Last week, the European Commission decided to extend the implementation period for its deforestation regulation by 12 months for large companies and 18 months for micro and small companies.  

Concern had been expressed by a combination of exporting countries, business and some EU Member States about how rules would be applied in practice. The European Commission is at pains to emphasise that this decision does not mean an unwinding or undoing of the law itself, which remains in force, despite some environmental NGOs who are unhappy with this decision.

Meanwhile, in the UK, deforestation rules were included in the 2021 Environment Act but the secondary legislation to enact this has not yet been forthcoming.

There is a fundamental divergence in approach between the EU and UK – the EU is targeting a deforestation-free approach and is attempting to reduce all deforestation whether legal or illegal from its supply chains. Whereas the UK is targeting ‘illegal’ deforestation [only] and would require businesses that are trading in forest risk commodities to ensure that the products being traded have been produced in compliance with local laws. This puts the responsibility for defining the legality of deforestation on the producer country. There is however the inherent assumption that producer countries have sufficiently robust governance and enforcement systems to permit this approach to work.   

Whilst the new UK government has indicated a desire for a closer relationship and willingness to align on some areas of policy, it is not clear whether this extends to deforestation, and whether this delay will influence the plans for secondary legislation in the UK.

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