27 Amendments of Guillaume BALAS related to 2018/2003(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that deforestation and forest degradation are the second leading cause of global warming1 ; Emphasizes the importance of the right policy approaches for the integral and sustainable management of forests in order to deliver both carbon and non-carbon benefits1a _________________ 1 https://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/w hat-redd 1a Article 5 of the Paris Agreement
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Affirms the relevance of the type of forest management for the carbon balance in the tropics, as recent papers2a have pointed towards the subtler forms of degradation, and not only large scale deforestation as previously researched, likely to be a very significant source of carbon emissions accounting for more than half of emissions. _________________ 2aA.Baccini et al., 2017: Tropical forests are a net carbon source based on aboveground measurements
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Welcomes the publication of the Feasibility study4a on options to step up EU Action against deforestation commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment; notes that the EU is presented as a major economic actor where its demand for forest-risk commodities (of categories of annual crops (e.g. maize, soy), perennial crops (e.g. coffee, palm oil, rubber), livestock (e.g. beef), forest-based (timber, pellets) and extractive industries) plays a larger role than many other regions, with a notable exception of China; and EU demand is clearly a driver of the problem of global deforestation; _________________ 4aFinal report published in 1/2018; developed by a consortium led by COWI, and including Ecofys and Milieu; available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/p df/feasibility_study_deforestation_kh0418 199enn_main_report.pdf
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Acknowledges that forest crime, such as illegal logging, has been estimated3a to represent a value of 50-152 bln USD in 2016, up from 30-100 bln in 2014 and ranks number one in revenues among environmental crimes globally; notes that it has a serious role in financing organized crime and that it significantly impoverishes governments, nations and local communities due to uncollected revenues. _________________ 3a UNEP, 2017: The Rise of Environmental Crime report
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1 e. Notes that it is well established and uncontested that the conversion of tropical forest to agriculture, plantations and other land uses causes a significant loss of species, and particularly forest specialist species.
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1 f. Notes that more than half of commodities produced and exported into the global market are products of illegal deforestation6a.Taking into account agriculture-related forest risk- commodities, it is considered that 65 % of Brazilian beef exports, 9 % of Argentina’s beef export, 41 % of Brazil’s soy exports, 5 % of Argentina’s soy and 30 % Paraguay’s soy export are likely linked to illegal deforestation. Further notes that EU producers import significant amounts of feed and proteins from the developing countries. _________________ 6a Forest Trends Report Series, 2014: Consumer Goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture and Timber Plantations
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 g (new)
Paragraph 1 g (new)
1 g. Notes that recent research proves that agroforestry poly-cropping applied to e.g. cocoa, rubber, palm oil plantations can offer combined benefits in terms of biodiversity, productivity and positive social outcomes.
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Recalls the Bonn Challenge5a targeting the goal of restoring of 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030 that could generate about US$ 170 billion per year in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields and forest products, and could sequester up to 1.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually; _________________ 5ainfo available at https://www.iucn.org/theme/forests/our- work/forest-landscape-restoration/bonn- challenge
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 h (new)
Paragraph 1 h (new)
1 h. Stresses that secondary forests, regenerating largely through natural processes after significant human or natural disturbance of the primary forests, provide, next to primary forests, also crucial ecosystem services, livelihood for local population as well timber provision; considers that as their survival is threatened also by illegal logging, any action addressing transparency and accountability of forest management should target also secondary, and not only primary forests;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 i (new)
Paragraph 1 i (new)
1 i. Stresses that the gap in implementation of the EU Timber Regulation could be a driver for unsustainable management of forests in sourcing countries, as the chain of control is only as strong as its weakest link in the single market; notes in this context that in some Member States the act transposing the Regulation enters into force only in April 2018;7a _________________ 7aThe law transposing the EUTR enters into force in Slovakia on 1st April 2018
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 j (new)
Paragraph 1 j (new)
1 j. Notes the opening of the public consultation on the products´ scope of the Timber Regulation; Considers that the possible choice in the questionnaire of the reduction of the scope to be covered by the Regulation is not a justified one given that illegal trade flourishes within the current scope of the Regulation; Further notes a favourable position of the European Confederation of the Woodworking Industries towards extending the scope of the Timber Regulation to all wood products;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 k (new)
Paragraph 1 k (new)
1 k. Notes that the assessment of whether penalties laid down by Member States are effective, proportionate and dissuasive was not possible to be made in the Review of the EU Timber Regulation (2016)8aas the number of sanctions applied so far has been very low; questions the applied criterion for set penalties by some Member States being ´the national economic conditions´ given the international aspect of the crime ranking number one in environmental crimes in the world; _________________ 8a SWD(2016)34 final
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 l (new)
Paragraph 1 l (new)
1 l. Notes that it was revealed that FLEGT export licences allow for illegally sourced wood to be mixed with legal timber and therefore could potentially be exported to the EU as compliant with EU Timber Regulation. 9a _________________ 9aThe Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA) and the Indonesian Forest Monitoring Network’s (Jaringan Pemantau Independen Kehutanan/JPIK)’s 2014 Permitting Crime Report found that some TLAS- licensed companies are involved in “timber laundering,” mixing illegally sourced woods with legal timber. Today, these woods could potentially be exported to the EU as FLEGT-licensed timber. Available at http://www.wri.org/blog/2018/01/indonesi a-has-carrot-end-illegal-logging-now-it- needs-stick primary source https://eia- international.org/wp- content/uploads/Permitting-Crime.pdf
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 m (new)
Paragraph 1 m (new)
1 m. Notes the existence of models of community forestry/collective customary tenure which can bring a number of benefits10a including an increase in the forest area and in available water resources, fight against illegal logging by putting clear rules in place on timber access and a strong system of forest monitoring; proposes that more research and support is provided to help develop legal frameworks on community forestry; _________________ 10aa case from Nepal presented by ClientEarth, available at https://www.clientearth.org/what-can-we- learn-from-community-forests-in-nepal/
