As many of you may have already heard, last week the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (EU) Regulation regarding the Union market and the export of certain raw materials was published in the Official Journal of the European Commission. Beef and hides are part of this list, as well as products associated with deforestation and degradation (Read it here.).
This means that it enters into force on July 1, 2023, and will begin to apply on December 30, 2024 (after 18 months transition period). The regulation aims to stop deforestation and forest degradation driven by EU consumption and production. This, in turn, is expected to reduce GHG emissions and global biodiversity loss.
The initiative aims to minimize the consumption of products from supply chains associated with deforestation or forest degradation and to increase demand and trade in the EU for legal and "deforestation-free" raw materials and products.
The definition of "deforestation-free" sets a deadline of December 31, 2020. This means that no raw material or derived product included in the scope of the Regulation will be able to enter or leave the EU market if it is has occurred on land that has been subject to deforestation or forest degradation after that date.
This new regulation, and others that will surely appear along the same lines, has caused long discussions in our Roundtables, mainly in Latin America, especially since the regulation goes above local laws and the legal deforestation that many of these countries still allow, based on territorial forest planning, Environmental Impact Studies and continuous monitoring by the States (although this is an important point to improve.)
At GRSB, we have tried to collaborate with these debates and listen to everyone's points of view. Personally, I understand the frustration and the arguments that these types of regulations do not respect local land use laws, urgent need for progress in certain territories of these countries and appreciation for the environmental services countries that conserve forests provide to those that do not, or those largely responsible for Climate Change by being highly industrialized countries with a high use of fossil fuels and energy.
On the other hand, markets have the right to set their own rules regarding what products they want and don't want to buy. This regulation is conditioning the imports of certain products by Europe, and therefore any country/company that is interested in selling to them must comply with these rules.
I believe that this represents an opportunity for many countries, in the sense that they will be able to "order" and have more transparency in the marketing of these products. It will make it possible to achieve transparent and traceable marketing systems, which will allow them to have more data regarding the geographical points where these foods were produced and processed, types of production systems, distance traveled by animals prior to slaughter, and other data that will allow us to further improve production efficiency, correct deviations and continue to improve the system.
Of course, it represents many challenges including the costs of implementing these traceability and information management systems. I believe that there is an urgent need for cooperation with Europe, and other more developed countries to implement and pay for these systems.
It is also important to think about the producers and fields that are left out of this system who made changes in land use after the established deadline. There must be a plan on the part of the local governments to help these producers through this transition and not punish them, but partner with them.
I also believe that there should be support for small producers who, in many countries, have subsistence livestock or with very small margins. Any external event like this can have very high consequences for them.
GRSB calls for dialogue, collaboration and a search for joint solutions.
On June 27 we are going to offer a webinar on this topic. I invite you all to register to learn more about situation of Latin American countries and importers.
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