Regulation 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 31, 2023 known as ‘against deforestation and forest degradation’ entered into force on June 29, 2023. This regulation is part of the Green Deal and is intended to make the European Union the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The obligations it establishes come into force on December 30, 2024 for operators and traders, and June 30, 2025 for SMEs/VSEs.
The regulation initially applies to 7 basic products and their by-products (beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya and wood).
These products can now only be imported into the EU or exported from the EU under three conditions:
- to be zero deforestation,
- to comply with the relevant legislation of the country of production and,
- to be the subject of a due diligence declaration from operators and traders.
Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to agricultural use, while forest means any area of more than 0.5 hectares of trees with a height greater than 5 meters and any forest cover. by more than 10%.
The European regulation imposes 3 stages of due diligence on any operator and ‘putter on the market’, importing or exporting products in/outside the EU, such as containing one of the 7 products concerned:
- Collect all data necessary for upstream and downstream traceability of the product;
- Carry out a documented assessment of the risk of deforestation;
- Establish a deforestation risk mitigation plan.
The regulation also requires the competent authorities of the Member States to control a certain percentage of operators and traders each year.
Finally, the regulation gives civil society the possibility of participating in the control by presenting to the competent authorities substantiated reports stating, on the basis of objective circumstances, that a particular operator or trader is not complying with the provisions of the regulation.
Penalties for non-compliance may include:
- The recall and then confiscation of products;
- Confiscation of income linked to the product;
- The ban on the marketing of products containing the same basic product;
- A fine of up to 4% of annual turnover in the EU.