Latest news with #deforestation
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Malaysia says EU's deforestation risk rating based on old data
KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Commodities Minister on Wednesday expressed concern over the European Union classifying the country as 'standard risk' under the new anti-deforestation law, saying the designation was based on old data. Addressing an event in Singapore, minister Johari Abdul Ghani said the classification was based on 2020 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data and Malaysia, the world's second-largest exporter of palm oil, had introduced sufficient measures to justify being designated "low risk". The European Commission last week categorised goods imported from Belarus, Myanmar, North Korea and Russia as "high risk" of fuelling deforestation. Under the EU regulations, "standard risk" countries will face lighter compliance checks on goods exported to Europe, while "low-risk" countries will face less stringent due-diligence rules. Those classified as "standard risk" include Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil. The EU law, which is expected to come into effect in December, applies to soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee, and some derived products including leather, chocolate and furniture. Johari reaffirmed Malaysia's commitment to present updated, science-based evidence to support its request for a 'low risk' status. 'Malaysia has implemented strict no-deforestation policies and developed our own certification system ... which ensures traceability, compliance, and inclusivity, particularly for smallholders," Johari said, according to an official transcript of the remarks. 'We are fully committed to working with the EU Commission to ensure fair recognition of our progress,' he said, adding Malaysia had also participated widely in international sustainability efforts. The EC says its methodology is "firmly rooted in a commitment to fairness, objectivity and transparency" and it has a benchmarking process that is dynamic and set to be reviewed in 2026 after publication of new data later this year. The Malaysian Palm Oil Board said the EU's classification was based on a method that was 'too narrow and incomplete' and based on the average annual forest loss between 2015 and 2020. "This short timeframe does not show the full picture' it said in a statement. It also raised concerns on the EU's methodology, which it said looked at general forest loss and discriminated against the palm oil sector. The EU's delegation in Malaysia did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular working hours.
New York Times
3 days ago
- General
- New York Times
The Amazon Loses One of Its Most Celebrated Chroniclers
Last week we learned that the world lost more forest cover than in any other year on record, or the equivalent of 18 soccer fields of forested land every minute, according to researchers. The world also lost Sebastião Salgado, a legendary photographer, champion of the environment and chronicler of his native Brazil's forests, who died last week at 81. (You can see a collection of his photos here.) Drawing on nearly 50 visits to the Amazon rainforest, in 2021 Salgado published Amazônia, a book of characteristically dramatic black-and-white photographs of the region's awe-inspiring vastness, its threatened Indigenous people and the sheer force of nature to create weather and carve landscapes.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Eleven countries demand EU weakens deforestation law further, document shows
By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS -The European Union is facing further pressure from member countries to delay and weaken its upcoming law to restrict deforestation, with 11 governments demanding changes, a document seen by Reuters showed. The world-first policy aims to end the 10% of global deforestation fuelled by EU consumption of imported soy, beef, palm oil and other products, but has become a politically contested part of Europe's green agenda. The EU already delayed its launch by a year to Dec. 2025, following complaints from trading partners including Brazil and the U.S., and cut back reporting rules after industry criticism. Last week, the Commission said it would spare the vast majority of countries the strictest checks. A group of 11 countries, led by Austria and Luxembourg, has demanded the European Commission simplify the rules further, and urged delaying its application date again. "The requirements imposed on farmers and foresters remain high, if not impossible to implement. They are disproportionate to the regulation's objective," the countries said in a paper, which EU agriculture ministers will discuss in Brussels on Monday. Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia also signed the paper. From December, the EU policy would require operators placing soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and other goods onto the EU market, to provide due diligence statements proving the commodities did not fuel deforestation. Due diligence requirements would also apply to EU exports, making countries worried about the impact on their own industries. Companies could face penalties of up to 4% of their EU turnover for non-compliance. The governments proposed amendments including creating a new class of countries deemed to have very low risk of deforestation, which would be exempt from customs checks and tracking the origin of goods. A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Eleven countries demand EU weakens deforestation law further, document shows
BRUSSELS, May 26 - The European Union is facing further pressure from member countries to delay and weaken its upcoming law to restrict deforestation, with 11 governments demanding changes, a document seen by Reuters showed. The world-first policy aims to end the 10% of global deforestation fuelled by EU consumption of imported soy, beef, palm oil and other products, but has become a politically contested part of Europe's green agenda. The EU already delayed its launch by a year to Dec. 2025, following complaints from trading partners including Brazil and the U.S., and cut back reporting rules after industry criticism. Last week, the Commission said it would spare the vast majority of countries the strictest checks. A group of 11 countries, led by Austria and Luxembourg, has demanded the European Commission simplify the rules further, and urged delaying its application date again. "The requirements imposed on farmers and foresters remain high, if not impossible to implement. They are disproportionate to the regulation's objective," the countries said in a paper, which EU agriculture ministers will discuss in Brussels on Monday. Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia also signed the paper. From December, the EU policy would require operators placing soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and other goods onto the EU market, to provide due diligence statements proving the commodities did not fuel deforestation. Due diligence requirements would also apply to EU exports, making countries worried about the impact on their own industries. Companies could face penalties of up to 4% of their EU turnover for non-compliance. The governments proposed amendments including creating a new class of countries deemed to have very low risk of deforestation, which would be exempt from customs checks and tracking the origin of goods. A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Independent
