The “Together4Forests” citizens’ initiative has become the new European anti-deforestation law

The “Together4Forests” citizens’ initiative has become the new European anti-deforestation law

Bucharest, 21 April 2023 – Agent Green welcomes the European Parliament’s decision to adopt the Regulation to combat deforestation worldwide. The new regulation is intended to prevent products from entering the Community market if they originate in natural ecosystems razed to produce wood, paper, coffee, cocoa, soya, rubber, charcoal, palm oil and cattle (live animals, meat or hides).

The new Regulation is the result of the Together4Forest citizens’ initiative, supported by hundreds of non-governmental organisations and signed by over 1.2 million Europeans. In Romania, Agent Green launched this campaign, conducted in recent years to secure the necessary signatures from our country.

“It was difficult because the European Commission’s requirement for citizens’ initiatives is that signatories give their personal identification number, and Romanians are generally reluctant to do that. But they did it, and now their signature has become law. So petitions matter!” said Gabriel Păun, president of Agent Green.

To ensure compliance with the new law, the European Commission and the competent authorities in each Member State (the environment ministry) will put a traceability, inspection and control mechanism into operation. By the end of next year at the latest, the world’s countries and regions will be classified by risk (low, standard or high). Products originating in low-risk countries will benefit from a simplified due diligence procedure. Operators will be checked in a proportion that depends on the country’s risk level: 9 % for high-risk countries, 3 % for standard-risk countries and 1 % for low-risk countries.

“I do not have 100% confidence in either companies or authorities, so I will personally carry out spot checks on a few essential products that reach our shop shelves. I am thinking at least of furniture, coffee, soya and cocoa,” Păun added.

The Environment Ministry will have access to relevant information supplied by companies, such as geolocation coordinates, and will carry out checks using satellite monitoring tools and DNA analyses to verify where the products come from.

Companies that place products from deforested areas on the Community market will face multiple and consistent consequences. The fine will be at least 4% of annual turnover, the goods confiscated, the activity suspended and the names of company heads published on a list of shame.

Over 420 million hectares of forests have been permanently cleared worldwide in the last 30 years. That means an area larger than the European Union. Deforestation was carried out to replace native ecosystems with agricultural plantations. The devastated areas have affected biodiversity, which includes both indigenous populations and non-human animals. The products obtained were exported all over the world, but the largest share went to the EU and China. This is why the EU initiated this new Regulation, which concerns not only forests but also other ecosystems crucial to protecting biodiversity and storing carbon: wetlands, peatlands and grasslands.

It is useful to know that the new Regulation does not entail banning imports, but requires economic operators in the EU to issue a “due diligence statement” certifying that a product does not originate on land deforested or degraded from 31 December 2020 onwards. “Forest degradation” includes converting primary forests or naturally regenerating forests into plantation forests or other wooded areas. For example, replacing teak forests in Myanmar with rubber trees or replacing beech forests in Romania with spruce plantations.

Companies will be obliged to check whether the products comply with the applicable legislation in the country of production, including human rights legislation, and whether the rights of affected indigenous peoples have been respected.