“An EU Deforestation Action Plan is a unique opportunity for strong, legislative and other measures to help combat deforestation in the EU’s importation, production and consumption of agrocommodities.”

For the EU to substantially reduce the contribution to global deforestation and to play a leading role in achieving the Paris climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals, ambitious intervention measures are needed. These measures need to discourage unsustainable practices and create a level playing field for fair and sustainable production, trade and consumption of commodities. This can only be achieved through an ambitious EU Action Plan against deforestation which combines voluntary with binding measures, through a smart mix of robust demand, supply and finance measures, whilst seeking to internalise the real value of forests and ecosystem services.

This policy paper aims to support European policy makers in considering an ambitious package of effective interventions regarding the EU Action Plan against deforestation,
while also ensuring smallholder inclusiveness, building on the EU study ‘Feasibility of options to step up EU action against deforestation’.