{"id":45406,"date":"2020-12-14T18:22:10","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=45406"},"modified":"2020-12-16T10:28:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T09:28:37","slug":"over-1-million-people-tell-eu-to-stop-funding-forest-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/nature-food\/45406\/over-1-million-people-tell-eu-to-stop-funding-forest-destruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 1 million people tell EU to stop funding forest destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brussels \u2013<\/strong> A landmark 1,193,652 people made submissions to the EU\u2019s public consultation on deforestation, demanding a strong EU law to protect the world\u2019s forests. The European Commission received the submissions in a ceremony yesterday evening, making it the largest public consultation on environmental issues in the history of the EU, and the second largest ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The signatures were received by Commissioner Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the EU Commission, and Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevi\u010dius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries in an online event. The ground outside the building was decorated with 1,193 lanterns, each representing 1,000 people who signed the petition.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Sini Er\u00e4j\u00e4\u00e4, Greenpeace EU forest campaigner<\/strong>, said: \u201cFor too long, the burden has been put on people doing their shopping to work out whether what\u2019s in their basket has contributed to deforestation. The EU has the power to make sure that nothing on the shelves is linked to the destruction of nature or human rights abuse. This call from over 1.1 million people can\u2019t be ignored \u2013 it\u2019s time for the EU to pass a new law to protect the world\u2019s forests.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The over one million respondents called for a strong, new EU law to keep products linked to deforestation and nature destruction off the European market, and ensure that the production of such commodities (such as beef, soy for animal feed and palm oil) has not led to human rights violations. A campaign led by WWF, Greenpeace, ClientEarth, Conservation International and the Environmental Investigation Agency, and backed by more than 150 environmental groups, encouraged people to make submissions to the public consultation demanding the EU tackle the forest footprint of its consumption.<\/p>\n\n

EU Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans,<\/strong> said at the handover: \u201cWe all will have to open our eyes to the fact that our consumption in Europe can lead to the destruction of forests elsewhere in the world, and at an alarming rate. We each need to make responsible and informed choices as individual consumers. And as a policy maker, you have my commitment to take strong action to tackle deforestation in all our actions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The EU\u2019s demand for products like beef, soy for animal feed, leather, rubber and palm oil, is pushing the world\u2019s forests and other precious ecosystems to the brink.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

#Together4Forests, a campaign led by WWF, Greenpeace, ClientEarth, Conservation International and the Environmental Investigation Agency, and backed by more than 160 environmental groups, encouraged people to make submissions to the public consultation demanding the EU tackle the forest footprint of its consumption.<\/p>\n\n

Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Sini Er\u00e4j\u00e4\u00e4, Greenpeace EU agriculture and forest campaigner<\/strong>: +32 (0)476 97 59 60, sini.erajaa@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU press desk<\/strong>: +32 (0)2 274 19 11, pressdesk.eu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. We do not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties. We have over three million supporters, and offices in more than 55 countries. <\/p>\n\n

EU Transparency Register: 9832909575-41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 A landmark 1,193,652 people made submissions to the EU\u2019s public consultation on deforestation, demanding a strong EU law to protect the world\u2019s forests. The European Commission received the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-45406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-food","tag-forests","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45408,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45406\/revisions\/45408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45406"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=45406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}