The European Parliament voted on Dec. 17 to delay a key antideforestation regulation that was adopted in 2023 and originally supposed to be implemented at the end of 2024. The implementation was delayed a year to December 2025, and now the EU has voted to delay it yet again by another year. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires producers of seven of the key commodities that drive tropical deforestation — beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — to prove that their products are not sourced from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. That requirement includes submitting geolocalized data. But in September, the European Commission cited concerns that its IT system wasn’t ready yet to meet that demand, as a reason for proposing a delay to implementation. “This is the latest chapter in a farce that’s lasted more than two years, ever since the EUDR was passed with a huge democratic mandate,” Nicole Polsterer, sustainable consumption and production campaigner with the forests and rights nonprofit Fern, wrote Mongabay by email. “[This] decision puts forests on the chopping block and rule-abiding European businesses at a competitive disadvantage.” The amendment confirms a blanket one-year delay, but small operators will have an additional six months after that, until June 30, 2027, to comply. The decision also introduces the opportunity for additional changes until April 2026 to “assess the law’s impact and administrative burden.” European lawmakers voted 405 to 242 in favor of the change; eight abstained. Polsterer criticized the decision to assess the law before it’s even been enacted, saying…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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