The European Union’s (EUDR) forest anti-deforestation regulations are a significant milestone, effective from June 29, 2023, and the EUDR provisions will be applied starting from December 30, 2024. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has been actively supporting the development of EUDR from the outset and is now ready to collaborate with the EU Commission, relevant EU authorities, non-governmental organizations, and businesses to achieve success.
What is EUDR?
EUDR stands for “European Union Deforestation Regulation.” EUDR prohibits the import or export of products to or from the EU market that do not comply with EUDR’s requirements regarding legality and sustainability. Companies are required to conduct assessments to ensure that the products they supply are legal and not associated with deforestation or degradation after December 31, 2020. The main goal of EUDR is to reduce the EU’s impact on global deforestation by promoting the consumption of deforestation-free products.
How can FSC provide support?
FSC certification is highly compatible with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and can be used to meet its requirements.
FSC is the most trusted sustainable forestry solution in the world and aligns with the objectives of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) to minimize deforestation and forest degradation.
This system always provides strong social protection for indigenous peoples and workers; it has robust standards to prevent deforestation and forest degradation. Additionally, FSC has strategic partnerships and invests in new technologies to enable source tracking, including geographic positioning and blockchains. These key features will help companies meet the requirements of the EU deforestation regulations.
With the goal of becoming the best compliance solution, FSC is currently conducting a rapid assessment of the compatibility of its standards with the final text of EUDR (released in June 2023). This step will also identify actions that can be taken to further support organizations striving to comply with EUDR and other European Green Deal initiatives
FSC certification helps demonstrate compliance with relevant environmental and social laws.
FSC’s rigorous standards for forest management, deforestation prevention, and forest degradation prevention align with the primary focus of EUDR.
Since its establishment, FSC has set strong social requirements to protect the rights of workers, local communities, and indigenous people. In particular, FSC’s principles and criteria require the voluntary, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples for management decisions. All forest owners and managers certified by FSC are also required to recognize and uphold the land ownership, land use, and resource access rights of indigenous people. Therefore, FSC certification can be an important tool in addressing EUDR requirements for companies to assess and minimize risks related to indigenous rights in the country of production.
FSC certification is a powerful and effective tool to help companies meet the EUDR assessment and risk mitigation requirements, both at the risk assessment and risk reduction stages.
FSC has been at the forefront of developing and maintaining comprehensive risk assessments (including mitigation measures) for over 60 countries, encompassing aspects of legality, social and environmental sustainability, deforestation, and genetically modified trees. FSC will develop the next generation of risk assessments to meet the requirements of EUDR. To do this, FSC will collaborate with other organizations involved in risk assessment for timber products while undertaking this work.
FSC has 30 years of experience in combating illegal logging, deforestation, and forest degradation.
FSC has established global standards for responsible forest management. FSC’s strict forest management standards, along with three decades of experience in preventing illegal logging, exist to protect the critical functions of forests and combat deforestation. FSC’s mission is to prevent deforestation and the long-term decline in the health and resilience of forests.
FSC is actively employing new technologies to support the geographical information and source tracking requirements of EUDR.
Many FSC-certified forest managers have provided geographical information data for FSC-certified forest areas. FSC is working to introduce rules and related technologies to support the collection of geographical information data for all FSC-certified forest areas.
The FSC product certification supply chain ensures that wood and non-timber forest products originating from sustainably managed FSC-certified forest areas can be accurately traced throughout the supply chain. FSC is developing a new system called FSC Blockchain to transmit product source data along the supply chain.
FSC has been engaged with EUDR since its inception. As a member of the relevant stakeholder group for EUDR at the EU Commission, FSC is working to detail source tracking obligations as well as protect indigenous peoples and empower small-scale producers.
As the implementation of EUDR comes into effect, FSC will provide further information and tools from its system to support effective business compliance and enforcement by competent authorities.
Source: goviet.org.vn
