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The Ajinomoto Group's business is built on a sound agrifood system, and on the rich global environment that supports this system.
At the same time, deforestation is worsening globally, driven by factors such as land-use changes associated with food production. The loss of natural capital caused by deforestation not only accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss, but also seriously impacts the livelihoods of local communities. We recognize that these impacts undermine the sustainability of the agrifood system and pose a significant risk to the very foundation of our business, including with respect to the stable procurement of raw materials and the relationships of trust with local communities.
Based on this understanding, as a company that handles food resources, the Ajinomoto Group believes it has a responsibility to prevent and eliminate deforestation within its own supply chain. We will work in cooperation with our stakeholders to promote the realization of no deforestation in our supply chain, thereby simultaneously achieving natural regeneration, coexistence with local communities, and sustainable business growth.
This initiative is positioned as part of the Ajinomoto Group's materiality "Prevention of deforestation," which underpins the Group's goal of "Achievement of a sustainable global environment."
The Ajinomoto Group has committed to no deforestation across its primary deforestation-linked commodities-palm oil, soy, beef, and paper-with a target date of December 31, 2025.
Furthermore, starting in fiscal year 2026, we will add coffee to the scope and strengthen our efforts toward realizing no deforestation in our supply chain.
"No deforestation" means not sourcing raw materials produced on land where deforestation or forest degradation has occurred since December 31, 2020. "Deforestation-free" refers to the state that commodity production or sourcing does not cause or contribute to deforestation.
As of the end of December 2025, 89% of the Group's procurement volume of palm oil, soy, beef, and paper*
1,
*
2
has been confirmed to be deforestation-free (based on the procurement results for FY2024).*
3
We select appropriate verification methods depending on the traceability status and the characteristics of raw materials and their origins.
With regard to the procurement volume categorized as "under confirmation with supplier collaboration," for palm oil in particular, measures such as sourcing from specified mills verified to be "deforestation-free" and purchasing certified materials are already being implemented in phases.
As for other materials, since confirmation of the deforestation status and securing of traceability through to upstream suppliers are still in progress, we continue to conduct risk checks. Depending on the raw material, there may be many suppliers and multiple tiers of business partners upstream of processing sites, resulting in dispersed and multi-layered supply chains. As a result, comprehensively grasping deforestation risks all the way upstream presents challenges in terms of information availability and data quality, including information that is difficult for us to obtain on our own and the need for cooperation with relevant parties.
In response, we are working to improve traceability and to refine risk assessment accuracy through supplier engagement and field surveys (for the details on other materials, see the "Ensuring Traceability" and "Risk Assessment" sections below).
The Ajinomoto Group has established environmental governance (policies and systems), and is promoting traceability, risk assessment, monitoring, and risk mitigation in collaboration with stakeholders across the supply chain. We will continue and strengthen our efforts to achieve no deforestation across the entire supply chain.
The Group is committed to faithfully upholding its policies, including the no-deforestation policy, and works to establish and operate internal control systems. We recognize sustainability to be a key business risk and opportunity, and we continue to make efforts to strengthen governance. For more details, please see the following.
We believe that ensuring traceability is essential to understanding the actual state of deforestation risks within the supply chain. As a first step, we promote visibility in collaboration with suppliers, and, where necessary, conduct on-site visits to farms and processing facilities to obtain an accurate understanding of conditions on the ground.
As a result of these efforts, we have made progress in identifying upstream supply chain actors to assess deforestation risks. Currently, we have achieved a traceability rate of 93% with respect to mills for palm oil and 100% with respect to slaughterhouses for beef. For paper, we leverage certification schemes that involve third-party audits and verification, as well as the reliability of deforestation-free compliance assessments conducted by our business partners.
For beef, although traceability is required upstream from slaughterhouses to grazing areas, the multi-layered nature of distribution and transaction structures presents challenges. Therefore, we are proceeding with a phased approach to improving visibility. At present, we prioritize primary suppliers with large procurement volumes and engage in dialogue regarding management practices and information-sharing approaches. For soy, we are working to improve traceability through ongoing engagement with suppliers (for details, see the "Examples of Stakeholder Engagement" section). Going forward, we will continue to steadily enhance traceability by taking into account the characteristics of each commodity and supply chain and advancing prioritized actions accordingly.
The Ajinomoto Group confirms whether there are any deforestation risks in procured raw materials through multiple approaches, including supplier confirmation, satellite-imagery-based confirmation, desk-based regional-level assessment, and verification via certifications (for details, see the "Verification Methods for 'Deforestation-Free'" section).
For certain suppliers, we conduct on-site visits to production facilities and carry out detailed assessments of their risk management practices (for details, see the "Examples of Stakeholder Engagement" section).
To detect newly occurring deforestation, we have established a system to receive information and reports through a supplier hotline, as well as the Group Customer Service Center that we make available to all stakeholders. In addition, to more accurately identify deforestation risks in the upstream supply chain, we are also exploring the use of satellite monitoring tools to detect deforestation and issue alerts.
If we identify a supplier suspected of involvement in deforestation, we will promptly conduct fact-finding and take appropriate action.
The Ajinomoto Group has been advancing initiatives toward achieving no deforestation across the entire supply chain by collaborating with suppliers and industry stakeholders, with palm oil, soy, beef, and paper designated as priority commodities.
From FY2026, we will also position coffee as a target commodity, and we will progressively expand our efforts to achieve no deforestation. For coffee, we have already strengthened initiatives to ensure traceability, promoted procurement of certified green coffee beans, and are advancing initiatives that contribute to forest restoration, such as participation in regenerative agriculture pilot projects in Vietnam and Brazil (for details,
see here
).
Building on our efforts to date, we will continue to maintain our governance framework (policies and systems) and enhance traceability, while also expanding the scope of risk assessment and advancing the development of monitoring and risk mitigation measures.
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Ajinomoto Co. Inc. published this content on
June 30, 2026
, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via
Public Technologies (PUBT)
, unedited and unaltered, on
June 30, 2026
at
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The Ajinomoto Group's business is built on a sound agrifood system, and on the rich global environment that supports this system.
At the same time, deforestation is worsening globally, driven by...

Ajinomoto : Notice about update of

Some everyday items may disappear from supermarkets in ingredients ban
Chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and other everyday products could face new checks as the Government moves to tackle illegal deforestation in global supply chains
View Image
The new rules plan to ensure everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world
Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
‌
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
‌
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
‌
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
‌
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
‌
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Article continues below
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

Some everyday items may disappear from supermarkets in ingredients ban

Brazil has struggled historically to prevent its cattle industry from contributing to deforestation.
One study, however, considers a new approach: Conduct Adjustment Agreements (TACs), under which cattle-buying plants are
forgiven for past violations but could be penalized for future livestock purchases from illegally deforested areas. … [B]efore TACs were introduced … slaughterhouse openings significantly reduced the area of natural forest … [because] ranchers increased their pastureland … through deforestation.
But when
an existing slaughterhouse signed a TAC, new slaughterhouse openings … did not result in additional forest loss or severe pasture degradation. Instead, ranchers increased the number of cattle on existing pastureland and earned a price premium for their production. Slaughterhouses that signed TACs … monitored ranchers more closely to avoid purchasing cattle from illegally deforested areas.
All in all,
[t]hese factors may have led ranchers to increase the productivity of existing pasture by improving management instead of expanding pastureland.

All in all, '[t]hese factors may have led ranchers to increase the productivity of existing pasture by improving management instead of expanding pastureland.'

Reducing Deforestation by Aligning Private Incentives

The UK Government has announced new plans to ban ingredients linked to illegal deforestation from supermarket shelves, targeting products like chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics, and shampoos. The measures, set out during London Climate Action Week, will require businesses to ensure their supply chains are free from illegal deforestation using powers under the Environmental Act and strengthening the UK Timber Regulations. The aim is to protect global rainforests and endangered species while giving consumers assurance that their purchases do not contribute to forest loss. Consultations with businesses and stakeholders will be held later this year, with a focus on transitioning to a deforestation-free standard. Retailers have welcomed the announcement but call for pragmatic enforcement, especially in light of the upcoming EU Regulation in Northern Ireland.
Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week during London Climate Action Week.
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase. To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations.
Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation. The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.
" The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy. The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation.
Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed. The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers. " In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products will come into force in phases from December 30.
Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit. Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

The UK Government has announced new plans to ban ingredients linked to illegal deforestation from supermarket shelves, targeting products like chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics, and shampoos.

UK Government Plans to Ban Ingredients Linked to Illegal Deforestation in Supermarket Products

Jeffrey Miron
Brazil has struggled historically to prevent its cattle industry from contributing to deforestation.
One study, however, considers a new approach: Conduct Adjustment Agreements (TACs), under which cattle-buying plants are
forgiven for past violations but could be penalized for future livestock purchases from illegally deforested areas. … [B]efore TACs were introduced … slaughterhouse openings significantly reduced the area of natural forest … [because] ranchers increased their pastureland … through deforestation.
But when
an existing slaughterhouse signed a TAC, new slaughterhouse openings … did not result in additional forest loss or severe pasture degradation. Instead, ranchers increased the number of cattle on existing pastureland and earned a price premium for their production. Slaughterhouses that signed TACs … monitored ranchers more closely to avoid purchasing cattle from illegally deforested areas.
All in all,
[t]hese factors may have led ranchers to increase the productivity of existing pasture by improving management instead of expanding pastureland.
Cross-posted from Substack.

Jeffrey Miron Brazil has struggled historically to prevent its cattle industry from contributing to deforestation. One study, however, considers a new approach: Conduct Adjustment Agreements (TACs),…

Reducing Deforestation by Aligning Private Incentives  Before It's News

Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

Everyday items could change under new deforestation rules

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Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

Government step up action to tackle illegal deforestation
New rules will ensure everyday products sold in the UK including coffee and cocoa do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world
The world's rainforests are to be better protected from deforestation as the government will confirm during London Climate Action Week, that plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain including using powers in the Environment Act alongside legislation strengthening the UK Timber Regulation.
Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation. These products are commonly found in everyday supermarket products including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics.
UK companies have been at the forefront of global efforts to tackle deforestation within their supply chains, but voluntary action alone cannot tackle this global challenge, and several major supermarkets have been calling for stronger regulation.
This move will protect the habitats of some of the world's most precious and endangered species, while giving British consumers confidence that the products in their shopping baskets are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
Rainforests and other forests are vital for storing carbon and sustaining biodiversity, yet they are increasingly threatened by deforestation. Around 90 per cent of global deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion, much of it linked to the production of internationally traded commodities. In 2023, the UK's consumption of these goods was associated with approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide – around one and a half times the size of Manchester – and 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions. Nature Minister Mary Creagh said: 'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife.
'That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.' Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: 'Retailers welcome today's announcement. 'We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
'But with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it is important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers.' Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said: 'The UK Government have warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. 'We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife. 'With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there is no excuse for further delay which would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.'
These new measures will help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing. The government will consult businesses, civil society and international partners later this year on the details of the proposed GB deforestation policy. This will include consulting on the introduction of these mandatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain including using powers such as under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation, and by strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulation.
To maintain Northern Ireland's unique dual market access to both the UK Internal Market and the EU Single Market, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will apply in Northern Ireland in phases starting 30 December 2026.
Crucially, to protect the UK Internal Market and streamline compliance, the upcoming consultation will propose that the GB regime covers the same core commodities and underlying information requirements as the regulation in Northern Ireland. This aligned approach is designed to prevent administrative duplication across the UK while helping British exporters to the EU meet consistent data and traceability standards. Businesses in Northern Ireland are encouraged to begin preparations now.
Further details on the GB deforestation regulations consultation process will be announced in due course. (Source: newsandcommunications.gov.uk)

Government step up action to tackle illegal deforestation New rules will ensure everyday products sold in the UK including coffee and cocoa do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the wor…

Environment: Government 'step up action' to tackle illegal deforestation – Businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check their supply chains are not contributing to the problem

Some everyday items may disappear from supermarkets in ban

Everyday items may disappear from supermarkets in ingredients ban
Chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and other everyday products could face new checks as the Government moves to tackle illegal deforestation in global supply chains
View Image
The new rules plan to ensure everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world (Image: Getty)
Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
‌
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
‌
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
‌
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
‌
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
‌
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Article continues below
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

While most know that trees are important to us – people living in streets with trees live longer, for example – looking at a simple map that shows global deforestation makes one shiver. Oxford University's Our World in Data has produced such a map:
Deforestation is the deliberate destruction of the environment, often for profit. Forest clearance defines the amputation and demolition of a forest from the land. Regularly, this land is converted to non-forest agricultural use – a funny word: agriculture. One wonders where the 'culture' is in industrialized monoculture plantations drenched with pesticides, herbicides or, worse, Frankenstein plants that are genetically modified.
To poison soil for profits – and yes, peak soil is behind us. It is downhill from here on – deforestation means the 'conversion' – the code word for annihilation – of a forest into industrial farming, ranches, or land to be used for housing and factories.
Despite capitalism's best efforts, just about 31% of the Earth's land is still covered by forests. Yet this is about one-third less than the forests that covered Earth before the expansion of agriculture. Worse, about half of all deforestation occurred during the last century.
Slowly, we are converting planet Earth into a Mars-like dustbin where madman like Elon Musk want to live. Even potato-shit farmer Matt Damon, in The Martian (2015), left as soon as he could. Yes, this might well be our future here on Earth.
On Earth, about 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. We are making rapid steps towards Mars-like living – or, better, dying. Recent estimates of deforestation have varied regarding the extent of deforestation in the tropics.
In 2025, nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused 'by agriculture' – as if agriculture has hands to do it. Profit-driven cropland expansion and pasture creation were the primary drivers. Meanwhile, forests are also being converted into plantations for coffee, palm oil – found in almost everything we eat – rubber, and so on.
But wait, it gets worse. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the timber industry – legal and illegal logging – urbanization and, of course, mining. Among the many effects of deforestation are the acceleration of global warming and an increased risk of wildfires in the dried-up landscapes that are left behind.
Beyond all that, deforestation foremost results in habitat destruction which, in turn, not only leads to biodiversity loss but moves us ever closer to the sixth mass extinction. Deforestation leads to the extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and the dislocation of Indigenous communities who once lived not just 'in' but 'with' a forest. Once Indigenous people and trees are removed – thanks to Caterpillar and Stihl, for example – such regions suffer from desertification and soil erosion.
In addition to this, deforestation also diminishes the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reduces a forest's ability to mitigate the impact of global warming. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon is rapidly declining. Making this all the more serious is the fact that, since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. From 2015 to 2020, the rate of deforestation was 10 million hectares per year.
Based on the link between deforestation, global warming, and the expected changes for agriculture, the global food system is in danger. Roughly 12,000 years ago, when Earth's climate stabilized, farming became possible. Once the climate becomes unstable again because of global warming, serious problems are to be expected.
These are the problems we all will have to face during our present-day Capitalocene – global warming turbocharged by capitalism. One possible attempt to address this is the EU's regulation on the protection of forests—known as the EUDR. The regulation is officially known as Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products (EUDR).
The idea behind the EUDR – the European Union Deforestation Regulation – is perhaps twofold: first, the EU knows that neither the mythical 'free market' nor the neoliberal ideology of 'industry self-regulation' is working. Secondly, the EUDR is designed to ensure that only goods traded in Europe are processed and sold without destroying or damaging forests.
The majority of large companies in the EU support the objectives of the EUDR – nobody, not even corporate bosses, wants to be seen as destroying forests. To self-vanish from the crime scene, corporate bosses have outsourced this to faraway places under the motto: out of sight, out of mind. This has worked rather well for decades.
Yet the EU's EUDR will make it hard for corporate bosses to declare their love for forests in Sunday speeches while, on Monday, destroying them for a handsome profit under slogans like 'drill, baby, drill.'
In other words, the EU regulation targets 'deforestation-free supply chains'. To achieve this, the European Union Deforestation Regulation follows three objectives:
European consumer goods – often made and/or sold by multinational corporations – should no longer contribute to deforestation or damage forests. Within the European Union, the consumption and production of relevant materials should not generate more than 32 million tonnes of CO₂. All forms of deforestation and forest degradation through the expansion of agriculture should be prevented.
In practice, this means that 'only' medium-sized and large companies in the EU trading in raw materials or products such as soybeans, palm oil, timber, cocoa, coffee, beef or natural rubber fall under the EUDR. They must adhere to the EUDR from 30 December 2026.
To make their supply chains transparent and verifiable, the EU is limiting corporate secrecy, often hidden behind the common excuse of 'commercial confidentiality'. Companies are required to certify the origin of their products through documentation to ensure traceability. Hiding behind shiny corporate brochures and standard business ideologies like corporate social responsibility becomes ever harder for the overpaid corporate public relations men in dark business suits.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies not only to individual products but to all batches. Companies are obliged to conduct a risk assessment for affected raw materials and goods. This includes an analysis of deforestation risks. Companies also need documentation and must observe their reporting obligations in relation to their duty of care.
Only after all these conditions – for each batch – are met can goods be sold inside the European market. Companies breaching these rules will face fines. This might sound harsh, but there are many cases where corporations pay such fines from the office till for biscuits, facing only minuscule levies.
The obligations of the EUDR apply from mid-2027 even for small enterprises. Naturally, corporate vandals will complain about more administration that is difficult to meet. Yet without the corporate vandalism inflicted on the Earth's environment over decades, no EUDR would have been needed.
In other words, it is no more than the EU's attempt to protect the environment from corporations before they kill Earth. It is just as a New Yorker cartoon once said:
'Yes, the planet got destroyed.
But for a beautiful moment in time we
created a lot of value for shareholders.'
Meanwhile, environmentally destructive corporations continue to complain that the EUDR is highly complex, bureaucratic and, in many cases, not feasible. In Germany, for example, the vast majority of companies have already prepared themselves for the EU deforestation regulation. This contradicts the corporate claim that the EUDR is not feasible when most companies have already done their bit.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies to 57% of German companies with up to 250 employees and to 85% of companies with more employees. All in all, the EU's regulation on deforestation and supply chains (EUDR) has the global goal of reducing deforestation and forest degradation.
It demands that many companies in, for example, the paper and food industries are obliged to make their supply chains more transparent and verifiable. The aim is that products for which no deforestation certification can be shown can no longer access the rather lucrative – profitable – EU market with its millions of consumers.
The EUDR applies to medium and large companies in the EU after 30 December 2026 and to small businesses from 30 June 2027. The regulation requires these undertakings to guarantee the forest-destruction-free origin of their products. Perhaps Greenpeace was not wrong when it told European companies: 'Stop complaining, start complying!'

While most know that trees are important to us – people living in streets with trees live longer, for example – looking at a simple map that shows global

The EU's Fight Against Global Deforestation

RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras' protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas,
"
Zero Deforestation by 2029
"

RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras' protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are…

Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Is it working?

