NGOs request that the Brazilian Cerrado be included in the EUDR during the next revision

About 74% of the Brazilian Cerrado is in its current state goes beyond EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), legislation to protect forests around the world. To avoid putting more pressure on these lands and the communities that inhabit them, indigenous leaders and non-governmental organizations are calling on the EU authorities to review and expand the provisions during a one-year review period.

The EUDR, established to prevent products linked to deforestation from entering the EU from 1 January 2024, applies to any geographical area where palm oil, cattle, coffee, cocoa, soy, timber and rubber are produced . However, to be considered deforested land, it must fall under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) definition of “forest,” which excludes certain savannas and grasslands. If no illegal activities are found under national and international laws (including conservation laws), goods produced in areas not covered by the EUDR will be able to enter the EU.

This includes most of the Cerrado, an ecosystem known as the “cradle of water» because of its vital role in replenishing major Brazilian and South American watersheds, as well as providing energy and food security for millions of people. It is the second largest biome of Brazil, covering over 20% of the country’s territory – the size of the area Mexico — and is global the greatest biodiversity savanna.

If not applied equally to all biomes, “EUDR will contribute to even greater deforestation pressures in non-forest biomes, as well as increase violence in indigenous territories that are not located in the Amazon or Atlantic Rainforest,” Dinam Tuxa, executive coordinator of Indigenous Articulation peoples of Brazil, said press statement.

The risk here is a potential “leakage effect,” where measures to protect forests cause logging to move to another region, environmentalists say. Producers may decide to move their activities from areas covered by the EUDR to unprotected savannahs and grasslands, which will increase the expansion of production of certain commodities and increase the burden on ecosystems. Activists are also worried that indigenous peoples, etc traditional communitiessuch as Quilombolas and Geraiseiros can suffer from this effect.

Richard Fuchs, a researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) at Campus Alpin, told Mongabay that the exclusion of corn and other commodities from the EUDR could also be used by producers who could replace their soybean crops with corn, thus known as land exchange.

Territories under threat

There are about 216 indigenous territories belonging to 83 different ethnic groups situated in the Cerrado, as well as 44 territories of Quilombola. According to Isabel Figueiredo, coordinator of the Cerrado program at the Institute for Population, Society and Nature, these areas can be threatened by land grabs and other mechanisms used by agribusiness to expand production.

Some of these communities are already struggling with encroachment and pesticide pollution. In the recent investigationEarthsight links soy used as animal feed on European poultry farms to deforestation, land grabbing, corruption and violence against traditional communities in the Cerrado.

“Threats and armed conflict have become part of everyday life for traditional communities that have inhabited the region for generations,” said Fife Strachan, head of policy and communications at Earthsight. “The aggressive expansion of agribusiness is also reducing habitat and threatening the survival of one-fifth of the Cerrado’s species,” such as the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) and the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus).

Unlike its neighbor the Amazon, where there was destruction rolled up In recent years, as a result of the national policy to protect it, the rate of deforestation in the Cerrado has increased increased by 43% in 2023 from The greatest destruction is concentrated in the state of Bahiawhere nearly a quarter of the original 9 million hectares (22 million acres) of vegetation—an area the size of Wales—has been lost since 1985.

Including the Cerrado in the EUDR review would make a “significant contribution to slowing deforestation in these critical ecosystems,” Strachan told Mongabay.

Thomas Haar, the European Parliament’s press officer, told Mongabay that during the first review of the regulation, which will be carried out within one year of its entry into force, they will “assess the impact of a further extension of the scope to ‘other forested land'”. .’”

However, some researchers advocate that a a 12-month deferral is proposed to the EUDR to improve the legislation now, rather than waiting for a review a year from now. The Center for International Studies on Forestry and Global Agroforestry welcomes the delay, which is due to be voted on by the EU Parliament soon, for several reasons, although not necessarily to protect the Cerrado. In the press release, the organization mentions the elimination of gaps in how the regulation understands forests.

“Our research points to the need for a more detailed understanding of tree-based forest systems and land use,” the organization wrote.

Other researchers and human rights defenders fear delay will kill momentum, allow businesses to block its implementation, and lead to more deforestation.

Banner image: Cattle herds in the Amazon and Cerrado tend to have few heads per hectare. Restoring pastures can increase the number of cattle in the same area, which researchers say could reduce the need for deforestation. Image © Tommaso Protti/Greenpeace.

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Quote:

Fuchs, R., Raymond, J., Winkler, K., & Rounsevel, M. (2024). There are serious loopholes in the EU’s new anti-deforestation law that could be exploited in a future trade deal between the EU and MERCOSUR. Environmental Research Letters, 19(9): 091005. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad69ab

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