Posted on April, 19 2023

In a vote this week, Members of the European Parliament backed the groundbreaking deal for an EU deforestation law, reached in trilogue negotiations last December. The regulation was adopted with 552 votes to 44, and 43 abstentions.

Anke Schulmeister, Senior Forest Policy Officer at the WWF European Policy Office, said: “This vote is another step in the right direction. We have a strong law to fight forest destruction, but for it to bring about real change, we need thorough controls and strict penalties. EU decision-makers will also need to close existing loopholes by extending the scope of the law to other wooded land and to the financial sector in upcoming reviews.”

The Council of the European Union is set to adopt the law in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the European Commission is conducting an impact assessment to determine whether the law will also cover other wooded land, which is essential to protect savannahs, including the increasingly threatened Brazilian Cerrado.