Agricultural commodity exports are driving deforestation around the world, spurred by consumer demand and directed by enormous agribusiness and finance interests. New initiatives to address that problem are emerging, including the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which as of 2025 will require due diligence by importing companies to ensure that covered goods brought into Europe are not products of deforestation and that they are legally produced according to domestic laws in the countries where they are grown. Due to pressure from trading partners, the EUDR could be delayed, but there is little doubt of its eventual implementation. The EUDR and similar proposals in other countries occur in a specific context created by past and current agriculture, trade and foreign assistance policies. While the deforestation proposals represent a fresh approach to a vexing set of problems, they can work at cross purposes with other policies.
In “The imperative for coherence: Deforestation and trade policies in Peru, the U.S. and EU,” we look at how the goals of the EUDR intersect with Peru’s commitments in the bilateral and regional free trade agreements. Peru has the second largest expanse of lands in Amazon rainforests, after Brazil. Trade liberalization has spurred a massive increase in agricultural exports, as well as new pressures to lower environmental standards. A new Peruvian law passed earlier this year would open forested land to agricultural production, effectively circumventing the EUDR rules that will go into effect in 2025. Civil society groups are pushing back, including through a mechanism in the environment chapter in the existing trade agreement with the U.S.
The existing trade rules are intended to facilitate the free flow of goods and services across borders. They are not devised to balance the needs of local communities, the climate or biodiversity, and so, unsurprisingly, they have overwhelmingly benefitted the corporate interests they were designed to favor. The trade rules themselves must also change if there is any hope for a just transition for the climate and food systems.
Read the full report here.