6 days ago
- General
- The Independent
No more grandstanding: Deforestation pledges will burn in flames if we ignore inequality
In 2024, the majority of tropical forests didn't fall to the chainsaw; they burned. For the first time on record, wildfires became the primary cause of tropical forest loss, as global deforestation spiked to levels 'unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch. Wildfires destroyed 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest last year. That's roughly the size of Ireland. It was nearly double the previous year's total and the largest area of fire-related tropical forest loss ever recorded. This spike in fire-driven deforestation isn't just another grim statistic of a 1.5C world. It's the clearest sign yet that pledges made in global halls, without accounting for realities on the ground, are falling flat on their faces and can't save the world's forests. In 2021, Boris Johnson launched a landmark global forestry pledge in Glasgow to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. Hailed then as a crucial step to protect the world's tropical forests, it now stands in bare-naked shame. Across the tropics, climate extremes turned forever-damp forests into tinderboxes, and from the Amazon to the Congo, 'illegal' ranchers and miners took advantage by lighting fires, clearing land, and exploiting government blind spots. In Brazil, the host of this year's climate summit, the scale of destruction last year is simply staggering. During what was the country's worst drought in 70 years, an area roughly three times the size of Scotland burned to dust. The dense, wet Amazon rainforests are unimaginably diverse, and rarely at risk of fire. However, according to monitoring platform MapBiomas, Brazil saw a 79 per cent increase in fire-related forest loss last year, and almost two-thirds of this was in the Amazon rainforest. Experts across the country agree that while the country's drought set the stage for last year's devastation, only a tiny percentage of fires were due to 'natural causes.' Instead, the more than 140 thousand fires set last year are thought to have largely been caused by organised crime networks that took root in the Amazon during the previous Jair Bolsonaro administration. This comes only a year after the Brazilian government rolled out a new plan to ramp up forestry enforcement, crack down on illegal ranchers, and stop deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. As national policies tightened, non-fire-related deforestation dropped by 30 per cent in a year. The fight to reverse Bolsonaro's blatant green light to cut down forests en masse had been successful. But the battlefront was about to shift, and ranchers turned to fire at such a scale that the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called it 'climate terrorism'. In Colombia, we see a similar phenomenon. The arrival of the progressive Petro government in 2022 led to the biggest drop in primary forest loss in 20 years. But last year, that all turned around, and primary forest loss increased by nearly 50 per cent. After decades of civil conflict and militarised forest patrols, peace has proven hard to keep profitable in many of the country's poorest regions. Without sustainable livelihoods, illegal mining and coca cultivation have expanded to unprecedented levels. What is needed to stop deforestation in many of these regions isn't a new global pledge, but new jobs, and help to imagine what Joaquin Carrizosa, a Senior Advisor at WRI Colombia calls 'local, nature-based economies' But the report didn't just contain bad news. Indonesia and Malaysia were two of the few bright spots last year. In both countries, deforestation rates are dropping, as efforts to tackle poverty, restore degraded land and reduce wildfires have helped keep forests intact. However, with a change of government in Indonesia planning to clear an area of rainforest in Papua nearly as big as Belgium, to make way for sugarcane and rice, these priorities may be about to shift. But what these results make clear is that protecting the world's forests is far easier said than done. The pledge to end deforestation by 2030 is certainly not a lost cause, but achieving it isn't just about governments making grand announcements to protect forests. This is undeniably a critical first step, but in order to keep these forests intact long-term, you need to empower the people who live with and make their living from forests themselves. This undoubtedly includes indigenous peoples around the world, who continue to prove to be the best defence against illegal loggers. But it's one thing to stop a truck; it's another thing to stop miners with guns or a fire. What happens in these unregulated mines, out of sight, can be horrific. They need law enforcement to back them up. But it also needs to include these ranchers, miners, and poor people living across these regions, drawn into the trade. When I was 19, I spent weeks living in and around illegal gold miners in Guyana, trying to understand what drives them to the trade. I met some whom I genuinely was afraid of. But I also met others, former high school teachers and bus drivers, dedicated dads trying to send money back home to their families. These aren't people who were born to hate forests; they're just looking for better options. If the world is serious about meeting any of its climate and biodiversity goals, then 2024 must mark a turning point. We simply can't meet any of the IPCC 's liveable climate scenarios without tackling deforestation. We probably don't need any more global pledges. We've had plenty of those. The lessons learned this year need to be that instead of big global pledges, we need to work with those living in and around these incredible ecosystems and give them real opportunities to make a living protecting them. We don't need to compete dollar for dollar with criminal networks, but we do need to offer an alternative.
