Why we need deforestation-free supply chains

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Agricultural expansion causes rapid degradation of ecosystems in countries of the South American economic and political bloc Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay). This endangers its unique biodiversity and harms the global climate. The European Union is an important trading partner and importer of commodities associated with deforestation and ecosystem degradation and therefore holds a significant responsibility to create deforestation-free supply chains and halt deforestation in the Mercosur.

1. What is the problem?
2. What is our aim?
3. What do we do?

 

Approaches to halt deforestation currently discussed at the European Union

As the world's second largest import market for forest risk commodities, the EU bears a large share of the responsibility for ensuring that global supply chains become deforestation-free. The EU is committed to minimizing its contribution to global deforestation and to promote the consumption of products from deforestation-free supply chains.

Germanwatch evaluated five policy approaches discussed in the EU for their effectiveness to reduce deforestation in global supply chains. You can download our study here.

 

News and Publications

Blogpost
30 September 2021
How do European livestock farmers know whether forests have been cleared for the cultivation of soy in their feed? So far, feed manufacturers have pretended to be unable to take responsibility for their supply chains. Tracing back the origin of the soy through many intermediaries along the global supply chain was too difficult for them. In the future, however, an EU law could require companies to take responsibility for their global supply chains.
Blogpost
30 September 2021
The climate crisis is hitting us right now and threatens to get much worse. Germany and the EU bear a special responsibility: What we do or don't do in Europe, our food and our trade system, have an impact on other parts of the world. This can be seen, for example, by looking at the destruction of forests in the Mercosur economic area – in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Blogpost
30 September 2021
Giulia Dias (18) is an activist with Fridays for Future (FFF) Amazônia. She studies law, lives in the city of Belém in northern Brazil and does research on the rights of indigenous communities in her country at the Emílio Goeldi Museum.
Interview with Giulia Dias (18), an activist with Fridays for Future (FFF) Amazônia. She studies law, lives in the city of Belém in northern Brazil and does research on the rights of indigenous communities in her country at the Emílio Goeldi Museum.

Supported by

Logo Robert Bosch Stiftung