Press conference by Christophe HANSEN, (EPP,LU), rapporteur

Strasbourg

press conference

HANSEN, Christophe (EPP, LU)

forest protection (T)

Deforestation regulation: Press conference by Christophe HANSEN, (EPP,LU), rapporteur

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, Thank you very much for joining this press conference on my report on the fight against global deforestation. Global deforestation is a huge problem because since 1999, we have lost around 450 million hectares of forests all over the world. As you can imagine, this stands for one hectare per citizen of the European Union. So you can guess what amount it is. And every year we are waiting before putting in place legislation to fight this. We will lose another 10 million hectares worldwide. And eventhough the problem is not the most prominent in the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, We are nevertheless responsible for over 10 percent of global deforestation because we are importing a lot of goods from countries, especially from tropical areas, where forests are burned down to produce commodities such as soy, such as cattle, but as well cocoa, palm oil, etc. that are responsible for the deforestation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, The Commission has submitted its proposal with six commodities there. I will explain you a little bit later on where we are heading as European Parliament in my report. But I just wanted to remind you, if we are serious about fighting global biodiversity loss as well, and climate change, it is very important to be very strict and ambitious on this file as well, because 80 percent of global biodiversity can be found in our forests worldwide.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, So it is very important. And as well, another figure, maybe 25 percent of the global population lives in forests or with forests or through a sustainable harvesting of forests is very important as well for the livelihood of those populations to be strict in what we are doing, because we have as well a global responsibility to take.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, As I said, we are responsible partly of global deforestation, but to this legislation, other big economies are as well looking very closely and eventually could go into the same direction, so we can be a role model with this legislation and inspire others to go into the same direction.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, The vote that took place today got a quite substantial majority for my report. We had a good cooperation between five political groups, mainly the EPP, the assembly. We knew the Greens and the Left of this Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, So we had finally a vote with a 453 votes in favour, 57 votes against and 123 abstentions. So you see, not everybody is convinced because, of course, there are many aspects to be considered. We have the aspects of our European companies, of European forest owners that are at stake as well and that will have to to do as well more efforts, because this is not just applying to third countries. This is, as well, applying to European countries and producers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, So on the list of commodities, as I say to the Commission, had six products: palm oil, cocoa, coffee, cattle, soy and timber. We have now added to at least the other products that were already covered by the impact assessment of the Commission. And this includes also rubber, maize, palm oil, derivates.. And we have as well added some products that are not covered by the impact assessment, namely other meat products, for example, pork meat, poultry, meat, but as well printed products and charcoal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, This has been immediately added to the scope and we have invited the Commission to go as well a little bit further make an analysis of which other products could eventually be included during the revision. And therefore, I just have to show you some ethanol and sugar would be some of those products that the Commission has to have a look on.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, Then on the extesion of the scope as well to other ecosystems. I had already in my initial report added other wooded land. And this would include as well, vast parts, for example, of the Serrador in Brazil. We have now also invited to the Commission to submit within one year an impact assessment and eventually a legislative proposal to extend the scope to other ecosystems such as wetlands and pitlands.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, we could Other ecosystems where eventually see the derivation from forest destruction, that agriculture activity could go to these regions. But there we, of course, want that the Commission first does an analysis how this could be included. An important point is also the Cut-Off date for what is the, let's say, the data from which we are seeing with satellite images, whereforests and where is now agricultural land?

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, Here in the parliament we have said clearly that this Cut-Off date should be the 31st of December 2019, well ahead of the entry into force. There will be a big discussion, of course, with the council that has proposed 2022. On SMEs and smallholders I think it is very important to say that the smallholders in certain sectors like the cocoa sector, stand for around 80 percent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, . So these are small farmers that don't have necessarily all the means to comply with the requirements we are imposing to them. So we need as well to help small holders to meet those and therefore we stand strong as well to get financial and technical support to smallholders to be able to cope with this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, And then we have as well a clause to to extend the entry into force for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The medium are not in, but micro enterprises and small enterprises are so that they got a little bit more time to adapt to this new requirements.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, And then point on the role of the rights of indigenous people. I think that the Commission had initially the compliance with national deforestation laws. We know nonetheless that those national deforestation laws can be way below the international standards. Of course, it was very important and I think Brazil is, again, a very prominent example for that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, So we are now to make sure that the customary tenure rights of indigenous people that are internationally recognised as well taken into account. Because we have to acknowledge that where indigenous people are living in and with the forests, there we do not see the phenomenon and the catastrophe of forest disappearance and and destruction.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, I think what we made clear as well in the report is that we have to be coherent on what is going to happen on the due diligence legislation that is coming down the road, as well. So we foresee the adaptation, because we don't want different aspects to be differently covered. A very important point, and maybe one of the most important points, is the traceability of the commodities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, And we have Commission proposals initially to have the traceability to each plot of land via geolocalisation. However, currently it would not be possible for each product to be traced back to the individual smallholder parcel. Therefore, we also proposed, that was my proposal, that your localisation could also be done for the production area and we managed to find an agreement where we talk about as well, polygon mapping as an alternative that can consist of several plots of land.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, This is something that it will be way easier as well for the smallholder that will have 10 square metres there in ten square metres there. So they can add this polygon mapping and this will be easier to to trace. And I think this also gives a more flexibility to operators as initially foreseen by the commission. And I think this is a very important point.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, On the country, risk benchmarking. That is, of course, as well a very controversial point because we have high risk countries, standard risk and low risk countries, and they on I was a little bit reluctant to have this kind of blacklist. I would have preferred to have just a two tier approach that everybody is in a standard risk category. And then that could qualify for a low risk country and then have some advantages, for example, on under the form of a light touch due diligence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, But there we have not done that. So we stay now with the three tiered approach as proposed by the Commission. But our testing and let say the checks that need to be done on the ground by the national authorities are way, way, way higher than the ones proposed by the Council. So there will be a lot of discussion, I think, in the trialogues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, On the role of existing certification schemes, here the Left groups only wanted to accept certification schemes which already fulfil all obligations under this regulation. Of course, this is not really the case right now because those certifications go, for example, back to the mill, but not necessarily to the plot of land and there we wanted and that was my idea as that the data that has been collected and the efforts that have been done on the certification schemes could be used for the risk assessment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, Yes, but there's still the missing parts from the mill to the plot of land. Of course, they still have to do it. But this is something maybe where we have different interpretations there. But nonetheless, I think this will still be discussed on financial institutions. Of course, I agree that financial institutions have as well.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, They are part to play, but I think it is not the right legislation because it's a completely different legal basis. It would as well be different authorities to control this. And that is why I believe that we should address it somewhere else. But now, of course, it is in the text. We have to see where this goes. Maybe a last point, because before I give the floor to you for your questions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, The Commission had initially foreseen as well the destruction of nonconference products that would be caught at our borders. I think that is something we should refrain from. This might not be in line with this legislation, but the destruction, I think, that is especially under the scarcity of commodities and of a global food crisis that we are going through would be not the right thing to do.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christophe HANSEN, EPP Rapporteur, So I think we can find better ways to help maybe those that are most touched by this global food crisis that we are going through. But those are the main points, I would say, and now I am looking forward to your questions.