Team Europe Initiative's Research Symposium
on Deforestation-Free Value Chains
Date: 10.-11.09.2026
Time: 08:30 – 18:00 CEST
Location: Bonn, GIZ Campus
Agenda
10TH SEPTEMBER Thursday | |
09:00 – 09:30 | Welcome from the TEI and Getting to Know Each Other |
09:30 – 10:00 | Opening Remarks
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10:00 – 11:00 Plenary Session | EUDR Preparedness – Where Do We Stand? How ready are producer countries and supply chain actors to meet EUDR requirements? This opening session takes stock of current preparedness levels across key commodity sectors and partner countries, highlighting where progress is being made and where critical gaps remain.
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11:00 – 11:15 | Teaser and Transfer to next Session |
11:15 – 13:00 Parallel Sessions | Governance and Institutional Dynamics – How Is the EUDR Reshaping Policy Frameworks? The EUDR is not only a trade regulation – it is reshaping governance landscapes in producer countries. This session examines how national policy frameworks are being adapted, where tensions with local regulations arise, and how public and private sector initiatives interact in practice. Facilitator: Emily Gallagher, Landscape Alliance
Due Diligence, Risk Assessments and Legality – Tools, Risks, and Practical Experience What constitutes a robust due diligence system, and how can risks be assessed and clearly linked to specific products? What challenges exist when interpreting data that has been collected? What does “legal production” mean under the EUDR – and how can it be verified in practice? This session introduces various tools that can be used to support due diligence processes and presents first-hand results from risk assessments and dry runs in producer countries. Facilitator: Franziska Rau, GIZ
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13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
14:00 – 14:30 | Gallery Walk – Market Space |
14:30 – 15:00 | Feedback in the Plenary on the Sessions |
15:00 – 17:00 Parallel Sessions Coffee break included | Value Chain Transformations – Who Bears the Burden of Compliance? The EUDR is reshaping agricultural commodity value chains – but who bears the costs of geolocation mapping, conformity with local laws and so on? This session examines impacts on smallholders, women, indigenous communities, and informal actors, and asks whether the most vulnerable are carrying a disproportionate share of the compliance burden. Facilitator: Christoph Kubitza, GIGA Institute
Commodity Mapping – Spatial Data as a Foundation for Deforestation-Free Supply Chains Knowing where commodities are grown is a prerequisite for effective due diligence. This session presents advances in commodity mapping for cocoa, rubber, wood, and other EUDR-relevant crops, and shows how spatial data can support risk assessments. It will discuss how to deal with possible disagreements in datasets, how global, regional and local mapping efforts may complement one another, and the need for clearer definitions in particular cases. Facilitator: Sarah Carter, World Resources Institute
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17:00 – 17:30 | Presentation of Results in the Plenary and Closing |
11TH SEPTEMBER Friday | |
09:00 – 09:30 | Welcome and Short Recap of the Sessions from Day 1
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09:30 – 11:30 Parallel Sessions Coffee break included | Mapping Deforestation – Land-Use Data, Risk Analysis, and Environmental Impacts This session presents state-of-the-art approaches to land-cover and land use analysis – including AI-assisted methodologies – and evaluates global, regional, and national reference maps for EUDR compliance, covering deforestation hotspots, forest cover change, and how such mapping efforts can be used for assessing the impact of global patterns of commodity-driven deforestation. Facilitator: Melvin Lippe, Thünen Institute for Forestry
Shifting Trade Flows – Market Dynamics in a Post-EUDR World As actors adapt to EUDR requirements, global commodity trade is likely to be rerouted and restructured. This session analyses and discusses the potential for shifts in trade flows, price changes, market segmentation and the restructuring of processing, what tools and information we have to monitor such structural shifts, and what these changes might mean for both producing and consuming countries. Facilitator: Jan Börner, University Bonn
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11:30 – 12:00 | Presentation of Results in the Plenary |
12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch break |
13:00 – 14:45 Parallel Sessions | Incentivising Sustainable Agricultural Systems – Under Which Conditions Will Farmers Transition to Deforestation-Free Production? The right conditions are needed for a successful transition to deforestation-free production. This session examines suitable conditions that promote sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable forest management. These conditions may include beneficial institutional framework conditions, the strength of cooperatives, the accessibility of financial support systems and trainings, and the importance of a living income and secure land titles. Facilitator: Marieke Leegwater, Solidaridad
Payments for Ecosystem Services and Other Mechanisms to Support Smallholder Farmers and Forest-Dependent Communities Financially This session will present learnings on Payments for Ecosystem Services and their limitations. It will touch upon necessary conditions and the question of how monitoring systems can be organised in a credible but also manageable way. It will moreover include an overview of available financing mechanisms for smallholder farmers in EUDR-relevant value chains, including blended finance, and will showcase an adapted mechanism to support coffee smallholders in Uganda. Facilitator: Louise Simon, Climate and Company
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14:45 – 15:15 | Gallery Walk – Market Space |
15:15 – 15:30 | Short Feedback in the Plenary on Previous Parallel Sessions |
15:30 – 16:30 | Way Forward In this session, a Theory of Change linked to the EU Deforestation Regulation will be outlined. Based on this, ideas for an independent monitoring framework for the EUDR will be presented. The session will furthermore include reflections on how to ensure inputs from local producers and communities in monitoring, as well as reflections on the discussions held during the TEI Symposium.
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16:30 | Closing Concluding remarks will be shared by the TEI Secretariat.
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This is the Gallery
Here you can find the photos and presentations from the event. Please remember to include the following copyright notice when using the photos: © GIZ/Benjamin Westhoff.
