After some debate, the regulation pushing back introduction of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) a year was entered into the Official Journal of the EU on December 23. It means large operators and traders in the timber industry, and in six other so-called forest and eco-system risk commodities sectors (FERCs), now have until December 30, 2025 to comply. Micro and small enterprises have until June 30, 2026.
The aim of the EUDR is to curb the contribution of EU trade to global deforestation. It stipulates that businesses placing affected commodities on the EU market undertake due diligence that their sourcing is not implicated in it. Companies will additionally have to provide geolocation co-ordinates for commodities’ origin and EU exports of these goods must also comply.
Despite Brexit, the UK timber trade will inevitably be affected. Its imports of timber from EU countries will be subject to the EUDR, as will timber products made from wood sourced from UK suppliers and subsequently exported to the EU.
Pressure to delay implementation came from across the affected commodity sectors and lead supplier country governments. Businesses and trade bodies said the original EUDR deadline was not sufficient to adapt management systems and get suppliers up to speed on providing due diligence information.
Subsequently the European Commission proposed the delay in October and the European Council approved it. But the European Parliament threw in a curve ball.
As part of the EUDR, supplier countries will be benchmarked low, standard or high risk of deforestation, with levels of due diligence applied varying accordingly. The European Parliament voted to add a no-risk category. Non-EU supplier countries said this could skew the market in favour of EU-suppliers. The European Timber Trade Federation and Confederation of European Woodworking industries said it would further complicate sourcing and due diligence, while timber importers quoted in the International Tropical Timber Organisation Market Information Service Newsletter said it would sour relations with suppliers which, while categorised at some level of risk, were doing their best to combat deforestation. In the end the no-risk category was binned.
That settled, the delay to the EUDR has been welcomed by affected industries. Previously the EU supplier country benchmarking process would not have been finished before the EUDR came into effect. Now it will – the EC says it will be fi nalised June 30 latest – so businesses can shape due diligence processes accordingly in advance.
The EUDR IT platform, where business will upload due diligence statements and geolocation data, can be used already but it’s still under development. It will also be in its final form by that date.
Moreover, the European Commission says it will provide further guidance and clarifi cation on the EUDR and look at streamlining compliance processes.
Now they have breathing space, there are also signs of timber businesses increasingly accentuating EUDR positives. In the ITTO newsletter, one was quoted as saying it gave the sector the opportunity to highlight that it was a sustainability due diligence pioneer. It could also shine the light on the fact that other sectors covered, notably soya and palm oil, are the more signifi cant deforestation actors and that the timber sector is the only one affected not just committed to but dependent on maintaining forest as forest.