While most know that trees are important to us – people living in streets with trees live longer, for example – looking at a simple map that shows global deforestation makes one shiver. Oxford University's Our World in Data has produced such a map:
Deforestation is the deliberate destruction of the environment, often for profit. Forest clearance defines the amputation and demolition of a forest from the land. Regularly, this land is converted to non-forest agricultural use – a funny word: agriculture. One wonders where the 'culture' is in industrialized monoculture plantations drenched with pesticides, herbicides or, worse, Frankenstein plants that are genetically modified.
To poison soil for profits – and yes, peak soil is behind us. It is downhill from here on – deforestation means the 'conversion' – the code word for annihilation – of a forest into industrial farming, ranches, or land to be used for housing and factories.
Despite capitalism's best efforts, just about 31% of the Earth's land is still covered by forests. Yet this is about one-third less than the forests that covered Earth before the expansion of agriculture. Worse, about half of all deforestation occurred during the last century.
Slowly, we are converting planet Earth into a Mars-like dustbin where madman like Elon Musk want to live. Even potato-shit farmer Matt Damon, in The Martian (2015), left as soon as he could. Yes, this might well be our future here on Earth.
On Earth, about 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. We are making rapid steps towards Mars-like living – or, better, dying. Recent estimates of deforestation have varied regarding the extent of deforestation in the tropics.
In 2025, nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused 'by agriculture' – as if agriculture has hands to do it. Profit-driven cropland expansion and pasture creation were the primary drivers. Meanwhile, forests are also being converted into plantations for coffee, palm oil – found in almost everything we eat – rubber, and so on.
But wait, it gets worse. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the timber industry – legal and illegal logging – urbanization and, of course, mining. Among the many effects of deforestation are the acceleration of global warming and an increased risk of wildfires in the dried-up landscapes that are left behind.
Beyond all that, deforestation foremost results in habitat destruction which, in turn, not only leads to biodiversity loss but moves us ever closer to the sixth mass extinction. Deforestation leads to the extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and the dislocation of Indigenous communities who once lived not just 'in' but 'with' a forest. Once Indigenous people and trees are removed – thanks to Caterpillar and Stihl, for example – such regions suffer from desertification and soil erosion.
In addition to this, deforestation also diminishes the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reduces a forest's ability to mitigate the impact of global warming. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon is rapidly declining. Making this all the more serious is the fact that, since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. From 2015 to 2020, the rate of deforestation was 10 million hectares per year.
Based on the link between deforestation, global warming, and the expected changes for agriculture, the global food system is in danger. Roughly 12,000 years ago, when Earth's climate stabilized, farming became possible. Once the climate becomes unstable again because of global warming, serious problems are to be expected.
These are the problems we all will have to face during our present-day Capitalocene – global warming turbocharged by capitalism. One possible attempt to address this is the EU's regulation on the protection of forests—known as the EUDR. The regulation is officially known as Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products (EUDR).
The idea behind the EUDR – the European Union Deforestation Regulation – is perhaps twofold: first, the EU knows that neither the mythical 'free market' nor the neoliberal ideology of 'industry self-regulation' is working. Secondly, the EUDR is designed to ensure that only goods traded in Europe are processed and sold without destroying or damaging forests.
The majority of large companies in the EU support the objectives of the EUDR – nobody, not even corporate bosses, wants to be seen as destroying forests. To self-vanish from the crime scene, corporate bosses have outsourced this to faraway places under the motto: out of sight, out of mind. This has worked rather well for decades.
Yet the EU's EUDR will make it hard for corporate bosses to declare their love for forests in Sunday speeches while, on Monday, destroying them for a handsome profit under slogans like 'drill, baby, drill.'
In other words, the EU regulation targets 'deforestation-free supply chains'. To achieve this, the European Union Deforestation Regulation follows three objectives:
In practice, this means that 'only' medium-sized and large companies in the EU trading in raw materials or products such as soybeans, palm oil, timber, cocoa, coffee, beef or natural rubber fall under the EUDR. They must adhere to the EUDR from 30 December 2026.
To make their supply chains transparent and verifiable, the EU is limiting corporate secrecy, often hidden behind the common excuse of 'commercial confidentiality'. Companies are required to certify the origin of their products through documentation to ensure traceability. Hiding behind shiny corporate brochures and standard business ideologies like corporate social responsibility becomes ever harder for the overpaid corporate public relations men in dark business suits.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies not only to individual products but to all batches. Companies are obliged to conduct a risk assessment for affected raw materials and goods. This includes an analysis of deforestation risks. Companies also need documentation and must observe their reporting obligations in relation to their duty of care.
Only after all these conditions – for each batch – are met can goods be sold inside the European market. Companies breaching these rules will face fines. This might sound harsh, but there are many cases where corporations pay such fines from the office till for biscuits, facing only minuscule levies.
The obligations of the EUDR apply from mid-2027 even for small enterprises. Naturally, corporate vandals will complain about more administration that is difficult to meet. Yet without the corporate vandalism inflicted on the Earth's environment over decades, no EUDR would have been needed.
In other words, it is no more than the EU's attempt to protect the environment from corporations before they kill Earth. It is just as a New Yorker cartoon once said:
'Yes, the planet got destroyed.But for a beautiful moment in time wecreated a lot of value for shareholders.'
Meanwhile, environmentally destructive corporations continue to complain that the EUDR is highly complex, bureaucratic and, in many cases, not feasible. In Germany, for example, the vast majority of companies have already prepared themselves for the EU deforestation regulation. This contradicts the corporate claim that the EUDR is not feasible when most companies have already done their bit.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies to 57% of German companies with up to 250 employees and to 85% of companies with more employees. All in all, the EU's regulation on deforestation and supply chains (EUDR) has the global goal of reducing deforestation and forest degradation.
It demands that many companies in, for example, the paper and food industries are obliged to make their supply chains more transparent and verifiable. The aim is that products for which no deforestation certification can be shown can no longer access the rather lucrative – profitable – EU market with its millions of consumers.
The EUDR applies to medium and large companies in the EU after 30 December 2026 and to small businesses from 30 June 2027. The regulation requires these undertakings to guarantee the forest-destruction-free origin of their products. Perhaps Greenpeace was not wrong when it told European companies: 'Stop complaining, start complying!'
Thomas Klikauer was born half-way between Castle Frankenstein, the place where Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, and Karl Benz's garage where the first motor-car was developed. Educated at the TU Darmstadt, Bremen University, Boston University, and Warwick University, Thomas Klikauer teaches MBA students and supervises PhDs at the Sydney Graduate School of Management (SGSM) at Western Sydney University, Australia. Among his 1,200 publications are 17 books. He writes for ZNet on trade unions, for Cross Border Talks on Neo-Nazism and for Countercurrents on everything else that is relevant for our collective survival. His homepage is: klikauer.wordpress.com. He lives in Sydney's beachside suburb of Coogee.

While most know that trees are important to us – people living in streets with trees live longer, for example – looking at a simple map that shows global deforestation makes one shiver.

The UK Government announced plans to introduce new regulations requiring businesses to ensure that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation, including new mandatory due diligence requirements, with a consultation on the new rules to be launched this year.
The government said that its approach will propose covering the same core commodities and underlying information requirements to be used in the EU's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), in order to help businesses avoid administrative duplication and to enable consistent data and traceability standards for companies.
According to the government, the plans for the new rules come as the UK's consumption of goods linked to the production of internationally traded commodities is associated with approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide annually, and 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions, while businesses such as supermarkets have been calling for stronger regulation to help tackle deforestation in product supply chains.
Under the new proposals, companies that trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
The government said that it will consult businesses, civil society and international partners later this year on the details of the proposed deforestation policy, including consulting on mandatory due diligence requirements for businesses. The proposed requirements would be introduced using powers including the UK Environment Act alongside legislation strengthening the UK Timber Regulation. The statement added that the new measures will help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing.
Ultimately, the government said that its ambition is to transition to a deforestation-free standard which will require relevant products to be produced free from any deforestation.
UK Nature Minister Mary Creagh said:

The UK Government announced plans to introduce new regulations requiring businesses to ensure that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation, including new mandatory due diligence requirements, with a consultation on the new rules to be launched this year. The government said that its approach will propose covering the same core commodities and […]

UK to Introduce Mandatory Supply Chains Deforestation Due Diligence Rules

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It's more important than ever to stay informed - Get the free CheshireLive newsletter direct to your inbox
Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

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Some everyday items could disappear off supermarket shelves as the Government plans to ban ingredients to tackle illegal deforestation. Plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain to better protect our global rainforests were set out this week [June 23] during London Climate Action Week.
The new rules plan to ensure that everyday products sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. The ingredients that will need to be checked are commonly found in products including chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics and shampoos, which are readily available in supermarkets for customers to purchase.
To take these new regulations forward, the Government plans to use powers found in the Environmental Act as well as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations. Under the new proposal, UK businesses who get items sourced from rainforests such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
The new proposed changes will help to protect some of the world's most endangered species found in our global rainforests. It will also give British shoppers the assurance that their supermarket staples are not causing illegal harm to the world's beloved rainforests.
Mary Creagh, the Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The Government's new measures plan to help businesses reduce the risk of their imported ingredients being linked to illegal land clearing and deforestation. Businesses, civil society and international partners will be consulted by the government later this year to be fully informed about the proposed GB deforestation policy.
The consultation will include obligatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain using powers under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation. Powers such as strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulations will also be discussed.
The Government's proposed future plans will then focus on trying to transition to a 'deforestation-free' standard for businesses to adapt to and follow. If successful, these ambitious plans will then require relevant products to be produced free for any deforestation in the hopes to globally detach supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
In Northern Ireland, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will come into force in phases from December 30. Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said with this in mind, there is 'no excuse' for any further delays for the rest of the UK following suit.
Gavin said: "The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.

Deforestation refers to the large-scale removal of forest cover, primarily due to human activities such as logging, agricultural expansion, urban development, and mining. This process results in the loss of biodiversity, as forests are home to a majority of the world's terrestrial species. It also impacts climate change, both by reducing the number of trees available to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide and by releasing stored carbon through activities like burning wood. The consequences of deforestation extend beyond environmental impacts; they also affect local communities by disrupting water cycles and soil fertility, which can lead to poorer agricultural yields and increased risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides. Addressing deforestation is a global concern, requiring international cooperation and sustainable practices to balance human needs with environmental preservation. Various initiatives, including reforestation and afforestation projects, sustainable logging practices, and legal frameworks aimed at protecting forested areas, are critical components in combating deforestation.

Deforestation refers to the large-scale removal of forest cover, primarily due to human activities such as logging, agricultural expansion, urban development, and mining. This process results in the loss of biodiversity, as forests are home to a majority of the world's terrestrial species. It

Deforestation News

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RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras' protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas, threatening one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems. In 2024, its government launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a special focus on recovering land used by criminal groups for timber trafficking. The 'Zero Deforestation by 2029' plan, launched by the National Defense and Security Council in May 2024, declared a state of emergency for the country's forests and set aside funds to retake control of protected areas where agriculture, livestock, mining and other illegal activities have been thriving, often with the involvement of powerful criminal groups. And part of this plan involves building up an 'environmental protection battalion' of 8,000 troops. However, the militarization of conservation has always been a controversial issue. 'Militarization […] is not a long-term solution,' says Professor Kendra McSweeney, Professor of Geography, at The Ohio State University, who has been studying conservation in Central America. 'Absent a larger investment in public policies, in leadership and in legal regimes that will enforce the law in those areas, it cannot work.' With young civilian scientists now leading armed patrols into jungles with cartel activity, the question remains: can militarized conservation stop forest loss, or is it creating new risks for conservation, environmental protectors and forests alike? Mongabay's Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any…This article was originally published on Mongabay

RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras' protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas, threatening one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems. In 2024, its government launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a […]

In recent days, a viral video by content creator Mari Terán (@marianateranr) reopened the debate about the evolution of deforestation in Colombia during Gustavo Petro's government. Terán questioned claims pointing to an increase in forest loss, which led to a review of official data from the IDEAM and the Ministry of Environment.
The figures show that between 2022 and 2024, the country recorded the lowest accumulated deforestation since systematic monitoring began. Although there was an uptick in 2024 compared to the previous year, the overall balance remains the most favorable in two decades.
Annual evolution of deforestation
2021 (baseline) : 174,103 hectares deforested.
: 174,103 hectares deforested. 2022 : 123,517 hectares, a 29% reduction compared to 2021.
: 123,517 hectares, a 29% reduction compared to 2021. 2023 : 79,256 hectares, the lowest figure since 2000 and the first time below 100,000 hectares.
: 79,256 hectares, the lowest figure since 2000 and the first time below 100,000 hectares. 2024: 113,608 hectares, a 43% increase compared to 2023, explained by the intensification of armed conflict in the Amazon and the El Niño phenomenon.
In total, between 2022 and 2024, 316,381 hectares were deforested, representing a 39% reduction compared to the 2021 baseline. This result far exceeds the goal of the National Development Plan, which aimed for a 20% reduction in the 2022–2026 period.
Factors behind deforestation
The Ministry of Environment identifies the main causes as:
Land grabbing through pasturization .
. Expansion of extensive cattle ranching .
. Opening of informal roads .
. Illegal mining .
. Illegal logging .
. Illicit crops, although to a lesser extent compared to the agricultural frontier.
The breakdown of dialogues with armed groups in the Amazon made territorial control difficult in departments such as Caquetá, Guaviare, Meta, and Putumayo, which explains part of the increase in 2024.
Containment strategies
The government attributes the achieved reduction to:
The Conservar Paga program.
program. Conservation agreements with rural, indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities.
The Comprehensive Deforestation Containment Plan 2023–2026.
These efforts have also allowed for continued international cooperation with countries such as Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom, which support the protection of Colombian forests.
Importance of the accumulated balance
While 2024 showed an increase compared to 2023, official reports highlight that the accumulated total of the first three years of the current government remains the lowest since Colombia officially began measuring deforestation.
The director of IDEAM, Ghisliane Echeverry, emphasized that this period of government represents 'the lowest accumulated deforestation figure' in two decades of systematic monitoring.
Official figures show that generally stating 'deforestation increased during the Petro government' does not reflect the complete behavior of the historical series. Although there was an uptick in 2024, the accumulated balance between 2022 and 2024 confirms a significant reduction and the lowest level in twenty years.

In recent days, a viral video by content creator Mari Terán (@marianateranr) reopened the debate about the evolution of deforestation in Colombia during

Public debate and official figures: deforestation in Colombia reaches its lowest level in two decades

D espite having the highest conservation status, many national parks are still suffering from forest destruction, raising questions about commitments from various authorities to preserve the country's remaining woodlands. Deforestation is persistent in Indonesia, and it has been on the rise in recent

D espite having the highest conservation status, many national parks are still suffering from forest destruction, raising questions about commitments from various authorities to preserve the country's…

Deforestation still haunts Indonesia's national parks

As part of London Climate Action Week, the Government has taken an important step to tackle illegal deforestation.
Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
However at the same time, the Government is facing considerable lobbying from Big Oil and the aviation industry to weaken its flagship aviation decarbonisation policy, the SAF Mandate, by allowing crop-based SAF into the scheme.
There is a clear link between this type of SAF and widespread deforestation:
Indirect Land Use Change - As food supply is diverted to make crop based SAF, land needed for agriculture expands triggering a domino effect where tropical forests and grasslands, in places like the Amazon or Southeast Asia, are cleared to plant new food crops.

Europe's leading advocates for clean transport & energy

Action on illegal deforestation is welcome - but crop-based biofuels…

A leaked draft document suggests the European Commission will remove leather from the EU Deforestation Regulation, despite internal findings linking it to deforestation.
The commission cites 'supply chain considerations and load on the information system' as justifications for exempting leather from the list of deforestation-risk commodities.
The adoption of a proposed delegated act is expected in the 'next weeks,' according to the European Commission; it's still subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union, which would have two months to object or change the proposal.
Environmental groups believe the move reflects strong industry lobbying and contradicts evidence linking cattle and leather supply chains to forest loss.
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The European Commission is taking further steps to formally exempt the global leather trade from its landmark EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a leaked draft obtained by news outlet Euractiv.
The revelation comes just one month after a review of internal documents, first reported by Mongabay, exposed a paradox at the heart of the commission: its own consultants explicitly tied leather to widespread forest destruction, yet commissioners are choosing to ignore the data.
In the leaked draft, later reviewed by Mongabay, the commission acknowledged the relatively low compliance cost of including leather, but said 'the supply chain considerations and load on the EUDR Information System … justify the proposed removal.'
The European Commission did not respond to Mongabay's questions about the document and its authenticity.
The proposal is not yet final. Following a feedback period, concluded on June 1, the formal adoption of the delegated act is expected in 'the next weeks,' a European Commission spokesperson told Mongabay, after declining to offer any further comments.
After adoption, the usual path includes the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union having two months to object. If they do not object or propose revisions, the changes will be automatically enacted. This means that unless EU lawmakers stage an unexpected, last-minute revolt, the leather industry's multibillion-dollar pass on deforestation is poised to be finalized, policy analysts say.
The EUDR — created to force companies selling high-risk commodities such as cattle, soy, and palm oil to prove their supply chains aren't driving deforestation — is set to take effect at the end of December. The regulations have been under pressure and were previously delayed.
The leaked draft obtained by Euractiv also reveals that the European Commission is willing to expand the EUDR so that it covers other sectors. The draft shows the regulations will likely now cover a wide range of palm-derived oleochemicals used in cosmetics, detergents, and food emulsifiers. The goal, the commission notes, is to ensure 'consistency across the oleochemicals supply chain' and prevent companies from shifting deforestation risks downstream.
If confirmed, the commission's decision seems to exhibit a distinct approach to the concept of 'downstream risk' when it comes to palm oil in soap or makeup, but does not seem to follow the same logic for leather seats in an SUV or a designer handbag.
Environmental campaigners pointed to the effectiveness of powerful leather lobbying in Brussels for the exclusion of bovine hides from the list of commodities on Annex I.
'The leather industry has been pushing for leather to be exempt from the EUDR, claiming that it doesn't drive Amazon deforestation and human rights' abuses,' said Alex Wijeratna, senior director at U.S-based campaign group Mighty Earth. 'That's entirely false, as the meat industry and the leather trade are inextricably linked; it's impossible to access the meat without first removing the cowhide.
'The global leather industry is doing everything it can to avoid legal responsibility for the environmental destruction that its supply chains cause,' he added.
Wijeratna was one of the campaigners demonstrating at the entrance of a hotel in London that was hosting one of the main events of the leather sector on June 30. Called Lineapelle London, the trade fair gathers around 50 elite international tanners and materials producers twice a year. The one-day event draws hundreds of luxury designers, automotive stylists, and high-end fashion buyers previewing upcoming seasonal trends.
Inside the upscale Ham Yard Hotel in London's Soho neighborhood, the atmosphere was optimistic about the future of the industry. Two leather makers who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity said they're not worried about the EUDR posing any threats to the industry.
'Brussels is doing what Brussels usually does,' a representative of an Italian tannery at the event said. 'We are confident that this [the removal of leather from the list of commodities] will be resolved.'
Behind the scenes, the industry has worked hard for this result. Since 2021, leather groups, led by COTANCE and Unione Nazionale Industria Conciaria (UNIC), the Italian tanneries union, have met European lawmakers at least 22 times, according to EU lobbying transparency records aggregated by the nonprofit organization LobbyFacts.
More than a third of those meetings took place in the past year, as the regulation moved closer to implementation. The EUDR was specifically mentioned as a focus of these meetings on 11 occasions, Mongabay reported last month.
Another Lineapelle exhibitor, from a different Italian tannery, said 'it's absurd that people think they should be held responsible for a crisis [deforestation] they did not create.' They added that 'leather is naturally sustainable as a recycled material.'
Outside the leather and fashion event, Miki Ng, a researcher and campaigner at environmental campaign group Earthsight, said they're protesting because consumers want to know that the leather products they buy are not driving the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest.
'Excluding leather from the EUDR ignores the overwhelming evidence that supports regulation and the views of citizens,' she said. 'In the commission's public consultation on the changes to the EUDR, around 81% of EU citizens' submissions on leather supported keeping it within the scope of the law.
'Make no mistake,' she added, 'removing leather from the EUDR doesn't make deforestation disappear — it simply hides it.'

The European Commission is taking further steps to formally exempt the global leather trade from its landmark EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a leaked draft obtained by news outlet Euractiv. The revelation comes just one month after a review of internal documents, first reported by Mongabay, exposed a paradox at the heart of the […]

Leaked document shows EU closer to dropping leather from anti-deforestation law

The EU plans to exempt palm oil derivatives used in medicines and soybeans used for sowing from its landmark rules tackling global deforestation in its latest attempt to blunt the law's impact on sensitive sectors.
The carve-outs were among amendments added by the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg, which could still change ahead of its adoption.

The EU plans to exempt palm oil derivatives used in medicines and soybeans used for sowing from its landmark rules tackling global deforestation in its latest attempt to blunt the law's impact on sensitive sectors.

