The EU has made strong commitments to mitigate climate change, stop deforestation and respect human rights, including community rights to land. The trade agreements the EU is currently negotiating with highly forested countries risk, however, undermining these commitments. They do not yet contain sufficient provisions or enforcement mechanisms to prevent forest loss, mitigate climate change and halt human rights abuses. This discussion paper proposes ways to address this.
To ensure coherence between EU trade policy and EU commitments on forests, climate change and human rights, the EU must ensure that the trade agreements it is currently negotiating with highly forested countries – such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Mercosur bloc – include provisions and enforcement mechanisms that ensure that an increase in trade does not increase deforestation and human rights violations.
