Context – EU’s forest rules.
What are these rules?
- 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.
- From 30 December 2024, companies doing business in the EU will need to comply with the requirements of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
- When compliance becomes mandatory at the end of 2024, the new regulation will require large companies trading in seven key commodities (and products derived from those commodities) to prove that these goods/products do not originate from recently deforested areas or contribute to forest degradation.
How does it Impact India?
- Rules define ‘deforestation’ as per Article 2(3) - ‘conversion of forest to agriculture use, whether human-induced or not’.
- ‘Going further to 2(13), the clause defines ‘deforestation-free’ as meaning:
(a) the relevant products contain, have been fed with or have been made using the relevant commodities that were produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation after December 31, 2020; and
(b) in the case of wood, that the wood had been harvested without inducing forest degradation after December 31, 2020.
But Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 states that provisions of this clause shall not apply to such land, which has been changed from forest use to use for non-forest purpose on or before December 12, 1996. It should also be noted that the definitions of ‘forest’ are not aligned with EU definitions.
Further EU also provides for mandatory corrective actions like preventing the relevant product from being placed, withdrawing the product from the market and recalling it if sold.
There are also huge penalties on the operators which will eventually be passed on to the Indian exporters who in addition face the risk of being blacklisted.
December 30, 2024 deadline is very near and there isn’t much time left.