EU Adds Palm Oil for Drugs, Soy Seeds to Deforestation Carve-Out

The move would affect products that use commodities such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber—found in chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics, and shampoos.
Mary Creagh, Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains.
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The government plans to use powers under the Environmental Act to introduce 'due diligence' requirements for businesses.
This means that UK companies will need to ensure that forest-based commodities in their supply chains are not linked to illegally cleared land.
The proposals aim to reduce the risk of UK imports contributing to illegal land clearing and ecosystem destruction abroad.
Officials say the measures will support global efforts to protect forests, help endangered species, and give confidence to UK shoppers that their purchases are not fuelling environmental harm overseas.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement.
"We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
The UK government will launch a full consultation later this year involving businesses, civil society, and international partners.
This will inform the development of a GB-wide deforestation policy, including the legal details of mandatory checks on supply chains.
The consultation will also explore how to strengthen the UK Timber Regulations—part of efforts to transition towards a 'deforestation-free' standard for all relevant commodities in the future.
If adopted, this standard would ultimately require that products placed on the GB market involve no deforestation at all, legal or otherwise.
For now, the focus remains on tackling illegal deforestation first.
The move comes as the EU prepares to roll out its own Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which will come into force in phases from December 30 in Northern Ireland.
Gavin Crowden, director of advocacy at WWF, said: "The UK government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one.
"We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest."

Under new rules set out during London Climate Action Week, items containing ingredients linked to illegal rainforest destruction could be pulled…

These everyday items may disappear from supermarkets in ban

Assam Kemi bridge collapse: Railway staff cites rain, 'deforestation and construction' factors

Assam Kemi bridge collapse: Railway staff cites rain, 'deforestation and construction' factors ......

Assam Kemi bridge collapse: Railway staff cites rain, ‘deforestation and construction' factors

Hà Nội Mới • 29/06/2026
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This was the assessment of Ms. Sheila Wertz-Kannounikoff, Head of Biodiversity and Forests, Asia-Pacific Regional Office of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in an interview with a reporter from the Hanoi Press and Broadcasting Agency . According to Sheila, perfecting the traceability data system not only helps Vietnam meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the international market but also reflects the transition to a responsible production model, aiming to develop agricultural value chains that do not cause deforestation. Sheila Wertz-Kannounikoff, Head of Biodiversity and Forests, FAO Asia-Pacific. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
Forests - the foundation of agricultural productivity
Sheila emphasized that Vietnam is on the right track in separating agricultural growth from deforestation thanks to a growing awareness of the role of forests in agricultural development. This is also one of the pillars in the deforestation-free agricultural development strategy that FAO is promoting globally.
Deforestation-free agriculture is one of FAO's priorities aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural value chains, where production does not expand on converted forest land, while enhancing traceability and transparency in the supply chain to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the international market.
According to the FAO, the transition to deforested agriculture is a long-term trend that requires synchronized changes from policy to production practices.
Forests are not only important for global climate and biodiversity conservation, but they also directly maintain productivity through regulating the water cycle, protecting soil fertility, supporting pollination, and controlling pests and diseases.
"More and more agencies, businesses, and producers in Vietnam are becoming aware of the role of forests in agriculture. This is a very positive sign," said Sheila.
According to her, this result stems from the Government 's consistent policies in protecting and restoring natural forests and developing planted forests. As a result, Vietnam's forest area has increased by approximately 59% over the past 30 years. Vietnam's forest area has increased by approximately 59% over the past 30 years. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
However, the current goal is not only to protect forests but also to build agricultural value chains that develop without increasing pressure on forest resources. Therefore, the requirement for data and traceability is becoming a key factor.
In the context of many markets requiring products to prove they are not linked to deforestation, Vietnam is proactively improving its data system for traceability.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is currently working on building a database of coffee and rubber growing areas, and integrating geolocation data to verify that products are not produced on converted forest land.
FAO experts said that many countries in the region are also building similar systems, but Vietnam is highly regarded by the FAO for its speed of implementation. This result is the product of collaboration between the Vietnamese Government, the FAO, and partners such as GIZ and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH).
"Demonstrating responsible production is becoming a priority for Vietnam, a crucial foundation for the continued development of agricultural value chains that do not lead to deforestation," commented Sheila.
According to Sheila, Vietnam still has much room to improve its transformation process. The immediate priority is to strengthen land use rights so that producers can confidently invest long-term and adopt sustainable farming models.
Besides export industries, Vietnam also needs to promote responsible production of products for the domestic market, because forest protection should not only aim to meet the requirements of import markets.
FAO also recommends expanding agroforestry models, in which agricultural and forestry crops are grown on the same agricultural land, contributing to ecosystem protection, diversifying income sources, and enhancing resilience to climate change, while discouraging the conversion or cultivation of agriculture on forest land.
According to Sheila, as global value chains increasingly prioritize products with verifiable origins and no deforestation, current steps will help Vietnam enhance its competitiveness in the future.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/fao-viet-nam-dang-di-dung-huong-voi-nong-nghiep-khong-gay-mat-rung-1209801.html
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Amidst tightening market requirements for agricultural products that do not cause deforestation, Vietnam is being recognized by the FAO as one of the fastest-developing countries in the region in…

FAO: Vietnam is on the right track with deforestation-free agriculture.

A range of everyday products could be disappearing from supermarket shelves following the government's announcement of a new initiative.
The move was unveiled during London Climate Action Week on June 23 and could bring significant changes to major UK supermarkets including Asda, Morrison's, Sainsbury's and Lidl.
Under the proposed measures, UK businesses trading in commodities sourced from rainforests will be required to verify that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
Nature Minister Mary Creagh said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains."
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The initiative would impact products utilising commodities such as:
These goods are widely found in everyday supermarket staples including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics — and could result in certain items being pulled from our shelves.
In 2023, Britain's consumption of these products was linked to approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation across the globe — roughly one and a half times the size of Manchester — and 9.4 million tonnes of associated carbon emissions.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement.
"We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."

The government has announced a new initiative that could see everyday items including chocolate, cooking oils and shampoo dropping off UK supermarket shelves.

Supermarkets could drop everyday items from shelves in huge shake-up

The European Commission is taking further steps to formally exempt the global leather trade from its landmark EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a leaked draft obtained by news outlet Euractiv. The revelation comes just one month after a review of internal documents, first reported by Mongabay, exposed a paradox at
"
the supply chain considerations and load on the EUDR Information System justify the proposed removal.
"

The European Commission is taking further steps to formally exempt the global leather trade from its landmark EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a leaked draft obtained by news outlet…

The supermarket sector has welcomed the government's plans to extend the UK's anti-deforestation regime to a wider range of forest-risk commodities.
Defra this week confirmed it would build on an existing due diligence framework for timber under the Environment Act 2021 to include cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and certain derived products such as chocolate and furniture – in a bid to 'further decouple UK consumption from global deforestation'.
Businesses sourcing these commodities with an annual turnover of over £1m would now be subject to enhanced regulation, Defra said, and 'will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation'.
The government stressed it would ensure the new measures 'operate consistently' alongside the EU's long-delayed deforestation regulations (EUDR), with the aim that the information GB businesses must hold 'will be broadly the same as what is needed for a due diligence statement when exporting to the EU'.
Defra also confirmed the EUDR will apply to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework's dual market access conditions.
Retailers had 'long called for 'UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments', said BRC director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie.
Aligning the regulation with the EUDR would also 'avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers', he added.
The UK government regulations are due to be implemented in 2027, subject to consultation. But with the EUDR due to start taking effect in Northern Ireland at the end of this year, Opie stressed it was also 'important the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers'.
Opie's comments were shared by British Meat Processors Association sustainability manager Lucas Daglish. He welcomed the broad mirroring of EUDR requirements, 'as it should help minimise duplication and reduce administrative burdens for businesses trading in both markets'.
But he added there were 'significant questions' about how the regulation would operate in practice, 'particularly regarding movements of cattle and beef between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland'.
Detailed guidance would be 'essential to allow processors, producers and exporters sufficient time to adapt their systems, contracts and supply chains ahead of implementation', he urged.
Elsewhere, Sophia Ostler, senior policy manager at The Fairtrade Foundation, said it would now be 'crucial we hear directly from smallholder farmers to help shape these regulations'.
They needed to 'both protect forests and work in practice for producers at the sharp end of climate change, to support a just transition to more environmentally-friendly farming practices', Ostler added.
The new measures would 'help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing', said WWF director of advocacy Gavin Crowden.
'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife,' said nature minister Mary Creagh.
'That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.'

Defra said the move would 'further decouple UK consumption from global deforestation'

Retailers back EUDR-aligned UK anti-deforestation rules

JAKARTA: Despite having the highest conservation status, many national parks are still suffering from forest destruction, raising questions about commitments from various authorities to preserve the country's remaining woodlands. Deforestation is persistent in Indonesia, and it has been on the rise in recent years.
According to environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara, more than 430,000 hectares of forest were cleared in 2025. The figure, nearly the same size as seven Jakartas, nearly doubled the amount in 2024.
Of the total figure, around 25,000 ha of cleared forests were located in conservation areas, including national parks like Sebangau in Central Kalimantan, home to peat ecosystems and the critically endangered Bornean orangutan that has been enduring decades of deforestation.
But nearly 2,000 ha of the park and its surrounding zone were cleared to make way for oil palm plantations in 2024, according to Auriga. The clearing was the sixth-largest oil palm encroachment among 57 national parks in the country.
Existing regulations prohibit any conversion of forest land inside a national park for plantations or other purposes. Even indigenous people and local communities are only allowed to utilise land inside national parks under tight limitations without massively clearing tree cover.
In our latest special report, The Jakarta Post visited Sebangau to see parts of the national park that has been plagued by deforestation, part of which is the result of illegal oil palm plantations opened within the park's borders. These plantations, some of which are reportedly owned by local smallholders, feed a mill that produces crude palm oil (CPO) for various companies, including multinational ones that previously committed not to use ingredients linked to deforestation.
But oil palm plantations are just the tip of the iceberg in Sebangau. Tenurial conflicts between park management and an indigenous Dayak subtribe that has been living around Sebangau for generations led to the opening of dozens of illegal gold mining sites across Sebangau.
Authorities acknowledged the persisting encroachment in Sebangau and other national parks, pointing to a lack of forest rangers to enforce regulations against illicit business activities. To solve the law enforcement gap, the government created a task force to eradicate these illegal oil palm plantations and mining sites, including in Sebangau where officers have reclaimed nearly 1,500 ha of plantations to be reforested.
However, observers have been skeptical about the plan, arguing that law enforcement alone will not be sufficient to recover the degraded forest without a proper plan to address the root of the problems. Saving Sebangau and other national parks, they said, will require the government to sit down and work together with all involved parties, including indigenous people, to look for sustainable solutions. - The Jakarta Post/ANN

JAKARTA: Despite having the highest conservation status, many national parks are still suffering from forest destruction, raising questions about commitments from various authorities to preserve the…

PKR vice-president Roland Engan calls for immediate end to deforestation in Sabah and Sarawak to justify their claim of lion's share of federal carbon tax revenue.
PETALING JAYA: A PKR vice-president said the Sabah and Sarawak governments must immediately end all deforestation if they intend to claim the lion's share of federal carbon tax revenue.
Roland Engan said carbon revenue should not just be a reward for past geography 'but a binding commitment to future preservation'.
'If East Malaysia are to be compensated as the nation's premier carbon sinks, they must actively protect them. 'We cannot demand 70% of carbon tax revenue while simultaneously allowing the depletion of the very forests generating that value,' he said in a statement tonight.
He was responding to Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg's remarks yesterday that East Malaysia should receive at least 70% of any carbon tax revenue collected, as the two states serve as the nation's primary carbon sinks. Abang Johari said that outside of Pahang, the rest of Malaysia lacks sizable forest canopies capable of substantial carbon sequestration, while Sarawak's vast peatlands and mangrove forests store several times more carbon than many other forest ecosystems.
Roland, who is also the Sarawak PKR chief, suggested that carbon tax revenue distributions to Sabah and Sarawak be contingent upon zero-deforestation KPIs and robust, transparent monitoring. He said financial incentives must directly fund the permanent protection and restoration of existing natural habitats, rather than offsetting ongoing commercial logging or land conversion. He also said both states must demonstrate globally aligned standards in forest management to justify such a significant portion of federal tax revenue.
'True environmental stewardship requires aligning financial incentives with total ecological preservation,' he said.

PKR vice-president Roland Engan calls for immediate end to deforestation in Sabah and Sarawak to justify their claim of lion's share of federal carbon tax revenue.

Sabah and Sarawak Must End Deforestation for Carbon Tax Revenue

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – June 29, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
DeForest Tree Service has announced the expansion of its emergency response capabilities ahead of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, adding specialized equipment and personnel to address storm-related tree damage throughout Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads region.
The expansion includes the acquisition of additional crane equipment and the hiring of certified arborists to strengthen the company's 24-hour emergency response team. These investments position the company to handle increased demand for storm cleanup services as meteorologists predict an above-average hurricane season for the Mid-Atlantic coast.
'We have invested in additional crane capacity and expanded our emergency response team to better serve Virginia Beach residents during severe weather events,' said Brandon DeForest, owner of DeForest Tree Service. 'With NOAA forecasting an active hurricane season, property owners need reliable emergency tree services available around the clock.'
The company's enhanced capabilities come as Virginia Beach continues recovering from recent storm events that left numerous properties with damaged trees requiring professional removal. The expanded fleet now includes three crane units capable of removing trees up to 100 feet in height, addressing a critical need in older neighborhoods with mature tree canopies.
DeForest Tree Service maintains round-the-clock availability for emergency calls, with response times averaging under two hours for hazardous situations. The company's tree care service division handles both emergency removals and preventive maintenance, helping property owners identify potentially dangerous trees before storms arrive.
The timing of this expansion aligns with updated municipal regulations requiring property owners to address hazardous trees within 72 hours of storm events. Virginia Beach code enforcement has increased inspections of storm-damaged trees following several incidents involving delayed removals that resulted in secondary property damage.
Industry data from the International Society of Arboriculture indicates that demand for emergency tree services in coastal Virginia has increased 35 percent over the past five years, driven by more frequent severe weather events and aging urban forests. The Hampton Roads region experiences an average of three significant wind events annually that require professional tree removal services.
'Our expanded crane fleet allows us to remove large trees safely without the extended road closures that traditional removal methods often require,' added DeForest. 'This capability becomes critical when multiple properties need immediate attention following major storms.'
The company has also implemented new safety protocols aligned with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for crane operations in post-storm conditions. These protocols include mandatory site assessments before crane deployment and coordination with utility companies to ensure safe working distances from power lines.
Local emergency management officials note that professional tree removal services play an essential role in post-storm recovery efforts. Fallen trees block emergency vehicle access and can damage utility infrastructure, making rapid removal a public safety priority.
DeForest Tree Service operates as a licensed and insured tree care provider in Virginia Beach, maintaining certifications from the Tree Care Industry Association. The company provides comprehensive tree services including removal, trimming, stump grinding, and preventive maintenance for residential and commercial properties throughout the Hampton Roads region.
###
For more information about DeForest Tree Service, contact the company here:
DeForest Tree Service
Brandon DeForest
(757) 553-1864
deforesttrees@gmail.com
3764 North Landing Rd
Virginia Beach, VA 23456

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - June 29, 2026 - PRESSADVANTAGE - DeForest Tree Service has announced the expansion of its

DeForest Tree Service Announces Expanded Emergency Response Capabilities for 2026 Hurricane Season

Under new rules set out during London Climate Action Week on June 23, items containing ingredients linked to illegal rainforest destruction could be pulled from sale.
The move would affect products that use commodities such as soy, oil, cocoa and rubber—found in chocolate, cooking oils, cosmetics, and shampoos.
Mary Creagh, Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains.
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The government plans to use powers under the Environmental Act to introduce 'due diligence' requirements for businesses.
This means that UK companies will need to ensure that forest-based commodities in their supply chains are not linked to illegally cleared land.
The proposals aim to reduce the risk of UK imports contributing to illegal land clearing and ecosystem destruction abroad.
Officials say the measures will support global efforts to protect forests, help endangered species, and give confidence to UK shoppers that their purchases are not fuelling environmental harm overseas.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement.
"We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
The UK government will launch a full consultation later this year involving businesses, civil society, and international partners.
This will inform the development of a GB-wide deforestation policy, including the legal details of mandatory checks on supply chains.
The consultation will also explore how to strengthen the UK Timber Regulations—part of efforts to transition towards a 'deforestation-free' standard for all relevant commodities in the future.
If adopted, this standard would ultimately require that products placed on the GB market involve no deforestation at all, legal or otherwise.
For now, the focus remains on tackling illegal deforestation first.
The move comes as the EU prepares to roll out its own Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which will come into force in phases from December 30 in Northern Ireland.
Gavin Crowden, director of advocacy at WWF, said: "The UK government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one.
"We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest."

The Atlantic Forest is one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots, a flagship of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, & the most degraded Brazilian biome after more than five centuries of exploitation. Its current situation combines both deforestation & forest regeneration simultaneously. This trajectory may lead either to its extinction or to its becoming an example of how to reverse a long history of environmental destruction.
The Atlantic Forest can become a nursery for nature-based solutions, helping to secure ecosystem services for the majority of Brazil's population & economy, while also providing valuable lessons for the Amazon & other tropical forests around the world in addressing the global climate & biodiversity crisis.

The Atlantic Forest is one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots, a flagship of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, & the most degraded Brazilian biome after more than five centuries of exploitation. Its current situation combines both deforestation & forest regeneration simultaneously. This trajectory may lead either to its extinction or to its becoming […]

The crossroad – toward Zero Deforestation in the Atlantic Forest?

Ministers set out plans last week to cover everyday supermarket items, including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics.
These are commonly made from commodities such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber, which are often associated with rainforest deforestation.
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'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife," said forestry minister Mary Creagh. 'That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains.
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.'
Around 90 per cent of global deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion, much of it linked to the production of internationally traded commodities.
In 2023, the UK's consumption of these goods was associated with approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide - around one and a half times the size of Manchester - and 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions.
The proposed measures - announced during June's London Climate Week - will now be consulted upon.

Ministers set out plans last week to cover everyday supermarket items, including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics.

UK plans crackdown on imports linked to illegal deforestation

UK supermarkets set to drop everyday items like chocolate from shelves in major shake-up
The government has announced major changes and new checks for UK supermarkets and businesses to carry out as part of proposals announced in London Climate Action Week
View 2 Images
The move could affect what you see on the supermarket shelves (Image: Getty)
A number of everyday items could be dropping off supermarket shelves after the government announced a new initiative.
‌
The move was announced during London Climate Action Week on June 23 and could lead to changes in major supermarkets in the UK such as Asda, Morrison's, Sainsbury's and Lidl.
‌
Under the new proposals, UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
‌
Mary Creagh, Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains.
View 2 Images
Empty shelves at a UK supermarket (Image: Jeff Moore)
‌
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The move would affect products that use commodities such as:
Soy
Oil
Cocoa
Rubber
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These products are commonly found in everyday supermarket products including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics - and may mean certain items dropping off our shelves.
In 2023, the UK's consumption of these goods was associated with approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide - around one and a half times the size of Manchester - and 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement.
Article continues below
"We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."

