Tiếng ViệtIn this post, I would like to give you a very quick update on the frequently asked questions about the EU Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR).
I know it is frustrating to think about how your organisation or company can prove your compliance with EUDR while there are so many unanswered questions. Indeed, the requirements of the regulation itself are very strict and come with the possibility of being sanctioned if violated. It is even more frustrating when the official date of entering into the application of the Regulation for the majority of large and medium-sized operators and traders is January 1, 2025 (less than one year from now).
Did the regulation keep you up at night trying to figure out what these requirements actually meant and if it applied to your business? What do you have to do to prove your compliance with the due diligence statement?
I guess, for many companies, even big companies with some experience in exercising due diligence, it still gives you a headache thinking about how to meet the geolocation and traceability requirements when you have thousands of products being sourced globally.
I know I have been talking nonsense a bit too much. Let’s stop talking and answer some of your burning questions. We will dig right into the topic and see what the available solutions on the market are to possibly support your company and show your compliance.
Frequently asked questions about EUDR
Several aspects of EUDR are revolutionary and have not been asked about anywhere else. For example, traceability, geolocation, plot of land, time of production, and so on. Since the Regulation covers a broad range of topics, as mentioned above, several of them are revolutionary and new. Therefore, it cannot be covered in just one blog post. I will divide it into topics to dive deeper into every important aspect of the regulation. It will likely be a series of posts. So please stay tuned and follow the series for a full picture.
What is deforestation?
Let’s first focus on the first important aspect of the Regulation which is the definition of deforestation-free. To understand deforestation-free, we should first see what deforestation is.
By EUDR’s definition (see article 2), deforestation means the conversion of forest to agricultural use, whether human-induced or not. It is important to note that EUDR only prohibits the acts of placing and making available on the Union markets as well as exporting the relevant products from the Union when the land was deforested and converted to agricultural uses. However, other types of forest land-use changes or conversions, such as urban development or infrastructure, do not fall under the deforestation definition. As a result, wood harvested from these areas would be compliant with the Regulation.
However, it is a bit tricky in the case of non-human-induced deforestation. For example, it is quite common to see some areas of forest being deforested due to wildfires, storms, flooding, windthrows, diseases, and so on (i.e., natural disasters). The question is whether the wood taken from these areas is counted as deforestation.
The answer is “DEPEND”. It depends on what the forest managers decide to do with the deforested land afterwards. For example, according to the explanation from the EC, “a forest that has experienced storm damage and is thereafter turned into agricultural land (after the cut-off date) would be deemed to have undergone deforestation. Therefore, timber harvested from this area falls under the scope of the Regulation and will be prohibited from placing or making available on the Union market, or exporting from the Union. On the other hand, if the damaged forest is allowed to regenerate, it will not be considered deforestation, and once it has recovered, an operator may obtain wood from it.
However, there is still more room for clarification in cases where the deforested areas caused by a natural disaster are then converted into other types of land uses other than agricultural land. Would the wood sourced from these areas not be subject to the Regulation?
Other definitions of deforestation
It is also worth noting that there are other existing definitions of deforestation which are different from the definition of EUDR. For example, under Decision 11/CP.7 from the Kyoto Protocol under UNFCCC in 2001, deforestation is defined as the direct human-induced conversion of forested land to non-forested land. We can see that UNFCCC considers the land to be deforested only if it is led directly by human activities. It also includes all types of human-induced conversion, not only for agricultural purposes, unlike the definition of EUDR.
In addition, FAO defines deforestation slightly differently. By FAO definition, deforestation is the conversion of forest to another land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10 per cent threshold.
Explanatory note of FAO’s definition:
1. Deforestation implies the long-term or permanent loss of forest cover and implies trans-formation into another land use. Such a loss can only be caused and maintained by a continued human-induced or natural perturbation.
2. It includes areas of forest converted to agriculture, pasture, water reservoirs and urban areas.
3. The term specifically excludes areas where the trees have been removed as a result of harvesting or logging, and where the forest is expected to regenerate naturally or with the aid of silvicultural measures. Unless logging is followed by the clearing of the re-maining logged-over forest for the introduction of alternative land uses, or the mainte-nance of the clearings through continued disturbance, forests commonly regenerate, although often to a different, secondary condition. In areas of shifting agriculture, for-est, forest fallow and agricultural lands appear in a dynamic pattern where deforesta-tion and the return of forest occur frequently in small patches. To simplify reporting of such areas, the net change over a larger area is typically used.
4. Deforestation also includes areas where, for example, the impact of disturbance, over-utilization or changing environmental conditions affects the forest to an extent that it cannot sustain a tree cover above the 10 percent threshold.
Definition of deforestation- free
Back to EUDR, deforestation-free is defined as:
- That the relevant products contain, have been fed with or have been made using, relevant commodities that were produced on land that has not been subjected to deforestation after 31 December, 2020; and
- in the case of relevant products that contain or have been made using wood, that the wood has been harvested from the forest without inducing forest degradation after 31 December, 2020;
“produced” here means grown, harvested, obtained from, or raised on relevant plots of land or, as regards cattle on establishments.
“Relevant products” here mean products containing, having been fed with or having been made using relevant commodities, namely wood, coffee, rubber, oil palm, cocoa, soya, and cattle and their derived products (article 1). Please see the details in Annex I of the Regulation to see if the commodities and/or products of your companies are affected by EUDR.
Forest degradation
Forest degradation means structural changes to forest cover, taking the form of the conversion of:
- primary forest or naturally regenerating forests into plantation forests or into other wooded land; or
- primary forests into planted forests.
There are several definitions of forest degradation and conversion scenarios, which are also tricky to interpret and require another post to discuss them in depth.
So please stay tuned and see you in the upcoming post about the most frequently asked questions about EUDR.
