EU’s deforestation observatory goes live

An EU observatory on deforestation and forest degradation went online Monday, helping to protect and restore world’s forests and ensuring that Europeans consume deforestation-free products.  The observatory, managed by the EU’s Joint Research Centre, is making its maps and datasets on changes in the world’s forest cover and associated drivers publicly available. The observatory will support the EU’s new rules on deforestation-free products, laid down to guarantee that the products placed on the EU market or exported from it do not originate from deforested land or have not contributed to forest degradation.

In addition, the new rules aim to reduce carbon emissions and biodiversity loss caused by EU consumption and production of a series of commodities, and to address deforestation and degradation resulting from agricultural expansion to produce them. As a major economy and consumer of commodities such as soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee, and rubber, as well as some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tyres, or furniture, the EU is taking action to curb the EU market’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation.

These new rules are laid down in the Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) and will apply by the end of 2024. Building on existing monitoring tools, including Copernicus products and other publicly or privately available sources, the observatory will facilitate access to information on supply chains for public entities, consumers, and businesses.

Source: EUbusiness