Last week Nadar participated in the national stakeholder forum on the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) organised by the Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL), the national authority instructed with implementing the EUDR in Germany. This crucial forum concentrates on the efficient integration of the EU Deforestation Regulation within Germany, a key step towards the uniform EU-wide implementation on December 30, 2024. Multipliers from the three interest groups of business, science, and civil society in the relevant commodity sectors took part in the forum. Here are our nine key takeaways.

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1. Launch of the EUDR Country Benchmarking System

‍Set for launch in Q1 2024, this system will classify producing countries or parts thereof into three risk categories; ‘high’, ‘standard’, and ‘low’. The classification of risk categories shall be based on an objective and transparent assessment by the Commission, based primarily on the following assessment criteria: rate of deforestation and forest degradation; rate of expansion of agricultural land for relevant commodities; and production trends of relevant commodities and products.

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2. Test Phase of the EUDR Information System

‍This December, the test phase of the EUDR information system is expected to start, through which operators and traders will be required to submit their due diligence statements.

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3. Enhanced Verification via EU Information System

Operators and traders can expect the EU Commission to perform robust plausibility checks on the submitted geolocation data of the farm plots to ensure the authenticity of the provided data.

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4. Expansion of the EU Commission’s EUDR FAQs

‍The Frequently Asked Questions on the EU Deforestation Regulation by the EU Commission are expected to be expanded from the current 62 questions, one specific issue to be covered is that of addressing downstream operators’ information and due diligence requirements.

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5. Release of BMEL's EUDR Guidelines

‍Expect comprehensive EUDR guidelines to be released by the BMEL in early 2024, that are designed to streamline compliance with EUDR requirements.

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6. Proof of Legality Documentation Beyond Wood

‍Plans are underway to extend the existing wood-specific (EUTR) documentation to cover the other six commodities under the EUDR.

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7. Introducing Capfordev

‍The future exchange platform for EUDR-related information is accessible at the Capfordev Platform.

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8. Scheduled Reviews for Additional Commodities & Ecosystems

The EU Commission will review extending the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation to other wooded land like savannas as well as further deforestation-related commodities; the review is planned for either June 2024 or 2025.

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9. Expansion of the EUDR to Domestic Agriculture and Forestry

‍Domestic sectors, including commodities such as wood, cattle, and soy produced within the EU and Germany, will in the future also be regulated under the EUDR.

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Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation.

Caroline is an experienced data scientist with a management degree from TU Munich and a degree in earth observation from the University of Würzburg, which is co-chaired by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). She has worked as a data scientist in the areas of nature conservation and land use change monitoring at WWF, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and at tech companies such as Celonis and Deloitte.