Activities of Florent MARCELLESI related to 2016/2222(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Palm oil and deforestation of rainforests (debate) ES
Amendments (46)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Recalls that sustainable agriculture, food security and sustainable forest management are core objectives of the SDGs; notes with concern that palm oil is an important driver of deforestation, particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Columbia and Peru; recalls that forests are essential for climate-change adaptation and mitigation;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
-1 a. Highlights the low deforestation rates of indigenous lands with secured customary systems of tenure and resource management, which has high potential for cost-effective reduction of emissions and securing global ecosystem services; calls for utilization of international climate and development funds to secure indigenous and community lands and to support indigenous peoples and communities who invest in protecting their lands.
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 b (new)
Paragraph -1 b (new)
-1 b. Recalls that poor rural women are especially dependent on forest resources for their subsistence; stresses the necessity to mainstream gender in national forest policies and institutions, so as to promote i.e. the equal access of women to the ownership of land and other resources;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes with concern that agriculture remains the most significant driver of global deforestation and that around half of all tropical deforestation since 2000 has been due to illegal conversion of forests for commercial agriculture which may also entail a conflict risk; Calls for improved coordination of forest, agriculture, land use and rural development policies with a view to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the climate change commitments;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes with concern that the global rush for land is driven by increasing global demand for biofuel and raw materials, speculation on land and agricultural commodities; underlines the ECA's Special Report N° 18/2016 conclusion that the EU certification system for the sustainability of biofuels is not fully reliable; calls on the EU Institutions to include as part of the reform of the Renewable Energy Directive specific verification procedures regarding land tenure conflicts, forced/child labour, poor working conditions for farmers and dangers to health and safety in in its voluntary scheme; likewise, calls on the EU to take into account the impact of ILUC and to include social responsibility requirements in the reform of the RED;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Calls on the EU to establish a binding regulatory framework to ensure that all agricultural commodity importers' supply chains are traceable to the origin of the raw material;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recalls that the EU is a major importer of products resulting from illegal deforestation; calls for the immediate termination of EU subsidies for biofuels produced from food crops and for a phase- out of such fuels; stresses the inadequacy of voluntary certification schemes, such as the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), in addressing land grabs and human rights violations; calls for binding regulations on agricultural commodity importers’ supply chainon the private sector and other stakeholders to upgrade certification standards to prevent land grabbing and minimise the risks of land conflict and rights abuses as well as to strengthen complaint procedures in certification systems;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes the complexity of driving factors contributing to deforestation;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Recognises that a comprehensive approach, considering all drivers of deforestation, with action and collaboration in both producing and consuming countries, is needed;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Notes that 73% of all deforestation arises from the clearing of land for agricultural commodities, with 40% of all deforestation raises from large-scale industrial scale plantation style models;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Embraces the objective set in the Amsterdam Declaration of 2015 in Support of a Fully Sustainable Palm Oil Supply Chain by 2020; and encourages the EU to engage major players such as India and China on strengthening responsible and sustainable production in the palm oil supply chain;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes the alarming scale of deforestation driven by palm oil; notes that palm oil is an important driver of deforestation on an alarming scale for commercial agriculture in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as Liberia, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Columbia and Peru, where extremely biodiverse tropical forest is being converted to monocultural palm oil plantations;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to put in place mechanisms to address the conversion of forests for commercial agriculture within the FLEGT Action Plan, Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) framework; calls for increased EU financial and technical assistance to producer countries and their local authorities with a view to combating corruption and improving governance; calls on the Commission to urgently put forward an EU action plan on deforestation and forest degradation;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Notes that in Malaysia1a oil palm plantations increased from 2.4 to 4.2 million ha between 1990 and 2005 replacing over 1 million ha of forest, while in Indonesia the area of oil palm plantations increased from 1.7 to 6.1 million ha between 1990 and 2000 replacing up to 3 million ha of forest. Notes that Malaysia's total forest loss between 2000 and 2012 amounted to 14.4% of its year 2000 forest cover or 47 278 km2 , an area larger than Denmark; __________________ 1a https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/mala ysia-has-the-worlds-highest-deforestation- rate-reveals-google-forest-map/
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Notes that this conversion is associated with heavy environmental damage, particularly fires releasing high quantities of carbon and particulates which also cause respiratory problems;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is alarmed by the impacts of palm oil production on the human rights of indigenous peoples and small farmers, including their customary systems of tenure and resource management; calls on governments of palm-oil-producing countries to commit to and implement the ILO core labour standards and Decent Work agenda; calls for the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor, including child labour; improvement of the position of migrant workers; freedom of association; and the establishment of a legitimate, accessible, and transparent grievance mechanism, consistent with international best practices;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes the social injustice experienced by many plantation workers;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is concerned that many land deals breach the principle of local communities’' free, prior and informed consent; calls for the EU and its Member States to ensure that EU-based investors adhere fully to international standards on responsible investment in agriculture, anotably the FAO-OECD Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains; the FAO voluntary guidelines on land tenure; the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD's Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises; underlines the need to take steps to ensure access to remedy for victims of corporate abuses.
