EVENT RECAP: The telecoupled implications of EU’s new regulation on ‘deforestation-free’ supply chains

On April 19th, 2023 the European Parliament approved the new EU legislation to ensure “deforestation-free” imports and exports of seven “forest-risk” commodities (wood, palm oil, rubber, cocoa, coffee, cattle and soy, as well as their derived products).

In May, the GLP Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems Working GroUP held a webinar to start a discussion on how telecoupling research can be used to advance our understanding of this new EU regulation.

The implications of this Regulation are unsure, but it is likely to have consequences for tropical forest landscapes and people, including smallholder producers of these commodities.

The webinar included an introduction by:

• Johanna Coenen, Co-Coordinator of the Working Group, Leuphana University (SLIDES)

The webinar also included short inputs from:

• Almut Schilling-Vacaflor, Osnabrück University (SLIDES)
• Mairon de Bastos Lima, Stockholm Environment Institute
• Armando Valdés-Velasquez, Wyss Academy for Nature and Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

Presentations were followed by a joint discussion among panelists and participants.