European Commissioner visits Paraguay to discuss cooperation on addressing deforestation

By BKM-BERKEMEYER

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, travelled to Paraguay to discuss cooperation in environmental protection, notably in the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation.

The Commissioner was in Paraguay to met Santiago Peña, President of the Republic, and Víctor Alfredo Verdún Bitar, Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also hold exchanges with private sector organisations as well as civil society and youth representatives. The Commissioner visited the Itaipu hydroelectric dam and launch the EU Forest4Life Project Paraguay at the Mbaracayú Forest Nature.

On 29 June 2023, the Regulation on deforestation-free products entered into force. The main driver of these processes is the expansion of agricultural land that is linked to the production of commodities like cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber, and some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tyres, or furniture. As a major economy and consumer of these commodities linked to deforestation and forest degradation, the EU is partly responsible for this problem and it wants to lead the way to solving it. 

Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation. 

However, Paraguay was among the countries to sign a statement at the World Trade Organisation last month criticising trade-altering green policies. That statement urged countries "to refrain from imposing of unilateral trade-related environmental measures that create unnecessary obstacles to trade or arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries".