Activities of Martin HÄUSLING related to 2020/2006(INL)
Plenary speeches (1)
Deforestation (debate)
Opinions (1)
OPINION with recommendations to the Commission on an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation
Amendments (23)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for binding Union law to be adopted that ensures that all supply chains of products imported into the Union and also of those products and services supplied within the Union do not involve deforestation and ecosystem degradation or conversion, or human rights violations, and that protects indigenous peoples and local communities who depend on forests for their livelihoods, including women and environmental and human rights defenders;
Amendment 44 #
3. Calls therefore for aUnion legislation placing a mandatory due diligence obligation to be placed onon all operators, including financiers, that place forest and ecosystem-risk commodities or derivatives on the Union market, ensuring the protection of indigenous peoples and local communities rights, in particular customary community tenure rights; stresses that such due diligence obligations should also be applied to the financial sector in order to ensure that no investments in forest-risk commodities are linked to deforestation and human rights violations;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Stresses that such a Union legal framework should be based on a robust enforcement regime and include effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for non-compliance;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Considers that improving traceability and transparency can helpis essential to ensure that only sustainably sourced goods are consumed; calls for due diligence obligations to be part of, or financial services used, so that consumers know these are free from deforestation, ecosystem conversion and degradation and human rights abuses; calls for due diligence obligations on prospective suppliers to be integrated into public procurement rules;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Notes that the Mercosur-EU FTA is set to perpetuate the dependency of the Mercosur economies on the very activities that lead to deforestation; calls for the suspension of the EU-Mercosur agreement process until binding, enforceable and sanctionable provisions to address climate change, deforestation and ecosystem conversion, biodiversity loss and the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities have been comprehensively included;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Notes the governmental responsibilities in combating deforestation and ecosystem conversion, which cannot be adequately addressed by external stakeholders alone; therefore, stresses the importance of inclusive partnership with third countries to strengthen sustainable land management, sustainable agriculture, and good governance, particularly regarding land and forest tenure rights;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Welcomes the "do no harm" principle as highlighted in the Commission's Communication on the European Green Deal; in that context, calls on the Commission to analyse the extent to which existing trade agreements directly or indirectly contribute to deforestation, forest degradation, and the conversion and degradation of other natural ecosystems, and to propose measures to address such detrimental impacts where identified, in particular by including binding, enforceable and sanctionable provisions for the protection of forests, natural ecosystems and human rights in existing trade agreements which do not yet contain such provisions;
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the Union to cut dependency on imports of forest and ecosystem-risk commodities by promoting locally-sourced plant protein, pasture- based grazing, legal and sustainably sourced feed, namely by implementing the Union protein plan, and forenacting policy that ensures that Union livestock production to matches available Union land resources; notes in this regard, that soya and palm oil products originating in deforested land that are used for animal feed in the Union are significant drivers of largescale ecosystem conversion; stresses also the need to focus on shorter supply chains of protein crops and meat and dairy products, to the advantage of food sovereignty both in the Union and its partner countries;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Notes further that livestock farm income and profitability can increase by reducing density and intensity of production to levels that can be sustained by pasture-based grazing or home-grown fodder crops, reducing production costs by minimising external inputs and optimising productivity of grass or forage based grazing systems through e.g. mob or rotational grazing, even if production volumes may be lower;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Amendment 96 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for a coherent legislative framework, including the recently published Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies of the European Green Deal, that brings together and develops existing systems, such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan and the Union timber regulation, guaranteeing participation of affected rights holders, inter alia of indigenous peoples and local communities, particularly women and environmental and human rights defenders;
Amendment 99 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls for consistency and coherence between the actions of the Union at home and abroad; calls for robust enforcement of the Timber Regulation and the Nature Directives across the Union, including via timely infringement proceedings;
Amendment 100 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Recalls in that context that the European Environment Agency's report on 'The European Environment - state and outlook 2020' also warned that the Union is set to miss most of its own environmental targets and objectives for 2020, highlighting in particular that Europe's forests are still subject to many human-induced pressures, such as over- intensive forest management based on high extraction rates, pollution, climate change and invasive alien species;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Stresses that the Union has the competences, responsibility and funds available to protect European forests as part of the world’s forests; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that ambitious measures aimed at protecting and restoring forests and other natural ecosystems are applied equally to European and the world's forests, and reflect this ambition consistently within the new Union's forest and biodiversity strategies;
Amendment 102 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Calls for sustainable consumption of wood including a cascade model, and challenges the notion that burning wood for fuel can make sense in terms of climate protection and carbon sinking and resource use in a circular economy;
Amendment 110 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes the unsustainable level of consumption in the EUnion, and that, for example, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) contains insufficient sustainability criteria, which both causes and intensifies land-use changeso that the Union's consumption of woody biomass for energy drives and intensifies direct and indirect land-use change (ILUC), including deforestation;
Amendment 114 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Calls on the Commission to critically assess measures for the sustainable production and use of wood fuels in view, inter alia, of the high level of imports of wood pellets into the Union perversely incentivised by the flawed accounting rules under the Renewable Energy Directive and the EU Emission Trading System, and address the risks that these imports pose to forests in third countries;
Amendment 120 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Asks the Commission to monitor and take action on the causes of wildfires, forest damage and ecosystem conversion and related human rights and tenure violations, byuse, for example, the Copernicus satellite system to monitor wildfires, forest damage and ecosystem conversion globally (within and outside the Union), supplemented by other monitoring means to track related human rights and tenure violations, and to take timely and appropriate action, including addressing their causes; calls for the creating of early warning alert mechanisms. to notify public authorities, companies, including third party schemes, and consumers of commodities originating in areas of ecosystem conversion risk and areas where human rights have been violated;
Amendment 124 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to initiate the establishment of a common and free forest monitoring system based on satellite data, allowing Member States and other stakeholders and citizens to record illegal or non-permitted logging, particularly in protected areas, in real time, and to monitor the status of forest cover.
Amendment 132 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Amendment 133 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9c. Calls on the Union to establish a common timber auction system in order to ensure the sustainable use of wood, as well as to prevent the proliferation of bilateral agreements based on dumping timber prices and to avoid promoting additional logging; notes that this would also allow to track where material comes from and to factor in climate and biodiversity concerns into the price;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 d (new)
Paragraph 9 d (new)
9d. Takes the view that a single definition of the concept of 'zero deforestation and ecosystem degradation' supply chain is central to addressing the problem of commodities contributing to deforestation, forest degradation and to the conversion and degradation of other natural ecosystems; calls on the Commission to propose such a legally- binding definition; considers that the Commission should primarily focus on the main drivers of deforestation, including palm oil, soy, beef, maize, rubber, cocoa, paper and fuel wood for energy; emphasises that, in doing so, the Commission should pay particular attention to related human rights violations as well as the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities;