With just a week to go before the European Commission presents its legislative proposal, 56 NGOs from the #Together4Forests campaign are urging the Commission to not water down key elements of the future law. In a letter addressed to Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Virginijus Sinkevičius, the signatories indicate that if key elements of the text are weakened it will “drastically impair the EU’s potential to achieve its objectives and fight climate change and biodiversity loss”.
Over the last months, various organisations have given a series of recommendations to the Commission on the key elements needed for ambitious and effective legislation. These include, among others: a) the protection of ecosystems other than forests and of internationally recognised human rights, b) the inclusion of provisions on finance, c) the comprehensive definition of the product scope, and, d) the need to avoid exemptions to the due diligence for goods originating from supposedly “low risk” countries.