Non-state foresters and wood processors want a review of the EU deforestation regulation

Pelhřimov – Non-state foresters and wood processing companies are calling for a fundamental revision of the EU regulation against deforestation. They stated that in the Czech Republic, the area of forests is increasing and mechanisms for controlling the legality of timber harvesting are in place. They consider the EU regulation to be an excessive bureaucratic burden. They have formally requested a revision and simplification of the regulation, which is set to take effect next year after a delay, from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, as representatives of the Association of Owners of Municipal, Private, and Church Forests in the Czech Republic (SVOL) and the Association of Forestry and Wood Processing Companies (ALDP). This was communicated to ČTK in a press release today.

The request concerns the regulation from May 2023 on the marketing of certain commodities and products related to deforestation and forest degradation in the Union market and their export from the Union (EUDR). According to the organizations, the regulation in its current form is unable to address the import of timber and products from third countries where deforestation or forest degradation is actually occurring. They state that there is practically no way to verify the entire supply chain when importing from these countries. However, they believe that the EU regulation represents a bureaucratic burden, increased financial costs, and a limitation on the competitiveness of forest owners in the EU and processors of domestic raw materials.

“In the Czech Republic, but certainly also in a number of other EU member states, deforestation and forest degradation as defined by the EUDR do not occur,” stated the chairman of SVOL Jiří Svoboda. The aforementioned organizations therefore request that a category for low-risk countries with a lower burden on local economic entities be added to the regulation alongside the current three categories (low, standard, high risk). (May 6)