Rainforest Foundation Norway to the EU Commission:
Six major rainforest countries must be rated as high risk under EUDR
Signals from the EU Commission reveal that Brazil and other large rainforest countries will be classified as “low or standard risk” under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Rainforest Foundation Norway’s new report has very different findings.
OIL PALMS: Oil palms after harvest and before being processed into palm oil in Southeast Asia. Oil palm is one of the commodities covered by the EUDR with the strongest links to deforestation. Photo: Shutterstock
By Rainforest Foundation Norway.
On Monday, 17 February, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) sent a letter to the EU Commission explaining why Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must all be designated as high-risk countries for deforestation and illegalities under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). RFN has analyzed each country based on seven of the eight criteria in Article 29 of the EUDR.
Low-risk rating for countries with high deforestation rates undermines EUDR
The EUDR stipulates that the EU Commission must complete its risk benchmarking of all countries in the world by 30 June and is expected to present the methodology and a first draft in March. All countries are to be rated as either high, standard, or low risk. Signals from the Commission that most countries may be rated as low risk prompted RFN to present our own analysis for the six countries, hosting a large part of the remaining large contiguous rainforest in the world where RFN is working.
“All six countries are among the tropical countries in the world with the highest deforestation and forest degradation rates. It does not make sense at all not to put these countries as high risk. Failing to do so would bring what has the potential of being a very effective tool to stop deforestation to a policy paper of little value,” said Anders Haug Larsen, Director of International Advocacy at Rainforest Foundation Norway.
RFN analysis shows high deforestation risk for six countries
According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Brazil, Indonesia and DRC are the three countries in the world that have lost the most forests since 1990, with Colombia and Peru also among the top 20. Looking at tropical rainforests, which are the most biodiverse forests in the world, the six countries have 79% of the world's intact tropical rainforests. From 2002 to 2019, they also had 73% of the world’s deforestation of tropical rainforests.
Forest degradation is the precursor to deforestation, and in 2020, 67% and 63% of the tropical rainforests in Indonesia and PNG were in a degraded state, respectively. At current (2023) rates, DRC will lose all its rainforests in less than 200 years and Brazil and Indonesia in less than 300 years.
In addition to deforestation rates, the EUDR looks at agricultural expansion rates, production trends for the seven commodities covered by the EUDR, and the risk of illegalities in their production. Agricultural expansion and logging are the main causes of deforestation in all six countries, and increasing production trends for at least some of the commodities heighten the risk of future deforestation in all these countries.
According to the RFN report, all countries have a high risk of illegalities in key sectors causing deforestation, due to a lack of state control in rainforest areas, transnational illegal actors committing forest crimes, endemic corruption, lack of transparency, and lack of effective measures to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and environmental and human rights defenders.
Main recommendations:
- RFN recommends that Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and The Democratic Republic of Congo are benchmarked as high-risk under the EUDR.
- The recommendation is based on the criteria listed in Article 29 of the EUDR, with a special focus on tropical rainforests, as these six countries host most of the remaining large contiguous rainforests of the world.
- All six countries are among the countries in the world with the highest absolute and/or relative deforestation rates, and/or highest forest degradation rates.
- All have significant challenges in the enforcement of relevant legislation and international agreements, protecting Indigenous Peoples' rights, and ending impunity for forest crimes, making illegality and human rights factors that add substantially to the risk of deforestation and forest degradation.
LOGGING: Logging is one of the main drivers of deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Julie Forchhammer/ RFN
Key findings for each country:
Brazil
Brazil has by far the largest total deforestation and loss of
rainforest in the world. Over 8% of its total rainforest area has been
lost in two decades. Almost the same area of rainforest was degraded
during the same time. Deforestation remains the highest in the world in
the most important climate and biodiversity biome: the Amazon
rainforest.
Cattle and soy are Brazil's two most important drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and current international agreements and enforcement of national and sub-national legislation are insufficient to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Indonesia
Over the last 75 years, 70% of the forest on Sumatra and 50% of the
forest on Borneo has been lost, and the last large contiguous rainforest
in Papua is severely degraded. Its loss of tropical rainforest was the
second largest in the world in the last 20 years, and in the previous
three years, deforestation has risen again.
Oil palm and timber are the
two commodities covered by the EUDR with the strongest links to
deforestation. Existing commitments, agreements, and legislation are
insufficient to reduce the deforestation risk due to weak enforcement,
widespread corruption, and the current government's prioritization of
economic development over environmental protection.
The Democratic Republic of Congo
DRC has the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world and the
third-largest deforestation in the world. At the rate of the last
decade, all its forests will be lost by 2140. The annual loss of
rainforest is now second only to Brazil in absolute terms and the
highest of all these six countries in relative terms.
Slash and burn agriculture, energy (coal) demands and informal or illegal logging drive the loss of primary forests. DRC’s law enforcement remains weak due to institutional fragility, limited monitoring capacity, corruption, and armed conflict, allowing illegal activities to thrive.
Peru
Peru’s deforestation rates are rising exponentially and approaching
those of Brazil and Colombia. One-fourth of the rainforest was degraded
in 2020, an increase of over 50% in 20 years.
Logging and agricultural expansion are the main drivers of deforestation, and much of this is illegal, enabled by endemic corruption, political dysfunctionality and lack of government presence in the Amazon. The combination of increasing deforestation, corruption and political instability creates a high risk of deforestation imports being linked to illegal activities.
Colombia
Colombia lost around 9% of its forest from 1990 to 2020, the 11th
highest deforestation in the world in absolute terms in the period. The
loss of rainforest is a significant part of this. Forest degradation is
more widespread than in Peru and Brazil.
Armed conflict has contributed to a lack of state territorial control, including large parts of the Amazon. Deforestation is linked to the illegal economy, which includes drug production and trade, land speculation, human trafficking, minerals, flora and fauna.
Papua New Guinea
PNG does not have exceptionally high deforestation figures, but other
factors exacerbate the risk of deforestation. Logging has caused 1/5 of
the intact rainforest to be degraded in 20 years.
PNG is the world’s largest exporter of tropical timber. Illegal logging is facilitated by corruption, money laundering, weak legal enforcement, lack of legal protection of indigenous peoples and systematic misuse of government permits. This policy environment, combined with increasing global demand for timber and palm oil, creates a high risk of deforestation, illegalities and human rights violations.
Read the full EUDR Risk benchmarking report for Papua New Guinea
For more information, contact:
Trond Botnen
European Policies and Alliances Senior Adviser, Deforestation-free Markets
(+47) 481 05 120
trond@rainforest.no