The government has announced major changes and new checks for UK supermarkets and businesses to carry out as part of proposals announced in London Climate Action Week

UK supermarkets to drop chocolate and shampoo from shelves in major shake-up

The UK is looking to create a supply chain management law focusing on mitigating deforestation. During the recent London Climate Action Week, the government announced its plans to use existing and new legislation to tackle deforestation. The concept behind the new law is similar to the EU's deforestation regulation and will require companies in certain industries to trace their supply chains. A press release from the UK government describes the framework:
'Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation. These products are commonly found in everyday supermarket products including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics.
UK companies have been at the forefront of global efforts to tackle deforestation within their supply chains, but voluntary action alone cannot tackle this global challenge, and several major supermarkets have been calling for stronger regulation.'
Right now, details are scarce beyond the initial concept. The press release is unclear on whether products contributing to deforestation will face market bans similar to those in the EU. This is likely to have effects beyond the UK. The EU's deforestation law is the subject of controversy in EU/US relationships. The US is attempting to gain an exemption from the law, allowing any such goods originating in the US to automatically be deemed as not contributing to deforestation. We'll see if the UK's law introduces similar friction and if the US will seek an exemption there as well.
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The UK is looking to create a supply chain management law focusing on mitigating deforestation. During the recent London Climate Action Week, the government announced its plans to use existing and new legislation to tackle deforestation. The concept behind the...

UK Announces Supply Chain Deforestation Law

AYV News, July 1, 2026
The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS), with support from the Government of Sierra Leone, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility has completed sensitisation and community awareness campaign in eight communities in the Western Area Peninsula National Park.
Deforestation remains one of the most pressing environmental challenges affecting the Western Area Peninsula National Park and its surroundings which also affects rural communities whose livelihoods depend on forest resources. The Western Area Peninsula National Park has been cleared at an alarming rate for agriculture, logging, infrastructure development, stone mining and charcoal production. This has far-reaching consequences, including loss of biodiversity, climate change acceleration, soil degradation, disruption of water cycles, and threats to the livelihoods of indigenous and forest dependent communities.
Under the Sustainable and Integrated Landscape Management of the Western Area Peninsula (WAP) Project, eight communities; Markobeh, Robgelor, Tokeh, River Number Two Community, Sussex, Last Banking (Aberdeen), Barthurst and Charlotte Communities have been selected because they show signs of significant deforestation activities in recent years. Despite various efforts by government and non-governmental organizations, there remains a substantial gap in awareness and community participation in forest conservation efforts. The four-day campaign engaged and sensitized the eight communities on the impacts of deforestation and to encourage sustainable environmental practices through community-led actions.
The objective of the sensitization campaign was to raise awareness and enhance community engagement in the eight selected communities on the causes, consequences, and mitigation strategies of deforestation while the specific objectives were to educate community members on the environmental, social and economic impacts of deforestation, encourage the formation of local environmental protection groups, foster collaboration between community members, local authorities, and environmental stakeholders as well as foster collaboration between community members, local authorities and environmental stakeholders.
The engagements adopted a participatory and inclusive approach to community engagements and the methodology included collaboration with local leaders and Community Stakeholders to organize and mobilize participants, organized interactive workshops in each of the eight communities and using local languages and culturally relevant materials (posters and storytelling).
Topics included causes and effects of deforestation, climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable alternatives.
The expected results are increased awareness among at least 80% of the community members in all eight communities on deforestation and its impacts, reduction in activities contributing to deforestation as a result of behavior change as well as improved collaboration between community stakeholders and environmental agencies.
Furthermore, the awareness-raising campaign aims to create a ripple effect of environmental consciousness and responsibility starting at the grassroots level. By engaging and empowering the eight vulnerable communities around the Western Area Peninsula National Park, it seeks not only to mitigate deforestation but also to build a foundation for sustainable environmental stewardship for future generations.

AYV News, July 1, 2026 The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS), with support from the Government of Sierra Leone, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility has…

Tacugama mitigates deforestation in Western Area Peninsula

DEFOREST, Wis. (WMTV) - On one of the hottest days of the year, the coolest place to be in DeForest was right under a fire truck.
DeForest Windsor Fire & EMS brought Ladder 23 to Fireman's Park on Tuesday, using the truck's aerial and fire hose to create a massive sprinkler for kids and families looking to beat the heat.
Firefighter/EMT Ben Waldera said the event served as a training opportunity new firefighters learning how to operate the ladder truck. Coincidentally, the training happened to fall during this week's heat wave.
'Every time we're out here and the kids see the fire trucks, they're waving, they're wanting us to honk our horn, blow the siren, and today was no exception for them,' Waldera said. 'It was a lot of fun for us.'
Firefighters say they try to do the cool-down event for kids at least once or twice a year.
By the end of the afternoon, the park was filled with laughs, soaked shirts and plenty of smiles as kids ran through the spray.DEFOREST, Wis. (WMTV) - On one of the hottest days of the year, the coolest place to be in DeForest was right under a fire truck.
DeForest Windsor Fire & EMS brought Ladder 23 to Fireman's Park on Tuesday, using the truck's aerial and fire hose to create a massive sprinkler for kids and families looking to beat the heat.
Firefighter/EMT Ben Waldera said the event served as a training opportunity new firefighters learning how to operate the ladder truck. Coincidentally, the training happened to fall during this week's heat wave.
'Every time we're out here and the kids see the fire trucks, they're waving, they're wanting us to honk our horn, blow the siren, and today was no exception for them,' Waldera said. 'It was a lot of fun for us.'
Firefighters say they try to do the cool-down event for kids at least once or twice a year.
By the end of the afternoon, the park was filled with laughs, soaked shirts and plenty of smiles as kids ran through the spray.

DeForest Windsor Fire & EMS turned Ladder 23 into a giant sprinkler at Fireman's Park, giving kids a fun way to cool off on one of the hottest days of the summer.

DeForest Windsor Fire & EMS turn fire hose into massive sprinkler for families looking to beat the heat

It may look like a new way to create wealth for African countries but, unfortunately, the surging demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt – essential for electric vehicles and renewables, will rather create massive deforestation in countries endowed with these minerals. This is because for every hectare (10,000 square metres) of active mine exploited, an additional 34 hectares of forest is lost to supporting infrastructure like roads, housing and agriculture, as a new University of Sheffield-led study has shown.
The authors of the study said, between 2001 and 2020, a total of 187,000 hectares of forest was converted to mines in Africa – an area roughly equivalent to the state of Mauritius, and this is leading to massive deforestation, consequently, with demand expected to grow 40-fold by 2040, there is danger ahead.
They warned that current environmental assessments drastically underestimate mining's true footprint, calling for 'zero-deforestation' supply chains to protect vital forests from being sacrificed.
In the study, 'Mining triggers extensive additional deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa', published in the Nature journal, the authors said, 'for every hectare of direct deforestation due to the mine footprint, mining triggers, on average, 34 hectares of additional offsite loss within five years through ancillary activities, including agriculture and settlements.'
The authors said mines extracting cobalt and copper — key energy transition minerals — caused the highest amount of additional deforestation. The 'embedding offsite deforestation levels into environmental impact assessments for new mining projects will be key to ensuring zero-deforestation or no-net-loss supply chains for critical minerals and reduce future mining-driven forest losses in sub-Saharan Africa', they added.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) seems to agree with the findings in a statement early this year, which expressed concerns with the surging global demand for transitional minerals — such as cobalt, lithium, and copper.
The UNEP said the trend will replicate historical boom-bust cycles across Africa, and said 'this threatens local ecosystems, exacerbates inequality, and risks locking host nations into low-value, environmentally degrading extraction rather than sustainable development'.
Its key concerns and strategic focus areas across Africa include ecosystem destruction and Pollution. Unregulated and extractive mining, they also said, threatens vulnerable biomes, leading to severe biodiversity loss, deforestation, and the contamination of vital local water sources with toxic chemical runoff.
Mining operations, the UNEP said, frequently violate indigenous land rights and displace local populations without fair compensation or proper Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). In addition, the rapid influx of large-scale and informal mining operations increases the risk of labour exploitation, poor workplace safety, and threats directed at environmental and human rights defenders.
The UNEP said host countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for a vast majority of global cobalt production, are at risk of capturing very little economic value from the extraction process if value-added processing and manufacturing are not localised.
The authors of the study said the conversion of currency into gold during global periods of financial upheaval has increased gold exploitation, and the global shift towards renewable energy has further heightened demand for key energy transition minerals (ETMs), including cobalt, lithium and copper.
They used continent-wide data on post-deforestation land uses and a robust difference-in-differences framework to assess 16,627 mines between 2001 and 2020, and said globally, mining directly threatens 8% of vertebrate species and drives widespread habitat loss.
'This is concerning, given that more than 20% of the remaining intact tropical forest lies in mineral, gas or oil concessions, many of which are still in the exploration stage. Mine expansion affects forests directly when land is cleared for mining pits or shafts, on-site processing, spoil heaps, or tailing storage facilities,' the authors said.
They said more than 325,000 hectares (ha) of tropical forest was lost directly to industrial mining between 2000 and 2019. However, focusing solely on mine footprints ignores ancillary off-site anthropogenic activities triggered by mining indirectly, including the construction of ports, roads and railways, settlements and agricultural expansion.
'Each of these activities drives further deforestation and increases forest accessibility, facilitating hunting and trapping. National-scale attempts to estimate total offsite deforestation caused by mining vary substantially from no-detectable-net impact in Zambia and Madagascar, to significant net-negative impacts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Brazil,' the study said.
According to the authors, across sub-Saharan Africa, mining caused an overall mean increase in deforestation of within 1 km of a mine after ten years compared to unmined areas). At 1–5 km from a mine, the region-wide average effect was smaller, but remained substantial, with an increase in cumulative deforestation after ten years. The greatest impacts in each concentric buffer predominantly occurred in the years immediately after the mine was established and cumulative impacts plateaued after five years in some countries.
The study said mining had the greatest effect on total additional deforestation near mining sites in the years immediately after establishment, adding that total additional deforestation was correlated with mine size: the largest mines had the greatest additional forest losses. The amount of additional deforestation within 1 km of a mine ten years after operations started, increased in most of the countries.
The authors said their work provides comprehensive estimates of mining-induced deforestation of dense forest across sub-Saharan Africa, identifying 187,070 hectares of direct mining-induced deforestation — for instance, from pits, tailing ponds and spoil heaps — between 2001 and 2020.
They said increased deforestation effects persist up to 20 km from mines. This represents a 34-fold increase in additional deforestation relative to on-site loss, through ancillary activities such as agriculture, urban expansion and road construction. Effectively managing and minimizing additional mining-associated deforestation is therefore critical to maintaining the globally vital carbon stocks and biodiversity of sub-Saharan Africa.
From the study, the researchers found that previous work that quantifies mining-driven deforestation at the regional scale has predominantly focused on quantifying the losses driven by the direct mining footprint. Finer-scale studies focusing on offsite mining impacts have found additional deforestation up to 5 km from 255 artisanal mines in the eastern DRC, up to 10 km from 446 mine clusters in the southern Côte d'Ivoire 36 and up to 70 km from 50 large industrial mines in the Brazilian Amazon.
'The substantially larger area of impact in the Brazilian Amazon, relative to this study and prior estimates across the African continent, is likely a product of the larger mine size and the creation of considerable extra road and rail infrastructure to link large mines and ports,' they added.
The study said economic development and the global energy transition will continue to drive a boom in mining activities across Africa, with demand for key ETMs sourced predominantly from Africa expected to grow by up to 40-fold by 2040. Although this represents an important opportunity for socio-economic development in many African countries that rely on artisanal and industrial mining as a key element of their economy, their study underscores the severe risks to the continent's remaining forest habitats under 'business-as-usual' mining practices.
'Future environmental impact projections for cobalt mining — the DRC alone accounted for 80% of global cobalt production in 2024 — suggest that these impacts will only continue to grow and their reduction is linked tightly to the success of mineral recycling initiatives,' they said.
Giving another perspective, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRC) which said it had been monitoring human rights risks linked to the mining of minerals essential for powering the global energy transition, noted that, between 2010 and 2024, the Transition Minerals Tracker (TMT) recorded 835 allegations of human rights and environmental abuse linked to the extraction of these key minerals. Updated annually, this year's analysis spotlights the human rights implications of mining eight transition minerals: bauxite, cobalt, copper, iron ore, lithium, manganese, nickel and zinc.
The BHRC said while all minerals covered by the TMT can be found in Africa, the continent is particularly rich in cobalt, copper, lithium and manganese. The DRC accounts for more than 70 percent of the global cobalt supply, while Zambia is ranked seventh globally in copper production (used across a wide range of technologies and in power grids for electrification) and second only to DRC in Africa. Zimbabwe is the top producer of lithium in Africa and among the top five globally. South Africa is the world's largest producer of manganese.
Analysis of the 2025 TMT reveals that those most impacted by extraction of transitional minerals are workers, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and human rights defenders (HRDs). In Africa, workers and local communities are bearing the brunt of human rights abuses related to the extraction of transition minerals. Communities where mining takes place are still steeped in poverty – despite the mining companies reaping high profits from exploiting their land. The TMT also recorded instances of lack of meaningful engagement and violation of workers' rights. Meanwhile, a violent conflict in the DRC – attributed to the control of minerals, including transition minerals – has exacerbated the plight of workers and local communities.
To mitigate these risks, the UNEP has partnered with groups like the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) to promote strict social and environmental audits at mine sites. Furthermore, the UN advocates for integrating the extractive sector with global sustainability standards and aligning operations with the African Green Minerals Strategy.
Since 1970, the IRMA study said, extraction of metal ores has quadrupled, fuelling rapid economic growth. The total, or embodied volume of material stock used in buildings, infrastructure and machinery, increased 23-fold between 1990 and 2010.
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It may look like a new way to create wealth for African countries but, unfortunately, the surging demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt – essential for electric vehicles…

Africa's forests @ risk amid surging energy transition minerals demand

A large-scale
deforestation and logging operation
within a tropical rainforest,
Terra Santa
, a municipality located in the western region of
Pará, Brazil
.
Photo credit: Tarcisio Schnaide
Deforestation is the deliberate destruction of the environment, often for profit. Forest clearance defines the amputation and demolition of a forest from the land. Regularly, this land is converted to non-forest agricultural use—a funny word: agriculture. One wonders where the 'culture' is in industrial monoculture plantations drenched with pesticides, herbicides or, worse, Frankenstein plants that are genetically modified.
To poison soil for profits—and yes, peak soil is behind us. It is downhill from here on—deforestation means the 'conversion'—the code word for annihilation—of a forest into industrial farming, ranches, or land to be used for housing and factories.
Despite capitalism's best efforts, just about 31% of the Earth's land is still covered by forests. Yet this is about one-third less than the forests that covered Earth before the expansion of agriculture. Worse, about half of all deforestation occurred during the last century.
Slowly, we are converting planet Earth into a Mars-like dustbin where madmen like Elon Musk want to live. Even potato-shit farmer Matt Damon, in The Martian (2015), left as soon as he could. Yes, this might well be our future here on Earth.
On Earth, about 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. We are making rapid steps towards Mars-like living—or, better, dying. Recent estimates of deforestation have varied regarding the extent of deforestation in the tropics.
In 2025, nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused by 'agriculture'—as if agriculture had hands to do it. Profit-driven cropland expansion and pasture creation were the primary drivers. Meanwhile, forests are also being converted into plantations for coffee, palm oil—found in almost everything we eat—rubber, etc.
But wait, it gets worse. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the timber industry—legal and illegal logging—urbanisation and, of course, mining. Among the many effects of deforestation are the acceleration of global warming and an increased risk of wildfires in the dried-up landscapes that are left behind.
Beyond all that, deforestation foremost results in habitat destruction which, in turn, not only leads to biodiversity loss but also moves us ever closer to the sixth mass extinction. Deforestation leads to the extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and the dislocation of Indigenous communities who once lived not just 'in' but 'with' a forest. Once Indigenous people and trees are removed—thanks to Caterpillar and Stihl, for example—such regions suffer from desertification and soil erosion.
In addition to this, deforestation also diminishes the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reduces a forest's ability to mitigate the impact of global warming. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon is rapidly declining. Making this all the more serious is the fact that, since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. From 2015 to 2020, the rate of deforestation was 10 million hectares per year.
Based on the link between deforestation, global warming, and the expected changes for agriculture, the global food system is in danger. Roughly 12,000 years ago, when Earth's climate stabilised, farming became possible. Once the climate becomes unstable again because of global warming, serious problems are to be expected.
These are the problems we all will have to face during our present-day Capitalocene—global warming turbocharged by capitalism. One possible attempt to address this is the EU's regulation on the protection of forests—known as the EUDR. The regulation is officially known as Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products (EUDR).
The idea behind the EUDR—the European Union Deforestation Regulation—is perhaps twofold: first, the EU knows that neither the mythical 'free market' nor the neoliberal ideology of 'industry self-regulation' is working. Secondly, the EUDR is designed to ensure that only goods traded in Europe are processed and sold without destroying or damaging forests.
The majority of large companies in the EU support the objectives of the EUDR—nobody, not even corporate bosses, wants to be seen as destroying forests. To self-vanish from the crime scene, corporate bosses have outsourced this to faraway places under the motto 'out of sight, out of mind'. This has worked rather well for decades.
Yet the EU's EUDR will make it hard for corporate bosses to declare their love for forests in Sunday speeches while, on Monday, destroying them for a handsome profit under slogans like 'drill, baby, drill.'
In other words, the EU regulation targets 'deforestation-free supply chains.' To achieve this, the European Union Deforestation Regulation follows three objectives:
European consumer goods—often made and/or sold by multinational corporations—should no longer contribute to deforestation or damage forests.
Within the European Union, the consumption and production of relevant materials should not generate more than 32 million tonnes of CO₂.
All forms of deforestation and forest degradation through the expansion of agriculture should be prevented.
In practice, this means that 'only' medium-sized and large companies in the EU trading in raw materials or products such as soybeans, palm oil, timber, cocoa, coffee, beef or natural rubber fall under the EUDR. They must adhere to the EUDR from 30 December 2026.
To make their supply chains transparent and verifiable, the EU is limiting corporate secrecy, often hidden behind the common excuse of 'commercial confidentiality.' Companies are required to certify the origin of their products through documentation to ensure traceability. Hiding behind shiny corporate brochures and standard business ideologies like corporate social responsibility becomes ever harder for the overpaid corporate public relations men in dark business suits.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies not only to individual products but to all batches. Companies are obliged to conduct a risk assessment for affected raw materials and goods. This includes an analysis of deforestation risks. Companies also need documentation and must observe their reporting obligations in relation to their duty of care.
Only after all these conditions—for each batch—are met can goods be sold inside the European market. Companies breaching these rules will face fines. This might sound harsh, but there are many cases where corporations pay such fines from the office till for biscuits, facing only minuscule levies.
The obligations of the EUDR apply from mid-2027 even for small enterprises. Naturally, corporate vandals will complain about more administration that is difficult to meet. Yet without the corporate vandalism inflicted on the Earth's environment over decades, no EUDR would have been needed.
In other words, it is no more than the EU's attempt to protect the environment from corporations before they kill Earth. It is just as a New Yorker cartoon once said:
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
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Meanwhile, environmentally destructive corporations continue to complain that the EUDR is highly complex, bureaucratic and, in many cases, not feasible. In Germany, for example, the vast majority of companies have already prepared themselves for the EU deforestation regulation. This contradicts the corporate claim that the EUDR is not feasible when most companies have already done their bit.
Meanwhile, the EUDR applies to 57% of German companies with up to 250 employees and to 85% of companies with more employees. All in all, the EU's regulation on deforestation and supply chains (EUDR) has the global goal of reducing deforestation and forest degradation.
It demands that many companies in, for example, the paper and food industries are obliged to make their supply chains more transparent and verifiable. The aim is that products for which no deforestation certification can be shown can no longer access the rather lucrative—and profitable—EU market with its millions of consumers.
The EUDR applies to medium and large companies in the EU after 30 December 2026 and to small businesses from 30 June 2027. The regulation requires these undertakings to guarantee the forest-destruction-free origin of their products. Perhaps Greenpeace was not wrong when it told European companies: 'Stop complaining, start complying!'

Can Supply Chain Rules Stop Global Forest Destruction?

