St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th-century French Cistercian monk, is credited with saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” We don’t know if he actually said it, but it applies to what his native France, along with the other countries of the European Union (EU), could be achieving with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
These good intentions may also be worsening the situation of undocumented migrants from Latin America who, escaping poverty, seek to reach the United States at any cost, just as many Africans seek to reach Europe. This is an issue that should be closely monitored by those who deal with the plight of peasants, migration and poverty, both in Brussels and in Washington.
But what do Europe’s environmental regulations have to do with migration from Latin America to the United States? Let’s see: In June 2019, the EU approved the European Green Deal, which primarily seeks climate neutrality in that part of the world by 2050. To achieve this, the EU has been designing policies and taking action, including the issuance by the European Commission of the Deforestation Regulation, the famous EUDR, which came into force on June 29 of last year.
According to these rules, coffee, cocoa, soya, rubber, palm oil and meat (and their derivatives) imported into EU countries cannot come from areas where deforestation has occurred as of 1 January 2021. They must also comply with their country’s national legislation, including human rights, and with the due diligence process. European customs will apply the controls from 31 December 2024, just half a year from now.
So far, this all sounds very good. Who can question the EU’s desire to ensure that the products it consumes are deforestation-free and comply with national legislation? Motherhood and Apple Pieor Motherhood and Apple Pie, as Americans describe it, something they consider an intrinsically good value.
However, things are not so simple when looking in detail at the procedures for demonstrating compliance, which are expressed through a declaration in which the operator in Europe states that – after having carried out due diligence – the product is free of deforestation and was legally produced. In order to ensure this, several activities are required, including, for example, expensive and complex geolocation measurements of the agricultural areas in question, in polygons of 4 hectares and digital platforms that are difficult to understand, assimilate and pay for.
The regulation was issued without much understanding by the commissioners in Brussels of the realities on the ground in developing countries and has left many more questions than answers. Even for those who comply, gathering information, using technology, preparing documentation, doing traceability, etc., is proving difficult and expensive and it is not clear how this will be done or how controls will be applied.
And even if it is achieved, who will foot the bill? The answer was recently given to me by a senior executive of a coffee trading company in Europe: “That is a problem that the producing countries have to solve, if they want us to buy their coffee.” In other words, the bill will be paid by farmers in Latin America and around the world.
Latin America produces about 60% of the world’s coffee. In most countries, coffee farms are smallholdings of a family that lives at the mercy of international prices and the exchange rate of their country. Many of them could not survive without the support of their producer associations and governments. In Colombia, the second largest producer on the continent with 550,000 coffee-growing families, coffee is the largest agricultural export; the average crop, as in other countries, does not reach 2 hectares and the average age of the coffee grower is around 57 years, similar to that of its neighbors.
In Honduras, the third largest producer in Latin America, the situation is no easier. Coffee is the largest export product and generates some 1.4 billion dollars in foreign currency for 120,000 producing families; one million Hondurans, almost 10% of the country, make a direct or indirect living from the bean.
At the same time, while Honduras exports 55% of its coffee to Europe, it also has proportionally one of the largest numbers of migrants in the United States, who in 2023 sent almost $9.2 billion to their families, according to the Central Bank of Honduras. About 6.5 times what coffee generates.
The ageing of producers, their difficult economic situation, the threats to production due to climate change and insecurity are the framework in which the EU wants to impose conditions that will be very difficult to meet and pay in Latin America and in the world.
What will a producer of coffee or other EU-regulated products do if they are no longer being bought? Find a buyer elsewhere, at whatever price, but without any demands? Maybe change their activity to produce something that does not require them to comply with such regulations, or simply go seek their fortune in the north of the continent? In all cases, the net result may be more damage to the planet and more impoverishment in the region, even if politically the European Union can proclaim that the Green Deal is on the right track.
If the EUDR is not applied properly, however well-intentioned it may be, it will make the situation worse. To benefit the planet and not just achieve a result for political peace of mind, the European Union should take at least two urgent actions. First, act with realism and pragmatism, postponing the application of the rules for a reasonable time, at least one year, so that producing countries can put themselves in a position to comply and demonstrate that they do so. This has been requested by, among others, the International Coffee Organization, the World Forum of Coffee Producers and the United States Government (in relation to the timber industry). The second action, just as important as the first, is to allocate its own resources and lead the cooperation and direction of funds from the private sector and international organizations for the same purpose.
It is possible that Europe’s deforestation regulations will thus be more than just good intentions and escape the judgment of St. Bernard.
#road #hell
