Thread by @GreenpeaceEU

The EU Parliament has released its draft response, led by @CHansenEU, to the EU Commission's proposal to end Europe's complicity in global forest destruction: europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…

Let's see if it goes far enough to protect nature and human rights 👇👇

#Together4Forests

Reminder: 18 months ago, the Parliament asked the Commission for a strong law that would ensure that all products sold in the EU, and investments by European banks, would have no link to nature destruction or human rights abuses

#Together4Forests
greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues…

Over a million people took part in the EU Commission's public consultation, demanding the same thing as the Parliament: cut human rights abuse and nature destruction out of European supply chains

#Together4Forests
greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues…

The Commission published a proposal, missing a lot of the good stuff the Parliament (and a million people) had asked for

Now we can see if the Parliament is ready to demand the law be improved to really protect nature and human rights

#Together4Forests
greenpeace.org/eu-unit/issues…

Positive points in @CHansenEU's draft law:

⚖️ closer to ensuring that international human rights law is respected

🙅 rejected industry demands to mix clean products with those from deforested areas and sell them together

#Together4Forests
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Unfortunately @CHansenEU's draft has serious problems that the Parliament must fix:

It would allow the sale of wood from severely degraded forests

Degraded forests store less carbon, can't support species as well, and are less resilient so may even collapse

#Together4Forests

@CHansenEU's draft would leave other ecosystems unprotected

Many savannahs, wetlands, peatlands and other vital natural areas could still be destroyed to stock European supermarkets

#Together4Forests

@CHansenEU's draft law covers too few products that put nature at risk

His plan ignores products linked to destruction like:
🥩pork
🍗poultry
🌽corn

And he added a loophole for chocolate made in the EU! 🍫

#Together4Forests

@CHansenEU's draft keeps special treatment for countries marked 'low risk' for nature destruction, and removes scrutiny for high-risk ones

Nature destruction is unacceptable wherever it happens: products from *any* country must be proven clean, no exceptions

#Together4Forests

@CHansenEU's plan wouldn't tackle the damage that European banks and other investors do by bankrolling nature destruction and human rights abuses

#Together4Forests
globalwitness.org/en/blog/how-mu…

All in all, @CHansenEU's draft law comes nowhere near to ending the EU's complicity in nature destruction and human rights abuse – and is a big step backwards compared to what the Parliament demanded in 2020

The EU Parliament must make serious improvements

#Together4Forests