Reduce the internal market’s impact on deforestation

The adoption of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in 2023 marked a new chapter in the EU’s effort to reduce the internal market’s impact on deforestation. Recent amendments have somewhat softened the Regulation in the name of simplification, but it will finally become fully applicable to all relevant operators by the summer of 2027. As the legislative chapter closes, attention turns to a more practical question: how can the EUDR be made to work and deliver on its objectives?

Diplomatic friction around the world

This public panel engages that question through the political, legal and technical conundrums of the EUDR’s implementation. Its adoption has already triggered diplomatic friction around the world, and its enforcement will require authorities to make complex assessments of legal and environmental realities across the globe. Implementation is also a technical challenge: companies increasingly rely on satellite imagery to detect deforestation on plots linked to commodity batches, blockchain to trace commodities through supply chains, and AI to assess the legality of sourcing – while the Commission’s own digital infrastructure has faced repeated setbacks. Compliance and its monitoring will thus unfold at the intersection of law, politics and technology, posing new challenges for regulators and the regulated alike.

Implementation of the EUDR

With these challenges in mind, we have brought together leading experts from the private sector, regulatory authorities, civil society and academia to share their views on what the implementation of the EUDR will demand of the operators subject to it and of the public authorities tasked with monitoring its enforcement.