Roland Engan says the two states must actively protect their carbon sinks to claim such a high compensation.
Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg said the state's vast peatlands and mangrove forests store several times more carbon than many other forest ecosystems. (Bernama pic)
A PKR vice-president said the Sabah and Sarawak governments must immediately end all deforestation if they intend to claim the lion's share of federal carbon tax revenue.
Roland Engan said carbon revenue should not just be a reward for past geography 'but a binding commitment to future preservation'.
'If (states in) East Malaysia are to be compensated as the nation's premier carbon sinks, they must actively protect them.
'We cannot demand 70% of carbon tax revenue while simultaneously allowing the depletion of the very forests generating that value,' he said in a statement tonight.
He was responding to Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg's remarks yesterday that East Malaysia should receive at least 70% of any carbon tax revenue collected, as Sabah and Sarawak serve as the nation's primary carbon sinks.
Abang Johari said that outside of Pahang, the rest of Malaysia lacks sizable forest canopies capable of substantial carbon sequestration, while Sarawak's vast peatlands and mangrove forests store several times more carbon than many other forest ecosystems.
Roland, who is also the Sarawak PKR chief, suggested that carbon tax revenue distributions to Sabah and Sarawak be contingent upon zero-deforestation KPIs and robust, transparent monitoring.
He said financial incentives must directly fund the permanent protection and restoration of existing natural habitats, rather than offsetting ongoing commercial logging or land conversion.
He also said both states must demonstrate globally aligned standards in forest management to justify such a significant portion of federal tax revenue.
'True environmental stewardship requires aligning financial incentives with total ecological preservation,' he said. - FMT

Roland Engan says the two states must actively protect their carbon sinks to claim such a high compensation. Sarawak premier Abang Johari ...

Sarawak, Sabah must end deforestation to claim 70% carbon tax revenue, says PKR man

This story was originally published by Canary Media and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Canary Media's ​ ' Eating the Earth ' column explores the connections between the food we eat and the climate we live in.
Not so long ago, the Central Highlands of Vietnam were blanketed by forests so dense they blotted out the sun. The American soldiers who slogged through the area during the Vietnam War complained about leeches, mosquitoes, and snakes, but those triple-canopy jungles also teemed with tigers, elephants, and monkeys. The unrelenting darkness and tropical monsoons that made the highland woodlands so inhospitable to humans made them excellent habitat for wildlife.
But now they're blanketed by coffee farms.
Sorry to be a buzzkill, but your morning buzz kills nature. Agriculture is by far the leading driver of deforestation, and coffee is the sixth-leading driver of agricultural deforestation; coffee farms are also parching the aquifers and ravaging the soils they'll need to sustain future harvests. A new report by the nonprofit Coffee Watch documents that in Vietnam, which grows about one of every five coffee beans on Earth, about half a million acres of Central Highlands forest have been cleared for coffee since 1990 , an area the size of Luxembourg. There are no longer any wild tigers in the region, and very few elephants; the saola, an adorable local antelope known as the ​ ' Asian unicorn,' is feared to be extinct.
Again, I apologize for being a Debbie Downer. But while it's fairly common knowledge that carbon-belching coal plants and gas-guzzling SUVs are environmental menaces, people should know that our diets also degrade our planet, causing most global water shortages, nutrient pollution, and habitat destruction while generating a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture has overrun nearly half of our habitable land, and it replaces more forests, wetlands, and other wildlands every day. That's why I wrote ​ ' We Are Eating the Earth' — and as Coffee Watch founder and director Etelle Higonnet reminded me, we are drinking the earth, too.
' Most people are good people; they'd never dream of going to Starbucks and ordering a latte plus a dead elephant,' Higonnet said. ​ ' But that's basically what we're doing. We're raping and poisoning the planet with every cup we drink.'
Vietnam is now the No. 2 coffee-growing nation, behind Brazil; and it's the leading producer of the cheaper ​ ' robusta' beans used for most instant coffee, serving nearly 40 % of the global market. And over the last generation, Vietnam has had one of the world's fastest deforestation rates; the Coffee Watch report used satellite imagery and other records to show that in the Central Highlands, forest cover has shrunk by a third, while coffee's footprint has expanded fourteenfold. Traditional jungle provinces like Dak Lak and Dak Nong and Gia Lai have seen less destruction in recent years, but only because there's so little jungle left to cut.
At the same time, intensive irrigation is lowering the region's water table, forcing farmers to extend wells as deep as 150 feet, while intensive chemical use is depleting soils, putting farmers on a ​ ' nutrient treadmill' in which they have to spray even more fertilizer and pesticide to maintain their yields. And when natural forests are cleared, the ecological services they provide — recharging groundwater, controlling erosion, buffering extreme temperatures — are lost with their trees. ​ ' The production system is eroding the ecological foundations on which it depends,' the report concluded. Droughts are already creating bean shortages, which contributed to record-high coffee prices last year, and as the climate warms, scientists believe half the area's coffee acres might be unviable by midcentury. That could mean even more deforestation, as production expands elsewhere, and even higher prices.
' If this system collapses, shock waves will be felt in every supermarket and every café,' Higonnet said.
Higonnet is a badass do-gooder, a Yale Law School graduate who was a human rights activist for Amnesty International before joining Greenpeace to focus on climate. She got frustrated by Greenpeace's exclusive focus on the four most prominent deforestation commodities — beef, soy, palm oil, and wood/​paper — so she helped found a well-respected organization called Mighty Earth that works on rubber and cocoa as well as the Big Four; she was knighted by the French government for her efforts to stop child labor and slavery along with deforestation. But she always wanted to expose coffee farming, which also has extreme labor and poverty problems as well as environmental problems, so she started Coffee Watch in late 2024 . Coffee is responsible for only about 1 % of deforestation, but as she points out, it receives way less than 1 % of the attention paid to deforestation.
The Coffee Watch report does make a compelling case that the world's coffee addiction has destructive consequences for nature. There's something depressing about losing a Luxembourg-sized jungle to farmland in a generation. Then again, Luxembourg is just about the size of Rhode Island; around the world, coffee has replaced about a New Jersey–sized swath of forest. That's certainly not nothing, but cattle replaced an entire California-size area of forest between 2000 and 2015 , more than 200 times what's been lost in Vietnam, and twice as much as what was lost to all other commodities combined. Globally, pastures now cover an area about twice the size of South America. In the United States, we use about half our agricultural land to produce beef, which only provides about 3 % of our calories.
So yes, we are drinking a bit of the Earth, but nowhere near as much of it as we're eating; the 1 % of current deforestation driven by coffee is a drop in the pot, compared with the 40 % by cattle or the 18 % by soy and oil palm. I did some crude calculations using this emissions data, and it looks like drinking a cup of coffee every morning for a year contributes about as much to global warming as driving a gasoline car 100 miles — maybe twice as much if you add milk, but that's just another reminder that cattle are the real climate menaces. They're coal plants with tails.
Of course, coffee's relatively modest impact is no consolation to the Asian unicorn. It would be better for the planet if people drank less coffee. Since that probably won't happen, because people love coffee, and since lab-grown coffee isn't ready for prime time, there ought to be more pressure on major coffee buyers to green their supply chains. Coffee grows well in the shade of other trees, and while most of the world's beans come from monocultures, about 20 % are now grown through more sustainable agroforestry practices that combine reforestation with production, like planting ​ ' doughnuts' or ​ ' zebra stripes' of trees around or through plantations. Brazil has also reduced deforestation by helping farmers get more efficient; in one generation, they've doubled production while reducing their land footprint, and Nestlé is developing new climate-resilient varieties that could boost yields even further. Governments can also encourage farmers to use less irrigation water and fertilizer, or ban imports of coffee grown on recently deforested land.
From a policy perspective, though, it makes more sense to focus on beef, even if nobody wants to hear that just before firing up the grill on July 4 . We need to get the rich world to eat less beef, even if that means eating more chicken and pork, and helping ranchers produce more beef on less land. We have to go hunting where the ducks are. The real lesson of the transformation of the Central Highlands is not that drinking coffee is uniquely damaging to the climate or the environment. It's that everything we consume does at least some damage — and until we start taking that seriously, our diets and our farms will keep ravaging the natural world.

Coffee farms take a heavy toll on wildlife and the climate, as seen recently with deforestation in Vietnam. But the food you eat is causing even more damage.

Your morning coffee is killing the planet

The DeForest Windsor Chamber of Commerce will be looking to hire a full-time tourism professional in the near future.
The opportunity has arisen as the Village of DeForest anticipate a large increase in room tax revenue in the coming years. State law requires that 70% of room tax revenue go directly to tourism activities through a qualified agency.
The village has approved the construction of two hotels in the past year. The Hampton Inn on County Highway V is expected to be completed near the end of 2026, and the Marriott Town Place Suites in DeForest Yards is expected to break ground in July.
Together, the establishments will bring about a total of 171 rooms for visitors once they are both complete.
DeForest Village Administrator Bill Chang stated that, at stabilization, total room tax revenue is expected to exceed $450,000 annually. This would mean that over $315,000 would have to be allocated annually towards tourism.
Chang and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Luke Justman brought the hiring proposal to the DeForest Village Board for discussion on Tuesday, June 18.
In short, the professional would be hired by the chamber and work under Justman. However, frequent collaboration and coordination with the village in regard to strategy and furthering community tourism goals would occur.
The chamber would then submit budget requests for the position and other tourism related expenditures before the village annually. They would also provide financial reporting and quarterly updates on their efforts going forward.
The village board ultimately approved the creation of this role and the relationship between the chamber and the village via a 5-1 vote on June 18. Trustee Jan Steffenhagen-Hahn was the dissenting vote.
Steffenhagen-Hahn stated that she was happy that the new, 'class act, brand name' hotels were coming to DeForest. But, she did not remember being made aware that only 30% of room tax revenue comes back to the village to use at its discretion when their construction was approved.
'The shocker was that, 'Wait a minute, we'll only get 30% of that room tax.' So, that's my concern,' she said. 'And I am kind of curious as to what are the things that we might be able to use that for.'
The DeForest community's future tourism employee will be tasked with connecting local businesses, lodging and events, like the Dragon Art Fair, to further stimulate the economy and bring more visitors into the village.
Other trustees, village staff and Justman noted that in other instances, room tax dollars are used for temporary signage, sending promotional materials, physical infrastructure for tourism-related facilities or organizing events.
Despite Steffenhagen-Hahn's lone "no" vote, the agreement will be in effect for one year and will automatically renew for successive one-year terms unless either party gives notice of termination six months prior to a term's expiration.
Upon hiring this dedicated tourism employee, a dedicated tourism webpage would be launched by the chamber with associated social media channels.
In the agreement approved on June 18, the tourism employee's duties are spelled out to 'provide tourism promotion and tourism development services that are likely to generate paid overnights stays by tourists in the Village.'
Trustees Alicia Williams gave an example of the Lake Windsor Country Club's wedding venue, and whether or not it would benefit from this type of position being created.
'They'd be connecting the country club and the hotels and mediating the 'What does it look like for you to use DeForest hotels from your hotel block' for your weddings?'' she said.
Justman also noted that some overlap already exists when it comes to the connections the chamber has with businesses that could benefit from these efforts.
'Twenty percent of our membership would fall in the category of tourism-related industries -- restaurants, hotels, attractions, various other services -- and those realms are only growing,' he said.
The village and the chamber will now get to work to develop the position's description and begin the hiring process. The resolution passed by the village board on June 16 states that this work is anticipated to start by this coming August.

The DeForest Windsor Chamber of Commerce will be looking to hire a full-time tourism professional in the near future.

DeForest looks to hire full-time tourism professional

New measures build on existing regulation to bring the UK further in line with the EU.
By Michael D. Green and James Bee
On 23 June 2026, the UK government announced plans for new rules intended to ensure that goods sold in the UK do not contribute to illegal deforestation. The measures will cover Great Britain, while businesses in Northern Ireland will be subject to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) to maintain access to the EU single market.
Current UK Approach to Deforestation
Since 2013, the UK Timber Regulations (UKTR) has established obligations for businesses trading in timber and timber-related products and aimed to prevent trade in illegally harvested timber. Operators who place timber on the UK market must exercise due diligence and maintain a due diligence system that is regularly evaluated. The government intends for the new measures to strengthen the UKTR, although details on exactly what this will entail remain to be seen.
The government has announced that it aims to introduce regulations under the Environment Act 2021, alongside legislation that will strengthen the UKTR. The regulations under the Environment Act will prevent businesses from using illegally produced forest-risk commodities through the establishment of due diligence systems and corresponding reporting requirements.
Under the proposed legislation, the measures will apply to seven core commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, and wood) and certain derived products. They will apply to businesses in Great Britain with annual turnover exceeding £1 million that use or place these commodities on the market. The policy will require in-scope businesses to ensure that commodities are produced in compliance with relevant local laws (i.e. that they do not represent illegal deforestation).
Comparison With the EUDR
The EU already has in place regulation intended to ensure products placed on the EU market are deforestation-free, under the EUDR, with obligations applying to most operators and traders from 31 December 2026.
The UK government has stated that it intends to ensure these measures 'operate consistently' alongside the EUDR, so that businesses will hold broadly the same information as required for due diligence statements when exporting to the EU. Further, because the EUDR will apply in Northern Ireland from the end of the year, a level of consistency across Great Britain and Northern Ireland is needed to ensure that the dual market access upon which businesses in Northern Ireland depend is maintained.
The UK Government's proposed deforestation requirements are intended to apply to the same seven core commodities as under the EUDR, although there is potential for variation in relation to the scope of the derived products. The EU has recently published a draft delegated act that amends the range of products and commodities falling within scope of the EUDR (see this Latham blog post). The list of derived products for the UK measures is likely to feature in the upcoming consultation.
While the proposed rules ensure greater alignment with the EU position, the EU and UK approaches differ in several aspects:
When the EUDR was adopted in 2023, it replaced the EU Timber Regulation. This approach differs from the UK government's measures, which will retain but strengthen the UKTR.
There is no revenue threshold for the EUDR; it applies to all entities placing relevant goods on the EU market (although smaller entities may be subject to certain implementation delays and differing obligations).
The UK regime intends to tackle illegal deforestation, whereas the EUDR requires products to comply with local laws and also be deforestation-free (defined as commodities not from land subject to deforestation after 31 December 2020). Reports indicate that the UK government's future ambition is to move to a deforestation-free standard 'in due course', but no timeline has been indicated.
Timeline and Next Steps
The government announcement indicates that legislation to implement the regime should be delivered in 2027, following a consultation process in 2026. Further details on the consultation are expected to be announced shortly. In the meantime, the UK government is also working on further specific guidance on movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland as a priority.
This article was prepared with the assistance of Samantha Banfield and James Thompson at Latham & Watkins.
Latham & Watkins will continue to monitor developments relating to the UK's deforestation measures and the broader European sustainability regulatory landscape.

New measures build on existing regulation to bring the UK further in line with the EU. By Michael D. Green and James Bee On 23 June 2026, the UK

UK Government Announces New Measures to Tackle Illegal Deforestation

Vietnam and the region will face a dual challenge: meeting the rapidly increasing demand for agricultural products while ensuring sustainable development in a context where further expansion of production on forest land is no longer feasible. Sheila Wertz-Kanounikoff, Senior Forestry Specialist and Head of Biodiversity and Forests, FAO Asia-Pacific Region. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
According to Sheila Wertz-Kanounikoff, Senior Forestry Specialist and Head of Biodiversity and Forests, FAO's Asia-Pacific Regional Office, global food consumption is projected to increase by approximately 13% over the next decade, with South Asia and Southeast Asia accounting for nearly 40% of this increase.
Furthermore, global agricultural output could increase by approximately 14%, with more than half of that increase coming from the Asia-Pacific region. This puts countries in the region, including Vietnam, in a position where they must both increase production and tightly control the boundaries of production expansion to avoid putting pressure on forests.
Speaking with reporters from the Hanoi Press and Broadcasting Agency , Ms. Sheila Wertz-Kanounikoff stated that this is no longer a problem for individual industries or countries, but a systemic challenge requiring a comprehensive transformation of the agricultural and food system.
It is noteworthy that the majority of future increased demand will arise within the Asia-Pacific region itself. Therefore, not only international trade but also intra-regional trade needs to be organized in a way that ensures it does not exacerbate deforestation. This factor directly impacts the major agricultural economies in the region, including Vietnam.
Therefore, FAO is promoting the transformation of the agricultural and food system towards sustainability, with an inclusive approach encompassing the entire value chain from production, processing, trade to policy. The goal is to build a system that is both more efficient and more resilient to market fluctuations and the impacts of climate change.
This transition is now driven not only by global climate commitments but also by stronger internal engagement within the FAO and among member states. Both the FAO's Forestry Committee and the Agriculture Committee have placed the integration of agriculture and forestry on their agendas, while the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference has also called for increased support for countries to separate agricultural growth from deforestation. The FAO assesses that Vietnam is on the right track in developing agriculture without causing deforestation. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
To support countries in this process, FAO is deploying analytical tools such as the solutions-tree framework to identify the root causes of deforestation due to agricultural activities, and then select solutions appropriate to the specific conditions.
Simultaneously, FAO is collaborating with countries in the region to develop a common roadmap for the medium and long term, which includes research into the possibility of forming a regional commodity platform.
According to FAO, this model will not be a mechanism exclusive to each sector, but rather a space for countries to exchange experiences, share approaches, and learn from each other in developing sustainable agricultural value chains. This is particularly important given that each sector has different levels of development and experience in organizing supply chains.
FAO emphasizes that the formation of a regional platform can only be implemented if member countries genuinely need it and agree that it is a mechanism that delivers real value. The goal is to create a space for cooperation that helps shorten the transition process between countries.
Within this overall picture, Vietnam is placed among the countries facing simultaneous pressures to increase agricultural production and the need to transition to a more sustainable model. At the same time, Vietnam is also one of the participants in regional discussions on agricultural and forestry cooperation in the coming period.
According to Sheila Wertz-Kanounikoff, the most important thing in the next 10 years is not just increasing production, but how that growth is organized so as not to come at the expense of forest resources. This requires close coordination among governments, businesses, producers, and international organizations, all working towards a more resilient and sustainable agricultural system. Vietnamese agricultural products are increasingly popular with consumers both domestically and internationally. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
Hanoi is the starting point for a regional cooperation roadmap on agricultural value chains that do not cause deforestation.
Last weekend in Hanoi, the Asia-Pacific Multilateral Dialogue took place with the theme "Towards a Common Asia-Pacific Roadmap on Traceable and Deforestation-Free Agricultural Value Chains."
The event serves as a forum for exchanging experiences on traceability for commodities such as coffee, rubber, and palm oil, while laying the foundation for building a common regional cooperation roadmap to promote agricultural value chains that do not cause deforestation, enhance data sharing, governance experience, and sustainable production models.
The conference was organized by FAO in collaboration with the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. It brought together approximately 100 delegates from 10 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, along with representatives from government agencies, businesses, international organizations and the production community.
This event also serves as a first step for FAO and participating countries to discuss the possibility of forming a regional cooperation mechanism in the future, provided that member countries agree.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/viet-nam-doi-mat-bai-toan-tang-san-luong-khong-danh-doi-rung-1210018.html

Over the next 10 years, global food demand will continue to increase sharply, placing Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries before the need to both expand production and protect forests.

Vietnam faces the challenge of increasing production without sacrificing forests.

