Have your say on the EU’s deforestation policy
The world's forests are under threat. Remaining forests – havens of precious biodiversity and the lungs of the planet – are being cleared to make way for beef, soy, sugar and palm oil production, mining and other industrial activities, fuelled by increasing demand from Europe and other countries. But the good news is: you can help stop the destruction!
The European Union is a significant importer of products linked to deforestation and is now designing measures to address the deforestation around the world connected with EU supply chains and consumption patterns. The European Commission is asking for input from citizens and civil society from within and outside Europe. This is your chance to let the European Commission know that you care about global deforestation and want the EU to take the most effective measures against deforestation possible.
Act now against deforestation
We've developed an easy way for you to give your input to the European Commission's consultation. Just fill in your details below and hit the 'ACT NOW' button, and a clear message in your name will be sent automatically to the European Commission.
You can also write your own message to the European Commission by going to the official consultation website.
For more information about this campaign, see below.
Yes, I add my opinion to protect the world's forests!
About the #Together4Forests campaign
The EU's consumption represents around 10% of the global share of deforestation embodied in the consumption of commodities such as palm oil, beef, soy, cocoa, maize, timber and rubber. This cannot continue if we are to avoid a climate, ecological and biodiversity disaster. Therefore, decisive EU action is needed to reduce the EU's consumption of forest-risk commodities, protect and restore remaining forests and other natural ecosystems and protect the human rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
Implementing a comprehensive set of measures and initiatives, including new legislation, is essential to reduce the EU's footprint on the world's natural ecosystems. Any future EU action should include the most ambitious solutions.
This is why the #Together4Forests campaign was initiated by a coalition of more than 100 environmental organisations led by Greenpeace and WWF.
By promoting the massive engagement of citizens in the EC's online consultation about these measures, we want to show the European Commission that many people care about the world's forest and demand meaningful, effective action by their governments.
Official consultations are usually lengthy and technical, and not really encouraging of public participation. Therefore, the #Together4Forests coalition prepared the answers for you. In the form above, you can click on the link to read them.
Why Both ENDS is supporting this campaign
Both ENDS and our partners from around the world have been working together to fight deforestation and the structures that cause it for decades. Deforestation is not only an ecological and climatological disaster, but it also has huge consequences for the welfare and survival of local communities, Indigenous Peoples and future generations.
Together with partners in South East Asia, but increasingly also in Africa and Latin America, we defend the world's forests against ever-expanding palm oil plantations. We support communities who see their forest disappear as a consequence of infrastructure development. We shed a light on the destructive effects of soy in South America. And at the same time, we advocate for better trade policies in Europe and the Netherlands, which should promote fair and sustainable use of the world's resources instead of accelerate the degradation of forests and other ecosystems.
Read more about this subject
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Press release / 14 December 2020
Record submissions to public consultation urge EU to act on deforestation
Brussels, Belgium - 14 December
A landmark 1,193,652 submissions to the EU's public consultation on deforestation were handed over to the European Commission this afternoon, all of which demanded a strong EU law to protect the world's forests and the rights of people who depend on them. The one million+ submissions have made this the largest public consultation on environmental issues in the history of the EU, and the second largest ever.
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News / 2 August 2019
EU unveils 'Action Plan' on Deforestation
The EU is still one of the world’s largest importers of deforestation: EU demand for commodities like soy, palm oil, beef, coffee and cacao requires millions of hectares of tropical rainforest to be cleared. This deforestation has significant biodiversity and climate impacts, and is often linked to human rights violations and violence against local communities and indigenous peoples. Both ENDS and partners have been actively lobbying the EU Commission to adopt a robust action plan to address and prevent human rights violations and deforestation ‘embodied’ in EU imports of agricultural commodities.
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Press release / 10 September 2020
Press release: Golden opportunity to stop deforestation caused by EU consumption
100+ NGOs launch #Together4Forests urging EU action
Fires raging in the Amazon are started deliberately to make way for large-scale industrial agriculture – and EU market demand for commodities produced on former-forest land is adding fuel to the fires. Globally, the EU is responsible for over 10% of forest destruction through its consumption of commodities like meat, dairy, soy for animal feed, palm oil, coffee and cacao.
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News / 6 December 2024
South American Forest Fires Highlight Effects of Delaying EU Deforestation Law
On the 4th of December, the European Parliament voted in majority for a delay of implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Earlier, the European Commission and the European Council already endorsed this proposal for a delay with one year. Both ENDS and partners are worried about this decision, as there is no time to waste in our global fight against deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
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News / 29 June 2020
Global civil society pushes for mandatory environmental and human rights rules in the EU
On 23 July 2020 a global network of NGOs working to strengthen corporate accountability for environmental destruction and human rights abuses, including Both ENDS, published an open letter to European Commission DG Justice Commissioner Reynders. The letter is a response to his recent commitment to propose legislation in 2021 on both corporate due diligence and directors’ duties as part of an initiative on sustainable corporate governance.
