Regulation (EU) No 2023/1115
On 29 June 2023, the Regulation on deforestation-free products entered into force. The main driver of these processes is the expansion of agricultural land that is linked to the production of commodities like soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee, rubber and some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tyres, or furniture. As a major economy and consumer of these commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation, the EU is partly responsible for this problem, and it wants to lead the way to solving it.
Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
The new rules aim to:
- avoid that the listed products Europeans buy, use and consume contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and globally
- reduce carbon emissions caused by EU consumption and production of the relevant commodities by at least 32 million metric tonnes a year
- address all deforestation driven by agricultural expansion to produce the commodities in the scope of the regulation, as well as forest degradation
