Read our letter to the European Commission: EU anti-deforestation regulation would largely fail to address deforestation in Brazil
Mighty Earth, together with our friends and partners at Canopeé, Reporter Brasil, Earthsight, Rainforest Foundation Norway, the Environmental Investigation Agency, and Fern have written to the European Commission demanding changes to the proposed anti-deforestation supply chain regulation. It currently has big loopholes that would allow deforested cattle and beef products to still enter the European market.
Leaked drafts of the Commission’s regulatory proposal indicate that the EU law will fail to address cattle-driven deforestation by leaving out leather and processed beef – the strongest links between European consumption and deforestation in Brazil. Europe imports as much processed beef as fresh beef. In addition, savannahs like the Brazilian Cerrado are also out of the scope of the regulation, even if all the most deforestation associated with the soy imported into the EU comes from those ecosystems. Soy to feed chickens, pigs and cows has caused more deforestation than any other commodity imported into the EU between 2005 and 2017, even more than palm oil. Around 70% of this destruction was concentrated in one critical biome, Brazil’s Cerrado.
“Nico Muzi, Europe Director of Mighty Earth, said: “It’s nonsense for the EU anti-deforestation law to allow Brazil, the country that experienced the highest deforestation rate in the world in 2020, to keep exporting beef and soy resulting from deforestation. If Vice President Timmermans is serious about protecting Europeans from fuelling forest destruction, he should make sure the upcoming EU law covers processed beef, leather and natural ecosystems like savannahs and wetlands.”