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 n (new)
Paragraph 1 n (new)
1 n. Stresses that recognition of tenure rights of peoples e.g. via constitution is not necessarily applied in practice11a and therefore ensuring that tenure rights are respected should be actively screened by the EU for the purpose of Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) and for individual cases of EU development funding; _________________ 11arecent case (WaTER project financed by DG DEVCO) of violation of tenure rights of Kenyan indigenous peoples Ogiek and Sengwer despite the recognition of their rights to land in the Constitution, particularly Article 63(2)(d)) and in the 2016 Community Land Act
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 o (new)
Paragraph 1 o (new)
1 o. Recalls that the report by the Commission on the functioning of the Transparency Directive 2013/50/EU that introduces disclosure requirement for payments to governments by listed and large non-listed companies with activities in the extractive industry and logging of primary (natural and semi-natural) forests should be submitted by 27th November 2018 to the European Parliament and the Council; further notes that this should be accompanied by a legislative proposal; in light of a possible review calls on the Commission to consider extending the obligation to other industry sectors affecting forests, and to other forests than primary forests;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Calls for better enforcement of the EU Timber Regulation, including on complex supply chains and imports from processing countries e.g. China, and to make sanctions more robust and dissuasive for all economic players in the single market proportionately to this being an international crime.
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Considers that efforts to halt deforestation must include local capacity- building, technological aid, the sharing of best practices between communities and support to help smallholders make the most effective use of their existing croplands without resorting to further forest conversion; stresses, in this context, the strong potential of agro-ecological practices to maximise ecosystem functions via mixed, high diversity planting, agroforestry and permaculture techniques, without resorting to input dependency or monocultures.
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2 c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to co-ordinate donor policies and ensure that development funding through these not be used to support the expansion of industrial scale logging into intact tropical forests; calls for suspension of funding for any project where a substantiated claim of such logging exists until such a claim is dismissed or correction measures are applied;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 d (new)
Paragraph 2 d (new)
2 d. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to expand the scope of the EU Timber Regulation to cover all products that are or may be made of wood, and that contain or may contain wood, taking into account impact on pulp and wood processing industries in the European Union and unfair competition with products currently not covered by the legislation (e.g. printed paper) entering the EU without any guarantee of the prime material being legally sourced wood.
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for the EU to maintain its commitment to step up ongoing negotiations on the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements; stresses the need to ensure that logging concessions awarded corruptly or illegally are not legitimised through the VPA and that these agreements are in line with international law and commitments concerning environmental protection, human rights and sustainable development, and that they bring about adequate measures for the conservation and sustainable management of forests, including the legal protection of the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples; recognising their tenure and customary rights.
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for the EU to create, as a supplementary element of Voluntary Partnership Agreements, follow-up legislation on such agreements along the lines of the EU Timber Regulation which includes both companies and financial institutions; nand to review functioning of existing VPA in practice ensuring that the joint assessment on the country’s timber legality assurance system functions as described in the VPA and that timber laundering could be excluded. Notes that the EU has regulated the supply chains of timber, fish and conflict minerals, but has not yet regulated any forest risk agricultural commodity supply chains; urges the Commission and the Member States to step up their efforts to implement the Timber Regulation, in order to better gauge its effectiveness;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to develop a process that is triggered when conflict breaks out in a VPA partner country, including appointment of an independent panel to conduct an assessment of the risk of conflict timber and need for VPA suspension at all stages of negotiations where evidence that timber trade revenues are fuelling conflict;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission to ensure the coherence of and to boost synergies between the cCommon aAgricultural pPolicy (CAP) and other EU policies, and to ensure that they are conducted in a manner consistent with programmes aimed at combating deforestation in developing countries, including REDD+; calls on the Commission to ensure that the CAP reform does not lead,import of forest-risk commodities (e.g. soy, maize) is eliminated from directly or indirectly, to further deforestation and that it supports the goal of putting an end support of the future EU food and farming policy, e.g.by means of restoring the proportionality of livestock to EU forage; calls for coupled payments not to support livestock production of density over two global deforestationlivestock units per hectare; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that the environmental problems relating to deforestation are also addressed in the light of the objectives set by the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, which should be an integral part of the Union’s external action in this area;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the EU to establish a binding regulatory framework to ensure that all agricultural commodity importers’ supply chains are traceable back to the origin of the raw material; notes that the new technologies, e.g. blockchain technology can be used to track origin of commodities, and stresses that this could be used in practice to increase transparency around the origin of different commodities and practically remove forest degradation and deforestation from the supply chains
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission to press ahead with developing anshow political will and leadership by committing to deliver as soon as possible before the end of this Commission's mandate an ambitious EU action plan on deforestation and forest degradation, which would include concrete regulatory measures to ensure that no supply chains or financial transactions linked to the EU result in deforestation or, forest degradation or human rights violations.
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 e (new)
Paragraph 2 e (new)
2 e. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to make full use of existing diplomatic and institutional processes and dialogues to encourage countries which process and/or import significant quantities of tropical timber, e.g. China or Vietnam, to adopt effective legislation banning the imports of illegally harvested timber and requiring operators to conduct due diligence;