Europe plans to stop importing food commodities in order to protect forests

 The European Union plans to stop the import of beef, palm oil, cocoa, and other products linked to deforestation.

The plan comes under legal proposals, described by the Guardian newspaper as "historic", to help prevent logging in large forests around the world.

Usually the trees are cut down to take advantage of the wood, and to take advantage of its place, by turning it into agricultural land.

Days after the UN climate summit in Glasgow "COP26" ended and world leaders signed a plan to protect forests, the European Union unveiled, on Wednesday, a draft law requiring companies to prove that agricultural commodities consumed by about 450 million people in Europe are not linked to deforestation. .

The bill includes knowing the source of beef, wood, palm oil, soybeans, coffee and cocoa, and has been welcomed by environmentalists.

The European Union will try for the first time to regulate the import of products linked to deforestation, and environmental activists say this is an important step, because some countries, such as Brazil, have reduced the "legal protections" of forests.

"What we are proposing is a ground-breaking initiative, and EU action alone will not solve the problem," said EU Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevichos.

"We also need cooperation from major markets such as the United States and China (...) and we need efforts from producers to step up forest protection, and we are ready to help," he added.

Sinkevichos, a former Lithuanian economy minister, explained that the bill could include more goods, such as leather, chocolate and furniture.

He stressed that "companies have a responsibility to ensure that they do not sell products that have caused deforestation or forest degradation", and that "land monitoring in countries of origin will be carried out via satellite and geographical location tracking" to ensure that goods are not infringing.

It is reported that between 1990 and 2008, EU consumption of these commodities contributed to the deforestation of 10% of global forests, according to an estimate by the European Commission.