legislators have their work cut out as more clarity is needed over several clauses in the regulation.
“The work ahead is still significant, as there are ambiguities that need to be rectified,” said Pitto.
“But once everything is in place, we believe that we will have more transparent supply chains and better traceability tools, which will reduce deforestation across the globe.”