InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – On 6 December 2022, European Union Commission, European Union Parliament, and European Union Board came to a temporary conclusion about European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). It is about to regulate every commodity which is imported to Europe should be free from environmental damage or human rights violation in the supply chain. The regulation is also prioritized for imports from China, palm oil, soybean, chocolate which are always accused to do deforestation (in their production).
Many environment organizations noticed the regulation because European Union supply chain regulation could make smallholders worse. To sell their products to Europe, they have to attach supply chain track records in a whole, the strategies to control fire in the forests and areas, the maps of their plantations in detail.
What InfoSAWIT quoted from DW, the smallholders in Indonesia reached about 40% of the total plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. Most of them have no certification yet.
European Union obliges every importer to prove where, by who, how their products were produced, where they are planting – not on the forests which were cut after 2020. Anyone that breaks the regulation would get very expensive fine.
“Big palm oil plantation companies would be the biggest winner for they have good financial capability to track down where their plantations have been planted,” Assistant of Professor of Environment Policy at Dublin City University, Ireland, Danny Marks said.
Danny Marks thought, the smallholders would get very big losses unless they got helps because European Union is urged to help certification process for smallholders, the local, and indigenous people.
Green consultation institution, such as, Wild Asia does its best to help smallholders to be able to get palm oil certification process. But EUDR makes them worried because it would directly deliver impacts to the smallholders. “The policy would impact to many people in different geographic areas,” Executive Director of and also the founder of Wild Asia, Reza Azmi said. (T2)
