On Amazon Day on September 5, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on the German government and the EU Commission to respect the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon region and to stop the ongoing deforestation. “Europe must take its global responsibility seriously and stop importing products for which rainforest has been cleared or burned down,” demanded Jan Königshausen, STP consultant for Indigenous Peoples, in Berlin today. "Indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon are under existential threat. Their habitat is literally being taken away so that we in Europe can have cheap agricultural products.“

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is finally due to come into force at the end of the year, falls short here: ”There is massive legal and illegal deforestation in all Amazonian countries such as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Yet the EU Commission does not classify any of them as high-risk countries under the terms of the regulation. Brussels is clearly turning a blind eye to the truly immense deforestation taking place in these countries," Königshausen explained.

A lower risk classification limits the due diligence obligations for companies and the controls by authorities. The EUDR is supposed to ensure that cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, wood, and their derivatives are only imported into the EU if no forests were cleared for them after 2020. With the current restrictions and plans by the German coalition government to further water them down, the regulation will fail to achieve its goal and make no significant contribution to protecting the Amazon.

“At the same time, the EU wants to facilitate the import of cheap agricultural products from South America and is pushing ahead with the planned trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc,” Königshausen stressed. “This agreement will make the exploitation of the Amazon even more profitable, using all legal and illegal means. Exploitation will expand to the detriment of the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants.”

"The German government should only ratify the trade agreement if it adequately guarantees the protection of rainforests and the rights of indigenous peoples. In order to prevent irreversible damage to one of the most important ecosystems on Earth, local communities and legitimate representatives of indigenous peoples must be more closely involved in developments, and the compliance of European companies must be more closely monitored. A first step would be a realistic reassessment of the risk of deforestation, which is obviously very high in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and other Amazonian countries," said Königshausen.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at presse@gfbv.de.