The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) revealed that in 2025, 736,484 hectares were deforested across the Amazon. Agriculture was responsible for 94.6%, gold mining for 5.3%, and infrastructure for 0.1%.
More than half of the deforestation occurred in Brazil (55.2%), followed by Peru (16.8%), Bolivia (13.8%), and Colombia (8.5%).
Peru: Leader in Deforestation by Mining
In the case of gold mining, Peru recorded the largest forest loss:
18,200 hectares , the highest figure in the region.
, the highest figure in the region. Brazil followed with 7,900 ha, Guyana with 3,700 ha, and Venezuela with 3,100 ha.
Peruvian Amazon deforestation is mainly driven by illegal mining, drug trafficking, and unsustainable agriculture, destroying more than 100,000 hectares annually.
Loss of Primary Forests
Primary forests, never intervened by humans, suffered significant losses:
Brazil: 560,000 ha (55%).
Bolivia: 200,000 ha (20%).
Peru: 147,480 ha (14%), the highest figure in the last five years.
Colombia: 66,300 ha (6%).
Simultaneously, forest fires affected 1.5 million hectares of primary forest, the third-highest figure since 2002.
Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories
In 2025, nearly 132,000 hectares were deforested in protected areas and indigenous territories:
Agriculture caused 89%.
Mining, 11%.
Brazil led deforestation in these areas (33%), followed by Bolivia (25%), Peru (20%), and Colombia (10%).
Critical Consequences
Amazon deforestation has multiple impacts:
Environmental and climatic impact : reduction of CO₂ absorption capacity, acceleration of climate change, contamination of rivers and soils with mercury.
: reduction of CO₂ absorption capacity, acceleration of climate change, contamination of rivers and soils with mercury. Loss of biodiversity : destruction of unique habitats, extinction of species, and ecological imbalance.
: destruction of unique habitats, extinction of species, and ecological imbalance. Social crisis and indigenous rights : expansion of illicit activities, violence against environmental leaders, and violation of indigenous territories.
: expansion of illicit activities, violence against environmental leaders, and violation of indigenous territories. Threats to public health: deterioration of water quality, increase in vector-borne diseases like dengue, and health problems associated with toxic chemicals.
Historical Balance
Between 2002 and 2025, the Amazon lost 34.8 million hectares of primary forest due to permanent deforestation, equivalent to the size of Germany. Another 12.2 million hectares were affected by fires.
The record of Amazon deforestation by gold mining in Peru during 2025 reflects the severity of the environmental and social crisis in the region.
The loss of primary forests, pressure on protected areas, and impact on indigenous communities highlight the urgency of strengthening conservation policies, combating illegal mining, and promoting sustainable alternatives to preserve one of the planet's most biodiverse ecosystems.

The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) revealed that in 2025, 736,484 hectares were deforested across the Amazon. Agriculture was responsible

Peru leads Amazon deforestation due to gold mining in 2025: environmental and social impacts

Caerphilly County Borough Council (CCBC) has officially voted to become a 'Deforestation-Free Champion Council'.
The move follows a project led by Councillor Carol Andrews and council leader Jamie Pritchard, who invited Year 6 pupils from Waunfawr Primary School in Crosskeys to take part in the decision-making process.
The council explored how ingredients like palm oil, South American beef, soy, cocoa, and coffee - often found in school meals - can contribute to the destruction of tropical forests.
Councillor Carol Andrews said: "This vote is a significant step for the council and for our community.
"By listening to our young people, we've been able to strengthen our understanding of the impact our choices have on global forests and take meaningful action."
Over several weeks, the pupils shared their knowledge, challenged assumptions, and offered practical ideas for creating meals that are nutritious, affordable, and free from links to deforestation.
Their recommendations were taken seriously, with input from procurement, catering, and education teams.
Angharad Underwood from Cook Along Clwb and MasterChef champion James Nathan supported the pupils as they prepared a deforestation-free dish for both the public at the Caerphilly Food Festival and councillors.
Their work was supported by Size of Wales, a charity aiming to make Wales the world's first deforestation-free nation.
Nichola James from Size of Wales said: "As Wales feels the effects of climate change more directly, protecting forests has never been more urgent."
Melissa Armishaw, headteacher at Waunfawr Primary School, said: "This project has had a profound impact on our children.
"It has shown them that their ideas, knowledge and passion can shape real decisions and influence the future of their community."
The council's decision reflects the ambitions of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.

Caerphilly County Borough Council has been recognised for its commitment to protecting tropical forests.

Caerphilly County Council is now dubbed a 'champion'

These items may disappear from Bradford supermarkets in ban

The UK plans to develop deforestation due-diligence rules covering wood products and other forest-risk commodities.
Forestry UK deforestation framework to cover wood products and furniture
Great Britain plans to introduce deforestation due-diligence rules for businesses using wood products and other forest-risk commodities, with legislation expected in 2027.
The UK government has published its approach to deforestation regulations, setting out how Great Britain intends to strengthen supply-chain controls for wood and other commodities linked to forest risk.
According to the policy paper, the government aims to require businesses in Great Britain with annual turnover above £1 million that use forest-risk commodities and wood products to carry out due diligence. The proposed scope includes wood, cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and certain derived products, including furniture.
Businesses using these products would need to establish a due-diligence system, report on their activity, and hold proof of compliance by collecting geolocation data about the origin of the specific products.
Rules intended to align with EUDR
The government said the proposed Great Britain measures are intended to operate consistently alongside the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products, known as EUDR. The aim is to support the UK internal market and reduce duplication for companies working across both the UK and EU markets.
GOV.UK states that the information Great Britain businesses must hold is expected to be broadly the same as the information needed for a due-diligence statement when exporting to the EU or moving goods to Northern Ireland under EUDR.
Legislation to implement the regime in Great Britain is expected in 2027.
Key points Great Britain plans deforestation due-diligence rules for wood products and other forest-risk commodities.
The proposed threshold applies to businesses with annual turnover above £1 million.
Wood and certain derived products, including furniture, are listed in the intended scope.
Businesses would need due-diligence systems, reporting and geolocation-based origin proof.
Legislation for Great Britain is expected in 2027.
EUDR will apply in Northern Ireland under existing arrangements.
Northern Ireland to apply EUDR
The government also confirmed that EUDR will apply in Northern Ireland as part of arrangements maintaining Northern Ireland's access to the EU single market.
UK businesses operating in the EU or placing relevant products on the EU or Northern Ireland markets will therefore need to comply with EUDR. According to GOV.UK, large and medium operators will need to follow the new rules from 30 December 2026.
Micro and small operators will need to follow EUDR rules from 30 December 2026 for wood products currently regulated under the EU Timber Regulation, and from 30 June 2027 for all other relevant products.
Why it matters for timber trade
For timber traders, importers, exporters, furniture suppliers and wood-product manufacturers, the policy points to a compliance system that may become closer to EUDR requirements. Companies supplying both the UK and EU markets may need to prepare similar origin and due-diligence information for both regulatory systems.
The UK government said the Office for Product Safety and Standards will act as competent authority for rubber and wood products in relation to EUDR guidance.
Source: GOV.UK policy paper, 'The UK's approach to deforestation regulations'

Great Britain plans to introduce deforestation due-diligence rules for businesses using wood products and other forest-risk commodities, with legislation expected in 2027.

UK deforestation framework to cover wood products and furniture

Great Britain plans mandatory due diligence rules for businesses with annual turnover above £1 million using forest-risk commodities and wood products.
The proposed regime will cover wood, cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and derived products such as chocolate and furniture.
Legislation is expected in 2027, while EU deforestation rules will apply in Northern Ireland from 30 December 2026.
UK Moves to Close Deforestation Gaps in Supply Chains
The UK government is preparing tougher deforestation rules for everyday products, from coffee and chocolate to cosmetics and furniture, as it seeks to reduce the environmental impact of British consumption.
The government confirmed during London Climate Action Week that it intends to introduce new regulations in Great Britain. The plans include using powers under the Environment Act 2021 and strengthening the UK Timber Regulation.
The move builds on the UK's COP26 commitment to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. It also responds to rising pressure from retailers, campaigners and international partners for clearer supply chain standards.
Around 90% of global deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion. Much of that is linked to internationally traded commodities. In 2023, UK consumption of these goods was associated with about 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide. That is around one and a half times the size of Manchester. It also generated 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions.
Due Diligence Rules Will Target Forest-Risk Commodities
Under the proposed Great Britain regime, businesses with annual turnover above £1 million would need to conduct due diligence on forest-risk commodities and wood products.
The scope is expected to include wood, cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and certain derived products, including chocolate and furniture.
Businesses would need to establish due diligence systems, report on their activity and hold proof that products were produced in line with relevant local laws. They would also need to collect geolocation data showing the origin of specific products.
Nature Minister Mary Creagh said: 'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife. That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.'
Nature Minister Mary Creagh
The government plans to consult businesses, civil society and international partners later this year. Legislation to implement the regime in Great Britain is expected in 2027.
RELATED ARTICLE: UK Emissions Drop 2% to 367 Million Tons in 2025
Alignment With EU Rules Becomes a Trade Priority
The UK also intends to align key parts of the Great Britain regime with the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products, known as the EUDR.
That alignment carries direct trade implications. The EUDR will apply in Northern Ireland under arrangements that preserve its access to the EU single market. Large and medium operators will need to comply from 30 December 2026.
Micro and small operators will also face phased obligations. For wood products already covered by the EU Timber Regulation, rules apply from 30 December 2026. For other relevant products, rules apply from 30 June 2027.
The government said its Great Britain approach should reduce regulatory divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It also aims to protect the UK internal market and support exporters selling into the EU.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said: 'Retailers welcome today's announcement. We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers. However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it is important that the Government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers.'
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC
Retailers and Investors Face New Traceability Demands
For C-suite leaders, the proposed regime raises the bar on supply chain governance. Companies will need stronger traceability systems, supplier controls and documentation across commodity sourcing.
For investors, the rules add another compliance layer to deforestation risk. Companies exposed to agricultural commodities, food manufacturing, retail, timber, packaging and consumer goods will face closer scrutiny.
Gavin Crowden, Director of Advocacy at WWF, said: 'The UK Government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one. We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife. With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there is no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest.'
The government's longer-term ambition is to move toward a deforestation-free standard. That would go beyond illegal deforestation and require relevant products to be free from any deforestation.
For global markets, the UK plan adds to a broader shift in climate and nature regulation. Supply chains once managed mainly through voluntary commitments are moving into mandatory disclosure, proof of origin and legal accountability.

Great Britain plans mandatory due diligence rules for businesses with annual turnover above £1 million using forest-risk commodities and wood products.

UK Government Steps Up Action to Tackle Illegal Deforestation in Supply Chains

Shafaqna English- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to deforestation and the restoration of degraded land to curb global warming.
Writing on X on Saturday, June 27, Guterres said that forests, from tropical regions to northern forests, store carbon, regulate rainfall, and protect people from floods, droughts, and deadly heat.
He stressed that protecting nature and restoring degraded land not only reduces the risk of natural disasters but also creates opportunities for green jobs.
The UN secretary-general urged countries to end deforestation and protect natural resources to combat climate change and mitigate its impacts.
Sources: Hasht e Subh Daily
www.shafaqna.com

June 28, 2026 | 8:26 AMJune 28, 2026 | 9:10 AM0

UN Chief calls for an end to deforestation to curb global warming

Shafaqna Pakistan:- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to deforestation and the restoration of degraded land to help curb global warming.
In a post on X on Saturday, Guterres said forests, from tropical rainforests to northern boreal forests, play a vital role in storing carbon, regulating rainfall and protecting communities from floods, droughts and extreme heat.
He stressed that protecting nature and restoring degraded land not only reduces the risk of natural disasters but also creates opportunities for green jobs and sustainable development.
The UN chief urged countries to end deforestation, safeguard natural resources and strengthen efforts to combat climate change and mitigate its impacts.
Sources: Hasht e Subh Daily , Shafaqna English
www.shafaqna.com

Shafaqna Pakistan:- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an end to deforestation and the restoration of degraded land to help curb global warming. In a post on X on Satu…

UN Chief Guterres Urges End to Deforestation to Tackle Climate Change

The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30 per cent of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantities of critical minerals: 92 per cent of all platinum, 36 per cent of all chromium, 54 per cent of all manganese and 56 per cent of all cobalt.
Many critical minerals are concentrated beneath the continent's biodiverse forests.
Read more: 'Sacred forests' in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy
We are conservation scientists researching the impacts on the environment when resources such as timber, minerals or animal species are extracted and used by people. We have spent years tracking how resource demand can reshape fragile ecosystems.
In our most recent study we set out to track exactly how much forest had been lost because of mining across sub-Saharan Africa over 20 years.
We used satellite data to identify 16,627 mining areas in the region. We tracked what happened to the land surrounding the mines between 2001 and 2020. We then compared places where mining was already taking place with similar areas that had not yet been mined but would be in the future. This allowed us to estimate how much deforestation was caused purely by a new mine setting up, rather than by other factors, such as the expansion of farms.
Read more: Angola's peatlands trap carbon and clean the region's water – how we mapped this newly found landscape
Our study revealed that between 2001 and 2020, 187,000 hectares of forests were converted to mines in Africa. This is 0.03 per cent of Africa's forests but is still a massive area — roughly the size of Mauritius.
This number only represents the deforestation by the mine footprint itself (the mine, its pits and tailing ponds where mine waste sludge is stored).
But mines cause far wider damage to the environment. We found that every hectare deforested within a mine's immediate footprint triggered an additional 34 hectares of forest to be lost from the surrounding region.
Read more: Africa has the highest rate of forest loss in the world – what the G20 can do about it
This is because of other activities directly triggered by the establishment of a mine, like road building, new urban settlements and agricultural expansion specifically to accommodate the mine.
Demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt is expected to grow 40-fold by 2040 . So given the sheer quantity of key transition minerals on the African continent this growing demand poses a clear and pressing risk to African forests.
Read more: Gabon's large trees store huge amounts of carbon. What must be done to protect them
Healthy forests are carbon sinks ; they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit. Destroying them means faster global warming and biodiversity loss that can take many decades to recover. The minerals needed for the technologies meant to save the planet from climate change (solar power and electric vehicle batteries) could speed up ecological collapse in biodiversity hotspots.
To prevent this, developers and governments must immediately integrate these large, offsite environmental impacts into regulatory processes and environmental impact assessments.
Mining's impact on wider landscapes
Our findings uncovered that mining has a massive ripple effect through space and time. Within one kilometre of a new mine, the local deforestation rate surges by an additional eight percentage points on average compared to unmined landscapes.
More alarming is the distance this damage travels. Elevated forest loss persists up to 20km away from the mining epicentre, and this impact continues for more than a decade after operations begin. This is likely due to both the expansion of the mine itself to follow ore deposits, and the establishment of long term communities around mines.
Read more: Ghana's pact with China to explore bauxite threatens a unique forest
Mines bring new roads, infrastructure, agriculture and an influx of workers. Our research found that this development triggers a wave of deforestation that is on average 34 times bigger than the mine itself. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where half the world's cobalt is found, this multiplier rises as high as 58.
Some mines are more destructive than others. For example, we found that mines extracting cobalt and copper, key to the green energy transition, triggered the highest rates of additional deforestation. Iron ore operations showed the largest geographic reach, triggering forest loss up to 20km away.
What needs to happen next
First, countries need to adopt a consistent minimum standard for environmental impact assessments before mines are set up (to estimate the damage they'll cause and find ways to reduce it). Currently, not all of these assessments are equally rigorous.
In some countries, the assessment only extends one kilometre beyond the proposed mine (or a few hundred metres, as in Côte d'Ivoire). In other countries, such as Botswana, regulations cover much larger areas, especially where mines may drain the water table.
Read more: How South Africa's mangrove forests store carbon and why it matters
We recommend that countries must update their environmental laws to compel environmental impact assessments to include wider estimates of the damage to forests from mining roads, settlements and the population increase.
The assessments must also forecast and mitigate indirect regional risks, such as projected population influxes, worker settlements, and the agricultural expansion that follows new access roads.
Laws must also compel projects to say how they will protect forests against these risks.
Read more: Ghana's forests are being wiped out: what's behind this and why attempts to stop it aren't working
If a mine is proposed near a protected area or Indigenous territory, environmental assessments must consider the wider forest destruction that could result from roads, settlements and farming linked to the mine.
Second, global supply chains must move towards transparency and traceability from the point of supply to the consumer. International buyers, technology manufacturing giants and automotive companies must verify and audit the environmental impact of suppliers (the mines). This is similar to the zero-deforestation supply chains that have been introduced for global agricultural and meat sectors. A strict corporate standard must be set up for critical minerals.
Read more: Senegal's small scale gold miners still use poisonous mercury: how to reduce the harm
Third, a significant portion of the mines we analysed are unregistered, small-scale, or artisanal operations. These bypass environmental and safety regulations entirely, creating greater risk for both ecosystems and workers. International mineral supply chains cannot continue to ignore this.
Wealthy nations driving the mineral demand must provide financial and technical assistance to producing nations to uphold environmental law. They should also invest heavily in mineral recycling initiatives to reduce the need for mining.
These measures are necessary to ensure the global transition towards sustainable energy is not built on avoidable forest loss.

Africa's rush to supply critical minerals for green energy is driving hidden deforestation far beyond mine sites. Satellite data show each hectare cleared for mining triggers 34 more hectares of…

Deforestation-free supply chains boost competitiveness
As global markets tighten environmental and sustainability requirements, traceability, supply chain transparency and deforestation-free production are becoming essential for agricultural exporters seeking to maintain market access and strengthen competitiveness.
The workshop drew in around 100 delegates from 16 countries to exchange experiences and explore practical solutions for building transparent, sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains. — VNS Photo Tố Như
As global markets tighten environmental and sustainability requirements, traceability, supply chain transparency and deforestation-free production are becoming essential for agricultural exporters seeking to maintain market access and strengthen competitiveness.
The issue was at the centre of discussions during a regional workshop on sustainable agricultural value chains held in Hà Nội on Tuesday, bringing together policymakers, international organisations, businesses and production firms from across the Asia-Pacific region.
Co-organised by the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the event attracted around 100 delegates from 16 countries to exchange experiences and explore practical solutions for building transparent, sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains.
Nguyễn Văn Diện, deputy director general of the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection, said in his opening remarks that the Asia-Pacific region remains one of the world's largest agricultural production hubs, playing a critical role in global food security and economic growth. However, agricultural expansion has also placed increasing pressure on forests and biodiversity in many countries.
"The region must shift from growth driven by expanding cultivated areas to growth based on higher added value, balancing economic development with environmental protection and people's livelihoods," he said.
For Việt Nam, the transition has become increasingly urgent as key export products such as timber, coffee and rubber maintain a strong presence in the EU market.
One of the most significant developments shaping global trade is the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which takes effect on December 31 and requires products in the EU market to be free from deforestation and forest degradation, produced legally in the country of origin and supported by robust traceability systems using geolocation data.
Diện noted that while compliance poses challenges, it also presents an opportunity for Việt Nam to strengthen governance, improve product quality, increase transparency and enhance the international standing of its agricultural exports.
To prepare for the new requirements, Việt Nam has accelerated efforts to improve traceability systems, establish databases for production areas, strengthen sustainable forest management and expand forest certification programmes. Training and technical support programmes have also been rolled out to help businesses, local authorities and farmers meet increasingly stringent international standards.
FAO Representative in Việt Nam Vinod Ahuja said unsustainable agriculture remains one of the leading drivers of global deforestation and forest degradation.
"It is a paradox that agricultural systems, which depend heavily on ecosystem services provided by forests, are simultaneously contributing to the depletion of those very resources," he said.
According to Ahuja, effective solutions require more than isolated interventions. Governments, businesses and producers must work together through integrated approaches combining sound policies, market incentives and stronger governance frameworks.
He highlighted traceability as a critical tool for identifying where products are made, how they are produced and whether they are linked to deforestation. Beyond meeting market requirements, traceability helps improve transparency, accountability and access to higher-value markets.
Ahuja also acknowledged Việt Nam's progress in forest protection and restoration, including the implementation of forest environmental service payments and REDD+ programmes. FAO is supporting the Government through initiatives such as AIM4Commodities to develop national traceability systems and digital tools for supply chain monitoring.
Representing the EU Delegation to Việt Nam, First Secretary Cyril Loisel said the challenge facing governments worldwide is how to reconcile economic development with the protection of forests and biodiversity.
"The answer lies not in choosing one over the other, but in ensuring that sustainable production and forest conservation go hand in hand," he said.
Loisel stressed that forests are indispensable for climate stability, biodiversity conservation, water security, disaster prevention and rural livelihoods, making their protection not only an environmental responsibility but also an investment in long-term economic resilience and food security.
He praised Việt Nam's achievements in restoring and maintaining forest cover at around 42 per cent, strengthening forest governance and advancing climate commitments.
"Việt Nam is well positioned to benefit from this transition," he said. "Its experience in forest governance reforms, sustainable forest certification, digital innovation and international partnerships provides a strong foundation."
Loisel also noted that the EU's objective extends beyond facilitating access to European markets.
"Our ambition goes well beyond market access. It is about decoupling agricultural development from deforestation," he said, adding that investments in digital traceability, geolocation systems, farmer registration and transparent supply chains create lasting benefits for producers, businesses and public authorities alike.
Through the Team Europe Initiative on Deforestation-Free Value Chains, the EU and its member states are supporting partner countries in improving traceability systems, strengthening forest monitoring, promoting sustainable land use and creating new opportunities for farmers and rural communities.
The initiative is currently being implemented in 37 countries across the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America, with a focus on commodities affected by the EUDR. In Southeast Asia, programmes are supporting sustainable production, legal reforms, traceability development and policy dialogue.
Participants agreed that building deforestation-free agricultural value chains requires coordinated action among governments, businesses, development partners and farming communities.
As environmental standards become an increasingly important component of global trade, transparent and traceable supply chains are emerging not only as a compliance requirement, but also as a strategic pathway for agricultural producers to improve competitiveness, increase value creation and advance long-term sustainable development.
Bizhub

As global markets tighten environmental and sustainability requirements, traceability, supply chain transparency and deforestation-free production are becoming essential for agricultural exporters…

Deforestation-free supply chains boost competitiveness

Packs of sawn construction timber stacked at the dockside yard at Shoreham Harbour on England's south coast, part of a UK timber trade now in scope of deforestation due diligence rules aligning with the EUDR. (Photo Credit: Neil Wraight / Dreamstime.com)
The United Kingdom, the world's second-largest net importer of forest products, will introduce a mandatory due diligence framework for imported commodities that aligns with the core scope of the European Union's deforestation regulation, sparing businesses that trade into the bloc a second set of compliance rules. That is according to Nature Minister Mary Creagh, who announced the plan during London Climate Action Week last week.
Under the proposals, traceability and compliance duties would apply to imports of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, and soy, as well as to derived products such as chocolate and wooden furniture. Businesses trading these commodities would need to check that their supply chains carry no link to illegal forest clearance, a requirement the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has applied to timber under the UK Timber Regulation since 2013.
Aligning the two regimes is designed to prevent administrative duplication across the UK and to keep British exporters in step with the EU, given that the EU Deforestation Regulation is set to apply to large operators from 30 December 2026. In addition, Northern Ireland will follow the regulation in phases from the same date under the Windsor Framework, which preserves its access to both the UK internal market and the EU single market.
As it stands, UK consumption of forest-risk commodities was linked to 29,000 hectares of deforestation — an area about one and a half times the size of Manchester — and 9.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions in 2023, according to Defra, which estimates that 90 per cent of global forest loss stems from agricultural expansion. It comes as major supermarket chains have pressed for binding rules for several years, arguing that voluntary action alone cannot sever those supply chains from forest destruction.
Great Britain's rules would target illegal deforestation, a narrower test than the EU's deforestation-free standard, though Defra has said it intends to move toward the stricter benchmark over time. That gap leaves suppliers of cocoa, coffee and timber facing two thresholds across the UK and the EU until the regimes fully converge.
Creagh said tackling deforestation ranked among the most effective ways to address climate change and to protect rare wildlife. 'We are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains,' Creagh said.
Domestic retailers had pushed for rules that track the EU approach, and the British Retail Consortium welcomed the move as a way to spare members the cost and complexity of duplicating EU rules. 'Retailers welcome today's announcement,' said Andrew Opie, the consortium's director of food and sustainability, who urged a pragmatic approach to enforcement once EUDR duties are applied in Northern Ireland.
Global Witness deputy director Alexandria Reid said the government's years-long delay had worsened global forest loss and pressed ministers to extend the rules to all deforestation, not only illegal clearance. Britain's regime is being built to match an EU law that binds large and medium operators from 30 December 2026 and the smallest firms from 30 June 2027. - Advertisement - - Advertisement -

The world's second-largest forest products importer will mirror the EU Deforestation Regulation's commodities and traceability rules, sparing exporters duplicate compliance ahead of the December 2026…

UK Aligns Its Deforestation Rules with the EU's EUDR

Under new rules set out during London Climate Action Week on June 23, items containing ingredients linked to illegal rainforest destruction could be pulled from sale.
The move would affect products that use commodities such as:
Soy
Oil
Cocoa
Rubber
Mary Creagh, Nature Minister, said: "Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most precious and unique wildlife.
"That's why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains.
"Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity."
The government plans to use powers under the Environmental Act to introduce 'due diligence' requirements for businesses.
This means that UK companies will need to ensure that forest-based commodities in their supply chains are not linked to illegally cleared land.
The proposals aim to reduce the risk of UK imports contributing to illegal land clearing and ecosystem destruction abroad.
Officials say the measures will support global efforts to protect forests, help endangered species, and give confidence to UK shoppers that their purchases are not fuelling environmental harm overseas.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: "Retailers welcome today's announcement.
"We have long called for UK deforestation regulation as an important step in driving forest conservation across retail supply chains in line with business commitments, while supporting alignment with the EU where possible to avoid unnecessary costs and complexity for retailers and their customers.
"However, with the EU regulation due to take effect in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, it's important that the government takes a pragmatic approach to enforcement to minimise disruption for businesses and consumers."
The UK government will launch a full consultation later this year involving businesses, civil society, and international partners.
This will inform the development of a GB-wide deforestation policy, including the legal details of mandatory checks on supply chains.
The consultation will also explore how to strengthen the UK Timber Regulations—part of efforts to transition towards a 'deforestation-free' standard for all relevant commodities in the future.
If adopted, this standard would ultimately require that products placed on the GB market involve no deforestation at all, legal or otherwise.
For now, the focus remains on tackling illegal deforestation first.
The move comes as the EU prepares to roll out its own Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which will come into force in phases from December 30 in Northern Ireland.
Gavin Crowden, director of advocacy at WWF, said: "The UK government has warned that the collapse of tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia is a national security risk, not just an environmental one.
"We rely on these forests for food and climate stability, and they're home to extraordinary wildlife.
"With new rules finally coming into force in Northern Ireland at the end of the year, there's no excuse for further delay that would leave shoppers in the rest of the UK still unwittingly driving the destruction of the rainforest."

Everyday products could be soon off supermarket shelves in big move

The UK government has announced plans to significantly strengthen deforestation due diligence requirements for businesses importing forest-risk commodities, in a move expected to reshape supply chain compliance across multiple industries, including timber and wood products.
© Beth Baisch | Dreamstime
Under the proposed framework, companies in Great Britain will be required to verify and report the origin of materials such as timber, cocoa, palm oil, coffee, soy and rubber, ensuring they are not linked to illegal deforestation. The measures will expand existing timber due diligence rules, which have been in place since 2013.
The new regime, expected to come into effect in 2027 following consultation, marks a shift from voluntary commitments towards legally enforceable obligations. It forms part of wider efforts to reduce the UK's contribution to global forest loss and improve transparency in complex international supply chains.
The government highlighted the environmental impact of imported commodities, noting their link to significant global deforestation and carbon emissions. Industry and environmental groups have broadly welcomed the announcement, although calls have been made for regulatory alignment with EU standards to reduce administrative burden for businesses.
Further consultation with industry stakeholders is expected later in 2026, with the policy forming part of the UK's broader commitment to achieving deforestation-free supply chains by 2030.
Source: www.globalwood.org

The UK government has announced plans to significantly strengthen deforestation due diligence requirements for businesses importing forest-risk commodities, in a move expected to reshape…

UK sets out stricter deforestation rules for supply chains

Article 29 JUN 2026
- Source:
The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30% of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantities of critical minerals: 92% of all platinum, 36% of all chromium, 54% of all manganese and 56% of all cobalt.
Many critical minerals are concentrated beneath the continent's biodiverse forests.
We are conservation scientists researching the impacts on the environment when resources such as timber, minerals or animal species are extracted and used by people. We have spent years tracking how resource demand can reshape fragile ecosystems.
In our most recent study we set out to track exactly how much forest had been lost because of mining across sub-Saharan Africa over 20 years.
We used satellite data to identify 16,627 mining areas in the region. We tracked what happened to the land surrounding the mines between 2001 and 2020. We then compared places where mining was already taking place with similar areas that had not yet been mined but would be in the future. This allowed us to estimate how much deforestation was caused purely by a new mine setting up, rather than by other factors, such as the expansion of farms.
Our study revealed that between 2001 and 2020, 187,000 hectares of forests were converted to mines in Africa. This is 0.03% of Africa's forests but is still a massive area – roughly the size of Mauritius.
This number only represents the deforestation by the mine footprint itself (the mine, its pits and tailing ponds where mine waste sludge is stored).
But mines cause far wider damage to the environment. We found that every hectare deforested within a mine's immediate footprint triggered an additional 34 hectares of forest to be lost from the surrounding region.
This is because of other activities directly triggered by the establishment of a mine, like road building, new urban settlements and agricultural expansion specifically to accommodate the mine.
Demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt is expected to grow 40-fold by 2040. So given the sheer quantity of key transition minerals on the African continent this growing demand poses a clear and pressing risk to African forests.
Healthy forests are carbon sinks; they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit. Destroying them means faster global warming and biodiversity loss that can take many decades to recover. The minerals needed for the technologies meant to save the planet from climate change (solar power and electric vehicle batteries) could speed up ecological collapse in biodiversity hotspots.
To prevent this, developers and governments must immediately integrate these large, offsite environmental impacts into regulatory processes and environmental impact assessments.
Mining's impact on wider landscapes
Our findings uncovered that mining has a massive ripple effect through space and time. Within one kilometre of a new mine, the local deforestation rate surges by an additional eight percentage points on average compared to unmined landscapes.
More alarming is the distance this damage travels. Elevated forest loss persists up to 20km away from the mining epicentre, and this impact continues for more than a decade after operations begin. This is likely due to both the expansion of the mine itself to follow ore deposits, and the establishment of long term communities around mines.
Mines bring new roads, infrastructure, agriculture and an influx of workers. Our research found that this development triggers a wave of deforestation that is on average 34 times bigger than the mine itself. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where half the world's cobalt is found, this multiplier rises as high as 58.
Some mines are more destructive than others. For example, we found that mines extracting cobalt and copper, key to the green energy transition, triggered the highest rates of additional deforestation. Iron ore operations showed the largest geographic reach, triggering forest loss up to 20km away.
What needs to happen next
First, countries need to adopt a consistent minimum standard for environmental impact assessments before mines are set up (to estimate the damage they'll cause and find ways to reduce it). Currently, not all of these assessments are equally rigorous.
In some countries, the assessment only extends one kilometre beyond the proposed mine (or a few hundred metres, as in Côte d'Ivoire). In other countries, such as Botswana, regulations cover much larger areas, especially where mines may drain the water table.
We recommend that countries must update their environmental laws to compel environmental impact assessments to include wider estimates of the damage to forests from mining roads, settlements and the population increase.
The assessments must also forecast and mitigate indirect regional risks, such as projected population influxes, worker settlements, and the agricultural expansion that follows new access roads.
Laws must also compel projects to say how they will protect forests against these risks.
If a mine is proposed near a protected area or Indigenous territory, environmental assessments must consider the wider forest destruction that could result from roads, settlements and farming linked to the mine.
Second, global supply chains must move towards transparency and traceability from the point of supply to the consumer. International buyers, technology manufacturing giants and automotive companies must verify and audit the environmental impact of suppliers (the mines). This is similar to the zero-deforestation supply chains that have been introduced for global agricultural and meat sectors. A strict corporate standard must be set up for critical minerals.
Third, a significant portion of the mines we analysed are unregistered, small-scale, or artisanal operations. These bypass environmental and safety regulations entirely, creating greater risk for both ecosystems and workers. International mineral supply chains cannot continue to ignore this.
Wealthy nations driving the mineral demand must provide financial and technical assistance to producing nations to uphold environmental law. They should also invest heavily in mineral recycling initiatives to reduce the need for mining.
These measures are necessary to ensure the global transition towards sustainable energy is not built on avoidable forest loss.
Oscar Morton receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust.
Chris Bousfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
By Oscar Morton, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Sheffield And
Chris Bousfield, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Cambridge

The minerals needed for clean energy are driving widespread forest loss across Africa, much of it far beyond the mine itself and largely preventable.

The 20km ripple effect: how mines can trigger distant deforestation in Africa

MEXICO ⁠CITY, June 30 (Reuters) - Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 ⁠to advance to the last 16 of ‌the World Cup on Tuesday, with first-half goals from Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez giving the co-hosts their first ​knockout-stage victory at the tournament in ⁠40 years.
Rows of young oil palm trees are seen on April 28 on the border of Sebangau National Park area in Central Kalimantan. Around 2,000 hectares of forests in the national park and its buffer zone were cleared to make way for oil palm plantations in 2024, according to NGO Auriga Nusantara.
- JP/ANN JAKARTA: Despite having the highest conservation status, many national parks are still suffering from forest destruction, raising questions about commitments from various authorities to preserve the country's remaining woodlands. Deforestation is persistent in Indonesia, and it has been on the rise in recent years. According to environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara, more than 430,000 hectares of forest were cleared in 2025. The figure, nearly the same size as seven Jakartas, nearly doubled the amount in 2024.
Of the total figure, around 25,000 ha of cleared forests were located in conservation areas, including national parks like Sebangau in Central Kalimantan, home to peat ecosystems and the critically endangered Bornean orangutan that has been enduring decades of deforestation. But nearly 2,000 ha of the park and its surrounding zone were cleared to make way for oil palm plantations in 2024, according to Auriga. The clearing was the sixth-largest oil palm encroachment among 57 national parks in the country.
Existing regulations prohibit any conversion of forest land inside a national park for plantations or other purposes. Even indigenous people and local communities are only allowed to utilise land inside national parks under tight limitations without massively clearing tree cover. In our latest special report, The Jakarta Post visited Sebangau to see parts of the national park that has been plagued by deforestation, part of which is the result of illegal oil palm plantations opened within the park's borders.
These plantations, some of which are reportedly owned by local smallholders, feed a mill that produces crude palm oil for various companies, including multinational ones that previously committed not to use ingredients linked to deforestation. But oil palm plantations are just the tip of the iceberg in Sebangau. Tenurial conflicts between park management and an indigenous Dayak subtribe that has been living around Sebangau for generations led to the opening of dozens of illegal gold mining sites across Sebangau.
Authorities acknowledged the persisting encroachment in Sebangau and other national parks, pointing to a lack of forest rangers to enforce regulations against illicit business activities. To solve the law enforcement gap, the government created a task force to eradicate these illegal oil palm plantations and mining sites, including in Sebangau where officers have reclaimed nearly 1,500 ha of plantations to be reforested.
However, observers have been skeptical about the plan, arguing that law enforcement alone will not be sufficient to recover the degraded forest without a proper plan to address the root of the problems. Saving Sebangau and other national parks, they said, will require the government to sit down and work together with all involved parties, including indigenous people, to look for sustainable solutions.
- The Jakarta Post/ANNVietnam unveils 'baby bonus' after scrapping two-child policyOne taken to hospital after fire breaks out in Sembawang HDB flat

MEXICO ⁠CITY, June 30 (Reuters) - Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 ⁠to advance to the last 16 of ‌the World Cup on Tuesday, with first-half goals from Julian Quinones and Raul Jimenez giving the co-hosts their

The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hostsabout 30%of the world's mineral reserves, includinghuge quantitiesof critical minerals: 92% of all platinum, 36% of all chromium, 54% of all manganese and 56% of all cobalt.
Many critical minerals are concentrated beneath the continent's biodiverse forests.
Read more:'Sacred forests' in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy
We are conservation scientists researching the impacts on the environment when resources such as timber, minerals or animal species are extracted and used by people. We have spent years tracking how resource demand can reshape fragile ecosystems.
Follow us onWhatsApp|LinkedInfor the latest headlines
In our most recent study weset out totrack exactly how much forest had been lost because of mining across sub-Saharan Africa over 20 years.
We used satellite data to identify 16,627 mining areas in the region. We tracked what happened to the land surrounding the mines between 2001 and 2020. We then compared places where mining was already taking place with similar areas that had not yet been mined but would be in the future. This allowed us to estimate how much deforestation was caused purely by a new mine setting up, rather than by other factors, such as the expansion of farms.
Read more:Angola's peatlands trap carbon and clean the region's water - how we mapped this newly found landscape
Our studyrevealedthat between 2001 and 2020, 187,000 hectares of forests were converted to mines in Africa. This is 0.03% of Africa's forests but is still a massive area - roughly the size of Mauritius.
This number only represents the deforestation by the mine footprint itself (the mine, its pits and tailing ponds where mine waste sludge is stored).
But mines cause far wider damage to the environment. We found that every hectare deforested within a mine's immediate footprint triggered an additional 34 hectares of forest to be lost from the surrounding region.
Read more:Africa has the highest rate of forest loss in the world - what the G20 can do about it
This is because of other activities directly triggered by the establishment of a mine, like road building, new urban settlements and agricultural expansion specifically to accommodate the mine.
Demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt is expected to grow 40-foldby 2040. So given the sheer quantity of key transition minerals on the African continent this growing demand poses a clear and pressing risk to African forests.
Read more:Gabon's large trees store huge amounts of carbon. What must be done to protect them
Healthy forestsarecarbon sinks; they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit. Destroying them means faster global warming and biodiversity loss that can take many decades to recover. The minerals needed for the technologies meant to save the planet from climate change (solar power and electric vehicle batteries) could speed up ecological collapse in biodiversity hotspots.
To prevent this, developers and governments must immediately integrate these large, offsite environmental impacts into regulatory processes and environmental impact assessments.
Mining's impact on wider landscapes
Our findings uncovered that mining has a massive ripple effect through space and time. Within one kilometre of a new mine, the local deforestation rate surges by an additional eight percentage points on average compared to unmined landscapes.
More alarming is the distance this damage travels. Elevated forest loss persists up to 20km away from the mining epicentre, and this impact continues for more than a decade after operations begin. This is likely due to both the expansion of the mine itself to follow ore deposits, and the establishment of long term communities around mines.
Read more:Ghana's pact with China to explore bauxite threatens a unique forest
Mines bring new roads, infrastructure, agriculture and an influx of workers. Our research found that this development triggers a wave of deforestation that is on average 34 times bigger than the mine itself. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where half the world's cobalt is found, this multiplier rises as high as 58.
Some mines are more destructive than others. For example, we found that mines extracting cobalt and copper, key to the green energy transition, triggered the highest rates of additional deforestation. Iron ore operations showed the largest geographic reach, triggering forest loss up to 20km away.
What needs to happen next
First, countries need to adopt a consistent minimum standard for environmental impact assessments before mines are set up (to estimate the damage they'll cause and find ways to reduce it). Currently, not all of these assessments are equally rigorous.
In some countries, the assessment only extends one kilometre beyond the proposed mine (or a few hundred metres, as in Côte d'Ivoire). In other countries, such as Botswana, regulations cover much larger areas, especially where mines may drain the water table.
Read more:How South Africa's mangrove forests store carbon and why it matters
We recommend that countries must update their environmental laws to compel environmental impact assessments to include wider estimates of the damage to forests from mining roads, settlements and the population increase.
The assessments must also forecast and mitigate indirect regional risks, such as projected population influxes, worker settlements, and the agricultural expansion that follows new access roads.
Laws must also compel projects to say how they will protect forests against these risks.
Read more:Ghana's forests are being wiped out: what's behind this and why attempts to stop it aren't working
If a mine is proposed near a protected area or Indigenous territory, environmental assessments must consider the wider forest destruction that could result from roads, settlements and farming linked to the mine.
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Second, global supply chains must move towards transparency and traceability from the point of supply to the consumer. International buyers, technology manufacturing giants and automotive companies must verify and audit the environmental impact of suppliers (the mines). This is similar to the zero-deforestation supply chains that have been introduced for global agricultural and meat sectors. A strict corporate standard must be set up for critical minerals.
Read more:Senegal's small scale gold miners still use poisonous mercury: how to reduce the harm
Third, a significant portion of the mines we analysed are unregistered, small-scale, or artisanal operations. These bypass environmental and safety regulations entirely, creating greater risk for both ecosystems and workers. International mineral supply chains cannot continue to ignore this.
Wealthy nations driving the mineral demand must provide financial and technical assistance to producing nations to uphold environmental law. They should also invest heavily in mineral recycling initiatives to reduce the need for mining.
These measures are necessary to ensure the global transition towards sustainable energy is not built on avoidable forest loss.
Oscar Morton, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Sheffield
Chris Bousfield, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Cambridge
This article is republished fromThe Conversation Africaunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

