Activities of Heidi HAUTALA related to 2019/2156(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the EU’s role in protecting and restoring the world’s forests
Legal basis opinions (0)
Amendments (13)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the progress made through Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), especially in Indonesia and Ghana, and the increased dialogue between governments, industry and civil society in several countries resulting from the VPA process; is convinced that the EU should continue to engage with VPA countries to ensure it remains an attractive alternative to export markets with less stringent environmental standards; welcomes the Commission’s upcoming fitness check of the FLEGT Regulation and the EU Timber Regulation; Warns against recent development in Indonesia with regards to lifting FLEGT licensing which will seriously undermine the VPA, and calls on the EU to take immediate action, starting with enhanced dialogue with Indonesian authorities, in order to remediate this;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Emphasises the need to further improve implementation and enforcement of the EUTR to best preserve sustainable trade in imported and domestically produced timber and timber products; notes also that imports of timber and timber products should be more thoroughly checked at the EU borders to ensure that the imported products do indeed comply with the criteria necessary to enter the EU; stresses the strengthening of existing policies must go hand in hand with increased policy coherence to ensure EU policies, including trade, do not create negative impacts on environment or people.
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to step up capacity support to VPA countries in order to accelerate the implementation of the commitments made, including combatting corruption and greenwashing, enhancing good governance, and explonsuring the inclusion of more ambitious sustainable forestry provisionsbinding and enforceable sustainable forestry and ecosystem protection provisions, including the protection of indigenous peoples and local communities rights, in trade and sustainable development chapters in its trade agreements;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the EU to more closely cooperate with trade partners and like- minded importing countries in the fight against deforestation and climate change while safeguarding avenues for legal tradetrade that complies with EU regulatory requirements and TSD provisions in trade agreements;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Notes with concern that research continues to affirm a worrying link between zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19, and deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss; Notes also with concern that commercial export- oriented agriculture remains a major driver of global deforestation, since around 75 per cent of all deforestation now comes from the conversion of natural forests for agriculture, and that around half of all tropical deforestation since 2000 has been due to the illegal conversion of forests for commercial agriculture;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the importance of measures ensuring that demand is in line with the stated goalEuropean Green deal objectives, as the EU is a major importer of commodities associated with deforestation; highlights that commodities like cocoa offer an early chance to make progress on such an approach, learning lessons from the FLEGT-VPA process;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the EU communication on "Stepping up EU action to protect and restore the worlds’s forests"; notes that the EU has regulated the supply chains of timber, fish and conflict minerals, but not yet of forest-risk agricultural commodities; recalls that legislation regulating access to the EU market for forest-risk commodities would be the most effective demand-side measure to combat deforestation; urges the Commission to develop an enforceable framework for due diligence obligations in the entire supply chain of these commodities in order to identify, prevent, and mitigate environmental, social and human rights risks and impacts
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Believes that the FLEGT licensing process complements voluntary third-party certificationvoluntary third-party certification complements the FLEGT licensing process, and that it iscan be particularly beneficial for smaller operators that often struggle to obtain certification through private sector schemes.;
Amendment 32 #
5 a. Recalls that conflict timber is already an action area in the FLEGT Action Plan but that insufficient work has been done to address this issue; calls on the Commission to deliver on its commitment to extend the due diligence obligations provided by the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) so as to cover conflict timber in the framework of the upcoming review;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Stresses that corruption linked to illegal logging should be addressed in the EU trade policy; urges the Commission to include in its FTAs illegal logging related anti-corruption provisions that are enforceable and which must be effectively and fully implemented; such provisions should include underpricing of wood in concessions, harvesting of protected trees by commercial corporations, smuggling of forest products across borders, illegal logging and processing forest raw materials without a licence; further calls on the EU to enhance collaboration with organisations aiming to prevent global forestry crime;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Recalls the importance of adequate access to justice, legal remedies and effective protection for whistleblowers in natural resources exporting countries in order to ensure the efficiency of any legislation or initiative; further calls on the EU to introduce a formal and independent complaints mechanism that would allow citizens, and local stakeholders with effective recourse to remedy, and a tool to address potential negative impacts on human rights, notably through the application of the State to State Dispute settlement to the trade and sustainable development provisions in FTAs;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Recalls that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights must be respected; supports the ongoing negotiations to create a binding UN instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights and stresses the importance of the EU being proactively involved in this process;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5 e. Calls for the suspension of the EU-Mercosur Agreement process until binding and legally enforceable provisions to address climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss and to protect indigenous communities’ rights have been included.