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Insists on development financial institutions ensuring that their social and environmental safeguard policies are binding, fully aligned with international human rights law; calls for increased transparency to the funding of private financial institutions and public financial bodies;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recognises the role of oil palm as part of diverse intercropping systems in ensuring food security and income for smallholders and that efforts to halt deforestation must include local capacity building, technological aid and sharing of best practice between communities and support for smallholders to most effectively use their existing croplands without resorting to further forest conversion;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Calls on the Commission to put forward an EU action plan on responsible business conduct;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses the strong potential of agroecological practices to maximise ecosystem functions such as soil formation, nutrient cycling, pollination, and regulation of pest species by natural predators on existing cropland via intercropping, agroforestry etc. without resorting to input dependency or monocultures;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Notes that 70% of biofuel consumed in the EU is grown/produced in the EU, and of the biofuel imported into the EU, 23% is palm oil mainly from Indonesia, and another 6% is soya1a ; __________________ 1aEUROSTAT - Supply, transformation and consumption of renewable energies; annual data (nrg_107a), Globiom study, and http://www.fediol.be/
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Notes the huge growth in palm oil as a first generation biodiesel, increasing by 2.6 million tonnes between 2010 and 2014, growth of 606%, while total share of palm oil in biodiesel consumed in the EU grew from 6% in 2010 to nearly one third in 2014 (31%), with almost half of palm oil used in the EU being used as transport fuel1a ; __________________ 1aEUROSTAT - Supply, transformation and consumption of renewable energies; annual data (nrg_107a), Globiom study, and http://www.fediol.be/
Amendment 80 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Notes the indirect effects of EU biofuel demand associated with tropical forest fragmentation habitat degradation and destruction 1a ; __________________ 1aCommission Renewable Energy Progress report, SWD(2015) 117 final https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/ rep/1/2015/EN/1-2015-293-EN-F1-1.PDF
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4e. Notes that certain biofuel production pathways increase overall greenhouse gas emission when emissions from indirect land use change (ILUC) are taken into account1a , palm oil biodiesel being the highest emitting biofuel 1b ; __________________ 1aCommission Renewable Energy Progress report, SWD(2015) 117 final - https://ec.europa.eu//tranparency/regdoc/r ep/1/2015/EN/1-2015-293-EN-F1-1.PDF 1bCommission-commissioned Globiom study https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files /documents/Final%20Report_GLOBIOM _publication.pdf
Amendment 82 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 f (new)
Paragraph 4 f (new)
4f. Notes the dominance of first generation biofuels and the lack of commercial availability of 2nd generation biofuels;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 g (new)
Paragraph 4 g (new)
4g. Notes that to solve legality issues with conversion of forests to agricultural land, mechanisms like the Voluntary Partnership Agreements triggering national legal reforms and transparency about land tenure in producer countries, as well as a legislation similar to the EU Timber Regulation can help ensure only legally produced products are placed on the EU market;
Amendment 91 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is concerned by, amongst others, the European Court of Auditors report1a that concluded that the certification schemes do not guarantee genuinely sustainable palm oil, notably certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) certification, which is not effective in ensuring relevant standards and compliance therewith; __________________ 1aEuropean Court of Auditors’ Special Report No 18/2016 (2015 Discharge): The EU system for the certification of sustainable biofuels http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocu ments/SR16_18/SR_BIOFUELS_EN.pdf
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Is particularly concerned by the conclusion of the European Court of Auditors that the EU certification system for the sustainability of biofuels is not fully reliable; – whilst the RED lays down the fulfilment of EU environmental requirements for agriculture as sustainability criteria for biofuel feed stocks, voluntary schemes that did not have specific verification procedures to ensure compliance with this sustainability requirement were nevertheless recognised by the Commission; – the Commission did not require voluntary schemes to verify that the biofuel production they certified did not cause significant risks of negative socioeconomic effects, such as land tenure conflicts, forced/child labour, poor working conditions for farmers, etc. – notes that once Indirect Land-Use Change (ILUC) is taken into account crop-derived biofuels can in some cases even result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, e.g. burning of habitat with high carbon stocks like tropical forest and peatlands. Is concerned that the impact of ILUC on the sustainability of biofuels is not covered by the Commission's assessment of voluntary schemes; – notes that the Court found some schemes were insufficiently transparent or had biased governance structures, so thus increasing the risk of conflicts of interest and preventing effective communication with the Commission, national authorities, other schemes, certification bodies and economic operators; – notes that the Court found that Member State data relating to the share of compliant biofuels in total transport fuels may not be reliable, so statistics for biofuel certified as sustainable might be overestimated;