Analysis - The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines…

Africa: The 20km Ripple Effect - How Mines Can Trigger Distant Deforestation in Africa

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The global push for a transition to green energy has sparked demand for critical minerals such as lithium, vanadium, copper and cobalt. These are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts about 30% of the world's mineral reserves, including huge quantities of critical minerals: 92% of all platinum, 36% of all chromium, 54% of all manganese and 56% of all cobalt.
Many critical minerals are concentrated beneath the continent's biodiverse forests. Read more:
'Sacred forests' in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthyWe are conservation scientists researching the impacts on the environment when resources such as timber, minerals or animal species are extracted and used by people. We have spent years tracking how resource demand can reshape fragile ecosystems.
In our most recent study we set out to track exactly how much forest had been lost because of mining across sub-Saharan Africa over 20 years.
We used satellite data to identify 16,627 mining areas in the region. We tracked what happened to the land surrounding the mines between 2001 and 2020. We then compared places where mining was already taking place with similar areas that had not yet been mined but would be in the future. This allowed us to estimate how much deforestation was caused purely by a new mine setting up, rather than by other factors, such as the expansion of farms. Read more:
Angola's peatlands trap carbon and clean the region's water - how we mapped this newly found landscapeOur study revealed that between 2001 and 2020, 187,000 hectares of forests were converted to mines in Africa. This is 0.03% of Africa's forests but is still a massive area - roughly the size of Mauritius.
This number only represents the deforestation by the mine footprint itself (the mine, its pits and tailing ponds where mine waste sludge is stored).
But mines cause far wider damage to the environment. We found that every hectare deforested within a mine's immediate footprint triggered an additional 34 hectares of forest to be lost from the surrounding region. Read more:
Africa has the highest rate of forest loss in the world - what the G20 can do about itThis is because of other activities directly triggered by the establishment of a mine, like road building, new urban settlements and agricultural expansion specifically to accommodate the mine.
Demand for green energy transition minerals like copper and cobalt is expected to grow 40-fold by 2040. So given the sheer quantity of key transition minerals on the African continent this growing demand poses a clear and pressing risk to African forests. Read more:
Gabon's large trees store huge amounts of carbon. What must be done to protect themHealthy forests are carbon sinks; they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit. Destroying them means faster global warming and biodiversity loss that can take many decades to recover. The minerals needed for the technologies meant to save the planet from climate change (solar power and electric vehicle batteries) could speed up ecological collapse in biodiversity hotspots.
To prevent this, developers and governments must immediately integrate these large, offsite environmental impacts into regulatory processes and environmental impact assessments.
Our findings uncovered that mining has a massive ripple effect through space and time. Within one kilometre of a new mine, the local deforestation rate surges by an additional eight percentage points on average compared to unmined landscapes.
More alarming is the distance this damage travels. Elevated forest loss persists up to 20km away from the mining epicentre, and this impact continues for more than a decade after operations begin. This is likely due to both the expansion of the mine itself to follow ore deposits, and the establishment of long term communities around mines. Read more:
Ghana's pact with China to explore bauxite threatens a unique forestMines bring new roads, infrastructure, agriculture and an influx of workers. Our research found that this development triggers a wave of deforestation that is on average 34 times bigger than the mine itself. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where half the world's cobalt is found, this multiplier rises as high as 58.
Some mines are more destructive than others. For example, we found that mines extracting cobalt and copper, key to the green energy transition, triggered the highest rates of additional deforestation. Iron ore operations showed the largest geographic reach, triggering forest loss up to 20km away.
First, countries need to adopt a consistent minimum standard for environmental impact assessments before mines are set up (to estimate the damage they'll cause and find ways to reduce it). Currently, not all of these assessments are equally rigorous.
In some countries, the assessment only extends one kilometre beyond the proposed mine (or a few hundred metres, as in Cote d'Ivoire). In other countries, such as Botswana, regulations cover much larger areas, especially where mines may drain the water table. Read more:
How South Africa's mangrove forests store carbon and why it mattersWe recommend that countries must update their environmental laws to compel environmental impact assessments to include wider estimates of the damage to forests from mining roads, settlements and the population increase.
The assessments must also forecast and mitigate indirect regional risks, such as projected population influxes, worker settlements, and the agricultural expansion that follows new access roads.
Laws must also compel projects to say how they will protect forests against these risks. Read more:
Ghana's forests are being wiped out: what's behind this and why attempts to stop it aren't workingIf a mine is proposed near a protected area or Indigenous territory, environmental assessments must consider the wider forest destruction that could result from roads, settlements and farming linked to the mine.
Second, global supply chains must move towards transparency and traceability from the point of supply to the consumer. International buyers, technology manufacturing giants and automotive companies must verify and audit the environmental impact of suppliers (the mines). This is similar to the zero-deforestation supply chains that have been introduced for global agricultural and meat sectors. A strict corporate standard must be set up for critical minerals. Read more:
Senegal's small scale gold miners still use poisonous mercury: how to reduce the harmThird, a significant portion of the mines we analysed are unregistered, small-scale, or artisanal operations. These bypass environmental and safety regulations entirely, creating greater risk for both ecosystems and workers. International mineral supply chains cannot continue to ignore this.
Wealthy nations driving the mineral demand must provide financial and technical assistance to producing nations to uphold environmental law. They should also invest heavily in mineral recycling initiatives to reduce the need for mining.
These measures are necessary to ensure the global transition towards sustainable energy is not built on avoidable forest loss.

(June 30): The European Union (EU) plans to exempt palm oil derivatives used in medicines and soybeans used for sowing from its landmark rules tackling global deforestation in its latest attempt to blunt the law's impact on sensitive sectors.
The carve-outs were among amendments added by the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg , which could still change ahead of its adoption.
The EU's push against deforestation around the world has become one of the most challenging elements of its Green Deal plans. It is aimed at curbing forest clearance in nations that send agricultural products to the bloc. In December, the EU reached a deal to delay the law's application by a year, until the end of 2026.
However, the law has faced fierce pushback for overreach and administrative burden. US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said in a post on X last week that the regulation is 'not simplification' but 'protectionism'.
The palm oil-for-medicines provision was added 'to protect human and animal health', while soy used for sowing is exempted in part to help protect 'resilience, strategic autonomy and sustainability of the EU protein system', the commission says in the draft, while noting they 'represent negligible trade volumes'.
The commission's legislative update follows a public consultation, after the commission proposed removing leather from the scope of the law in May. Leather is still exempted in the latest draft, though that provision will be subject to a review in 2030. There are also new carve-outs for aircraft and motor vehicle seats and conveyor belts.
The draft also adds a one-year delay — until the end of 2027 — for the law's application for the updated products.

The European Union (EU) plans to exempt palm oil derivatives used in medicines and soybeans used for sowing from its landmark rules tackling global deforestation in its latest attempt to blunt the…

EU adds palm oil for drugs, soy seeds to deforestation carve-out

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WR E.J Horton Jr. #10, C Geno VanDeMark #63, S A.J. Haulcy #25, RB Lincoln Pare #36, DT Grover Stewart #90, RB Anderson Castle #42, WR Deion Burks #80, DT DeForest Buckner #99, DT Cam Ball #64, DE Arden Key #98, DT Adetomiwa Adebawore #95, LB Bryce Boettcher #50, DE Jaylahn Tuimoloau #91, WR Sahmir Hagans #11, DE Caden Curry #55, DE Mitchell Melton #54, LB Tahj Chambers #44, DE George Gumbs Jr. #52, WR Raylen Sharpe #8, T Nolan Rucci #76, LB CJ Allen #53, TE Carson Towt #45 and LB West Weeks #47
© Indianapolis Colts
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WR E.J Horton Jr. #10, C Geno VanDeMark #63, S A.J. Haulcy #25, RB Lincoln Pare #36, DT Grover Stewart #90, RB Anderson Castle #42, WR Deion Burks #80, DT DeForest Buckner #99, DT Cam Ball #64, DE Arden Key #98, DT Adetomiwa Adebawore #95, LB Bryce Boettcher #50, DE Jaylahn Tuimoloau #91, WR Sahmir Hagans #11, DE Caden Curry #55, DE Mitchell Melton #54, LB Tahj Chambers #44, DE George Gumbs Jr. #52, WR Raylen Sharpe #8, T Nolan Rucci #76, LB CJ Allen #53, TE Carson Towt #45 and LB West Weeks #47
© Indianapolis Colts

The Colts and DeForest Buckner hosted their annual Skills Camp. Hosted for 2nd-8th graders, this one-day camp provided instructional drill work, skill development, and opportunities in character and…

DeForest Buckner's Colts Skills Camp

HANOI: Vietnam needs to accelerate the development of a unified national database for farming areas to comply with the European Union's anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) and support the digital transformation of agriculture, experts say.
Experts said at a conference held by Network for Agriculture and Forestry Policy Research that fragmented data systems and limited information sharing among government agencies, businesses and farmers remain major obstacles to compliance with the EUDR.
The compliance requires exporters of commodities such as coffee, rubber and cocoa to prove their products are not linked to deforestation.
Ha Cong Tuan, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, said a national database covering all agricultural land, rather than only export-oriented production areas, is essential for meeting international standards and improving sector governance.
Pham Dinh Lai, director of the Dien Bien Province Agriculture Sub-Department, said the expansion of coffee-growing areas has faced problems in collecting and managing cultivation data due to limited funding, technical capacity and challenges in gathering geospatial information, such as coordinates, land parcels and land-use status.
The province has adopted an approach that places communes at the centre of data collection efforts.
This has shown promising results, with farmers becoming more engaged in data collection and gaining a better understanding of market requirements for traceability, Lai said.
He added that stronger participation from businesses would be needed, particularly in data sharing, farmer training and monitoring compliance with EUDR requirements. — Viet Nam News/ANN

Vietnam needs to accelerate the development of a unified national database for farming areas to comply with the European Union's anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) and support the digital…

Meeting EU deforestation rules with unified farm data system

New rules will ensure everyday products sold in the UK including coffee and cocoa do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. Source: Timberbiz
The world's rainforests are to be better protected from deforestation as the government plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain including using powers in the Environment Act alongside legislation strengthening the UK Timber Regulation.
Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
These products are commonly found in everyday supermarket products including chocolate, cooking oils, shampoo and cosmetics.
This move will help protect the habitats of some of the world's most precious and endangered species, while giving British consumers confidence that the products in their shopping baskets are not contributing to illegal deforestation.
Around 90% of global deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion, much of it linked to the production of internationally traded commodities. In 2023, the UK's consumption of these goods was associated with approximately 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide or around one and a half times the size of Manchester and 9.4 million tonnes of related carbon emissions.
'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife,' Nature Minister Mary Creagh said.
'That is why we are leading by example and scrutinising our own supply chains. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps to protect precious ecosystems but is good for our collective resilience and long-term prosperity.'
These new measures will help businesses better identify and reduce the risk that their imported products are linked to illegal deforestation and land clearing. The government will consult businesses, civil society and international partners later this year on the details of the proposed GB deforestation policy.
This will include consulting on the introduction of these mandatory due diligence requirements for businesses in Great Britain including using powers such as under the Environment Act which target illegal deforestation, and by strengthening the existing UK Timber Regulation.
To maintain Northern Ireland's unique dual market access to both the UK Internal Market and the EU Single Market, the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) will apply in Northern Ireland in phases starting 30 December 2026.
Crucially, to protect the UK Internal Market and streamline compliance, the upcoming consultation will propose that the GB regime covers the same core commodities and underlying information requirements as the regulation in Northern Ireland.
This aligned approach is designed to prevent administrative duplication across the UK while helping British exporters to the EU meet consistent data and traceability standards. Businesses in Northern Ireland are encouraged to begin preparations now.
In due course, the Government's ambition is to transition to a deforestation-free standard which will require relevant products to be produced free from any deforestation, building on stakeholder efforts globally to decouple supply chains from forest loss and land conversion.
These changes help deliver on the UK's commitment under the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use, agreed at COP26, to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. It also supports the cross-government 2035 International Climate, Nature & Energy Strategic Framework.

New rules will ensure everyday products sold in the UK including coffee and cocoa do not contribute to illegal deforestation around the world. Source: Timberbiz The world's rainforests are to be…

UK government's hard tackle on deforestation

The UK Government has confirmed a major step forward in its commitment to tackle global deforestation, unveiling plans for new regulations that will require businesses using forest‑risk commodities — including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, rubber and derived products such as chocolate and furniture — to prove their supply chains are not linked to illegal forest loss.
The measures form part of the UK's wider pledge, made at COP26, to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
The new framework, set to be introduced under the Environment Act 2021 and through strengthened UK Timber Regulation legislation, will apply to businesses in Great Britain with an annual turnover above £1 million. These companies will be required to carry out mandatory due diligence, ensuring that any forest‑risk commodities they use are produced legally in their country of origin. Why the Government is acting now
Defra data shows that around 90% of global deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion, much of it linked to internationally traded commodities such as soy, palm oil and cattle.
In 2023 alone, UK consumption of these goods was associated with 29,000 hectares of deforestation worldwide — an area one and a half times the size of Manchester — and 9.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
Nature Minister Mary Creagh said the new rules are essential to meeting climate and biodiversity goals: 'Tackling global deforestation is one of the most effective ways we can address climate change and protect some of the world's most unique and precious wildlife. Eliminating products linked to illegal deforestation not only helps protect ecosystems but strengthens our long‑term resilience.'
Retailers have also pushed for stronger regulation. The British Retail Consortium said the move aligns with long‑standing industry calls for consistent, enforceable rules that support forest conservation while reducing complexity for businesses operating across UK and EU markets. What businesses will need to do
Under the proposed regime, companies must: Establish a due diligence system covering all relevant commodities
Collect geolocation data for the land where products originated
Hold evidence that production complied with local environmental laws
Report publicly on their due diligence activity
The government intends for these requirements to operate in parallel with the EU's Deforestation‑Free Products Regulation (EUDR), which will apply in Northern Ireland from December 2026. Aligning the two systems is designed to protect the UK internal market and avoid unnecessary burdens for exporters. Toward deforestation‑free supply chains
While the initial focus is on illegal deforestation, the government has signalled its intention to move toward a deforestation‑free standard in future — meaning products would need to be free from any deforestation, legal or illegal.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Emma Reynolds, said the UK must lead by example: 'Healthy forests are essential to climate stability, economic growth and global prosperity. Strengthening our deforestation regulations is critical to securing supply chains and contributing to global efforts to halt forest loss.' Implications
Companies using commodities such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, cattle‑derived ingredients and chocolate will face increased scrutiny of sourcing practices. Many already operate voluntary sustainability schemes, but the government argues that voluntary action alone cannot deliver the consistency needed to address the scale of the challenge.
The consultation on the detailed design of the Great Britain regime will take place later this year, with legislation expected in 2027.

UK deforestation regulations require businesses to prove forest‑risk supply chains for cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soy are free from illegal deforestation

UK Government sets out rules to tackle deforestation in supply chains

New trade standards on non-deforestation production are putting pressure on many of Vietnam's key export sectors, but also present opportunities to increase product value and expand markets. Nguyen Van Dien, Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection ( Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ). Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Dien, Deputy Director of the Department of Forestry and Forest Protection (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), developing a transparent and traceable agricultural value chain is an inevitable trend of global trade.
This requirement is particularly important for Vietnam, as many of its key export items, such as wood, coffee, and rubber, are present in markets with high standards, especially the European Union (EU).
'The EU's Regulation on Deforestation Prevention and Control (EUDR) presents an opportunity for Vietnam to enhance its management capacity, improve quality, increase transparency, and strengthen its image in the international market,' Mr. Dien emphasized at the Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains, held in Hanoi from June 23 to 26.
To prepare for the transition, the forestry sector has established the EUDR working group, finalized the legal framework, built a database of planted forests, developed a traceability system linked to geographical coordinates, and promoted training for businesses and localities.
Opportunities arising from transformation Mr. Vinod Ahuja, FAO Representative in Vietnam. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
According to Vinod Ahuja, FAO Representative in Vietnam, unsustainable agricultural expansion remains the leading cause of deforestation worldwide. Meanwhile, forest ecosystems provide water, protect soil, support pollination, and maintain agricultural productivity.
Therefore, the approach of dealing with individual projects is no longer suitable; instead, solutions are needed at the value chain scale, connecting production, trade, policies, and incentive mechanisms, with traceability playing a central role.
The FAO representative stated that the traceability system helps meet market demands and improve data quality, increase transparency, enhance supply chain governance, and enable producers to access higher-value segments.
"Traceability is not just a technical issue; it also helps improve decision-making capabilities and expand opportunities for sustainable development for producers," said Mr. Ahuja.
The FAO also acknowledged Vietnam's achievements in forest protection and restoration, and noted that the country is entering a phase where data, traceability, and the ability to meet international standards will determine the competitiveness of many industries. Ms. Bui Thi Linh, regional advisor of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) on deforestation-free value chains. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
According to Ms. Bui Thi Linh, regional advisor of the Team Europe Initiative (TEI) on deforestation-free value chains, Vietnam has many advantages to adapt to new trends thanks to its experience in forest management, increasing forest cover, and implementing traceability systems in several sectors.
Through this initiative, the EU and its member states are supporting partner countries in building traceability systems, monitoring forests, managing land, and increasing supply chain transparency, with the aim of promoting agricultural growth without deforestation.
According to experts, if Vietnam takes advantage of the transition process effectively, it will maintain its export market and gradually improve the position of its agricultural products in the global value chain.
As data, traceability, environmental responsibility, and transparency become the new standards of international trade, the value of agricultural products will be determined by their ability to demonstrate sustainability. This also presents an opportunity for many of Vietnam's export sectors to enhance their value. Vietnamese agricultural products are facing an opportunity to increase their value. Photo: Kieu Thoan Thu
Asia-Pacific faces pressure for transformation.
According to Sheila Wertz-Kannounikoff, Senior Forestry Specialist and Head of Biodiversity and Forests at FAO's Asia-Pacific region, the region currently accounts for 43% of global agricultural land and generates more than half of the world's agricultural output.
Over the next 10 years, global food demand is projected to increase by approximately 30%, with South Asia and Southeast Asia accounting for nearly 40% of that increase. This means agricultural production will continue to expand, leading to greater pressure on forests and natural ecosystems.
Each year, the Asia-Pacific region loses approximately 2.5 million hectares of forest, equivalent to 23% of the total forest loss globally. The primary cause remains the expansion of agricultural land.
According to Sheila Wertz-Kannounikoff, in addition to palm oil and rubber, many other sectors such as sugarcane, cassava, livestock farming, rice, and coconut are also contributing to increased deforestation in some countries.
Notably, approximately 60% of forest land in the region is converted for small-scale production. Therefore, developing a sustainable value chain requires placing farmers at the center, rather than focusing solely on large enterprises.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/nong-san-viet-truoc-co-hoi-nang-hang-gia-tri-1209499.html

Product traceability, legality, and sustainability are becoming prerequisites for market access as new environmental standards shape international trade.

Global Deforestation

This section is intended to collect data on the current status of global deforestation. This is accomplished through the utilization of APIs, databases, news sources, MapBuilders, and academic journals.

Global forest loss map

News List

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