(02 October 2020) – The European Commission launched today a global cooperation platform to fight deforestation.

The new multi-stakeholder platform launched today to help protect and restore world’s forests brings together a range of stakeholders and expertise: consumer and producer countries, civil society organizations, and industry associations.
In addition to being a forum for exchanges, the platform is to serve as a policy-making tool – informing the Commission’s ongoing work on a legislative proposal to minimise the risk that products linked to deforestation be sold in the European market, planned for the second quarter of 2021.
An impact assessment will assess a wide range of measures, such as approaches similar to the EU system against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, different verification systems and due diligence, among others.
A public consultation was launched in September and will run until 10 December 2020.