Amendment 99 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Supports the goals set out in the Sustainable Palm Initiative of the UNDP and the Amsterdam Declaration1a for a no deforestation and no conflict supply chain by 2020, as well as the New York Declaration on Forests1b which aim to "help meet private sector goal of eliminating deforestation from production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, paper and beef products by no later than 2020 recognising that some companies have more ambitious targets"; __________________ 1a 07.12.2015 1b United Nations Climate Summit, 2014
Amendment 100 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Notes that more than 60% of companies active in palm oil have committed to such initiatives, although currently only 2% of companies involved in the supply chain are able to trace back the palm oil they trade in to its source1a ; __________________ 1ahttp://forestdeclaration.org/wp- content/uploads/2015/09/2016-NYDF- Goal-2-Assessment-Report.pdf
Amendment 103 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges the Commission to step up dialogue with governments of palm-oil- producing countries in order to increase environmental, land tenure and human rights standards, as well as transparency on land tenure and corporate ownership; and food and cosmetics producers to decrease dependence on palm oil;
Amendment 106 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Urges the Commission to uptake the issue of deforestation and the need to respect community rights in its Free Trade Agreement negotiations with producer countries;
Amendment 113 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Calls for implementation of the UN FAO's Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security1a and specifically respect for community tenure rights; __________________ 1aRome 2012 http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2801e/i28 01e.pdf
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Notes the role of European banks in providing loans to multinationals accused of deforestation and land grabbing for resources including palm oil plantation land;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish a regulatory framework of strong and enforceable measures to guarantee that all actors throughout the supply chain, including EU financial institutions and the investments and loans they provide, are not involved in deforestation and conflict and respect community rights;
Amendment 129 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls for implementation of effective sustainability criteria in the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC; Notes that sustainability criteria in Art.17 are intended to protect land of high biodiversity value, high carbon stocks and peatland, but further notes that the criteria limit themselves to land designated as such, and also do not contain social criteria;
Amendment 134 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Insists on the importance of supporting developing countries with increased funding to improve governance, protect forests and peatlands, uphold the rights of indigenous peoples, smallholders and local communities, and expand agroecological farming practices;
Amendment 150 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls for the phasing-out of all incentives for land-based biofuels, such as palm oil biodiesel, that drive deforestation and compete against food production for land or do not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
Amendment 152 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Notes the importance of being able to distinguish between legally- and illegally-produced, as well as sustainably- and non-sustainably sourced palm oil as well as its residues/by-products, for importers and the supply chain as well as the consumers;
Amendment 156 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Calls for ILUC emissions from biofuel production to be fully taken into account in the Renewable Energy Directive;
Amendment 157 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 c (new)
Paragraph 8 c (new)
8c. Stresses that in line with the principle of Policy Coherence for Development, the reform of the RED should include social responsibility requirements and an end to subsidies for biofuels produced from food crops by 1st Jan 2021, with biofuels from food crops being gradually phased out by 2030, as they can act as incentives to deforestation, land use change and land grabbing, while affecting the food security and the Right to Food in third countries;
Amendment 158 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 d (new)
Paragraph 8 d (new)
8d. Notes the importance of supply chain transparency to enable accessing data on palm oil originating from high risk areas1a ; __________________ 1aSuch as the traceability tool recently published by the Stockholm Environmental Institute https://trase.earth/
Amendment 159 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 e (new)
Paragraph 8 e (new)
8e. Welcomes also to this end requirements of the food information to consumers regulation 1169/2011 that specify differentiation into types of vegetable oil1a ; __________________ 1aProvision of Food Information to Consumers regulation 1169/2011, Art. 18, Annex VII (A) 8 and 9
Amendment 162 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to honour the EU’s international commitments and to press ahead with developing an EU action plan to protect forests and forest people’s rights. , inter alia, COP 21, the UNFF1a , the UNCB1b , the New York Declaration on Forests, the Sustainable Development Goal to halt deforestation by 20201c , the FLEGT Action Plan, etc., and to press ahead with developing an EU action plan to protect forests and forest people’s rights and to urgently come forward with concrete proposals to halt deforestation and forest degradation; __________________ 1aUnited Nations Forum on Forest conclusions 1bUnited Nations Convention on Biodiversity, Aichi targets https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/ 1cSustainable Development Goals, Art. 15.2, target of halting deforestation https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg 15