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Blog / 15 April 2024
The year of truth: EU Member States urged to combat deforestation
The EU is the world's largest "importer of deforestation," due to the huge volumes of unsustainably produced soy, timber, palm oil, and other raw materials that EU member states import. After many years of delay, the European Parliament and the European Council passed a law in December 2023 to address this problem: The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Both ENDS is part of a broad coalition of organizations that have been pushing for this European legislation. However, there is now a serious delay, and perhaps even postponement, of the law's implementation. Objections have been raised by a number of member states, who are sensitive to lobbying by certain business sectors and producer countries.
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News / 14 June 2019
Both ENDS partner TUK presents symbolic tree to Dutch minister Schouten
Last Thursday June 13, Rahmawati Retno Winarni of TUK, an Indonesian partner organisation of Both ENDS, presented a symbolic tree and an appeal to the Dutch Minister of Agriculture Carola Schouten, also on behalf of 10 NGOs. The joint NGOs are pushing the EU, including the Dutch government, for strict EU legislation to prevent the destruction of forests and ecosystems and to protect human rights.
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News / 15 October 2020
Land rights for Indigenous Peoples to protect their forests
Institut Dayakologi works to preserve Indigenous Peoples' livelihoods and cultures in West Kalimantan. One of their central goals is to gain ancestral land rights for Indigenous communities. This is not only essential for the security of these communities, but also for the forests and ecosystems on which they depend for their livelihood, identity, culture and customs.
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Blog / 18 January 2019
Unambitious and uninspiring: the European Commission’s proposal for stepping-up action on global deforestation
After five years of equivocation the European Commission has proposed a ‘roadmap’ for stepping-up EU action to address its contribution to global deforestation. Despite the escalating impact of EU trade in forest-risk commodities, regardless of repeated calls from the European Parliament for regulatory measures and contrary to the conclusions of the Commission’s own feasibility study in support of legislative intervention, the Commission has ruled-out out any new initiatives, let alone any legislative measures. The Commission’s solution to this complex problem: policy coherence.
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Publication / 7 November 2018
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Publication / 8 May 2019
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Publication / 26 August 2020
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News / 3 February 2022
EU deforestation law can and must be stronger. Join #Together4Forests!
In the coming months, new EU regulation on deforestation-free products will be discussed in the Dutch and EU parliaments. The goal is that no more products related to deforestation in whatever way, will be imported into the EU . A very good and important initiative, but according to many civil society organisations, including Both ENDS, the bill that has now been drafted is far from sufficient.
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Press release / 6 May 2019
Calling upon candidate EU Members of Parliament to protect forests, its people an biodiversity
Almost 100 candidate EU Members of Parliament have signed a pledge drafted and endorsed by European NGOs and prominent individuals in which they commit - once elected - to promoting policies to protect and restore forests worldwide and to recognising and securing forest peoples’ territories and their rights, including the rights of women, for generations to come. The organisers hope to get many more signatures before the EU elections, to make sure the new EU parliament will start treating these topics with high urgency as soon as it is installed.
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News / 15 May 2018
Driving on palm oil: a dead end
Both ENDS and Forest Peoples Program have formally requested the European Parliament, Commission and Council and the EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, to consult indigenous and local communities impacted by EU trade in palm oil and other agricultural commodities in formal EU policy deliberations on these topics. Why did we decide to do so and what's it all about? Our colleague Michael Rice sheds some light on the matter.
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Press release / 26 August 2020
Dutch pension funds invest in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Dutch pension money is invested heavily in companies that contribute to deforestation in the Amazon region and the Cerrado savanna in Brazil, such as soy, animal feed and beef companies. This is concluded in a report published today by Profundo, commisioned by the Fair Finance Guide, Hivos and Both ENDS. All ten pension funds that were examined invest in these types of companies, with the ABP pension fund and Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn on top with investments worth EUR 580 million and EUR 383 million respectively.
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News / 16 October 2020
Restoring forests, “free supermarkets” for Cameroon’s inhabitants
To Eric Wirsiy, director of CENDEP, the importance of forests is clear: not only do they function as a "free supermarket", providing foods and other things to local communities, but they are crucial to make landscapes resilient to climate change and other impacts.
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Press release / 7 May 2019
Press release: European stakeholders call for immediate action in face of climate emergency
Brussels, 7 May 2019 - In an unprecedented Climate Action Call published today, a broad coalition is urging European leaders to take decisive action to respond to the climate emergency. Hundreds of European cities, regions, businesses, youth and faith groups and civil society organisations working on climate, human rights, litigation, mobilization, sports and health call upon leaders to profoundly alter the way we run our societies and economies to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
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Letter / 18 October 2022
Letter to the EU to call for strong EU regulation on deforestation-free products
140+ organisations call on the European Ministers, Commissioners and members of the European Parliament to adopt a strong EU regulation on deforestation-free products. As "trilogue negotiations" on this law begin, we ask you to support a law that lives up to the promises of the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals and upholds the EU's commitments on climate, biodiversity and human rights.
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News / 18 June 2019
Open letter from more than 340 organisations: EU must stop negotiating treaty with South American countries.
Today, more than 340 organisations from both South America and Europe, including Both ENDS, have sent a joint open letter to European Union leaders calling for the EU to cease negotiations on the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement. The organisations and their constituencies are seriously concerned about increasing violations of indigenous human rights and damage to nature and the environment in Brazil.