Industry welcomes delay and revision of EU deforestation regulation, plans joint trade fair appearances in the U.S., UK, UAE, and China for 2026.
EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)
Large operators will apply new obligations from 30 December 2026, while micro and small firms will follow from 30 June 2027 under simplified due diligence rules.
Signatories include CEPI, CEI-Bois, COCERAL and Bioenergy Europe citing supply chain-wide compliance issues.
Canada’s forest sector calls for simplified EUDR rules reflecting negligible-risk countries.
New deadline moves to December 2026 as IT platform issues raise compliance concerns.
Industry warns regulation creates unmanageable documentation burden for EU producers.
Regulation requires full traceability of wood, rubber, and leather components, affecting 3,600 machinery firms across Europe.
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil face the biggest impacts under EUDR. Indonesia’s roundwood production is projected to fall 7%, Malaysia’s by 8.5%, and Brazil’s by 7%, with panel production dropping 16% in Indonesia and 13% in Brazil.
A critical challenge is the five-year lookback period imposed by the EUDR, which requires timber and wood products placed on the market to be proven deforestation-free since December 31, 2020.
EU competitiveness plan must translate into action, says Austrian wood industry.
The Commission also published additional guidance to aid stakeholders in implementing the regulation effectively.
The EUDR, which is set to take effect in December, requires companies to prove that their supply chains are free from deforestation, a mandate that U.S. producers argue they are not yet prepared to meet.
Since 2020, timber plantations have become the leading cause of forest loss in Indonesia, responsible for 42,521 hectares of deforestation in 2023.
Only months remain before the EU's new deforestation regulation takes effect, raising serious concerns for the Swedish wood and forest industries.
The organization warns that delaying the EUDR could lead to further weakening of critical provisions, such as traceability requirements for low-risk commodities.
After the test phase of the EU Deforestation Regulation revealed glaring deficiencies and showed that implementation according to current specifications is not possible, the Associations are calling for a change of course.
The EU's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) targets seven commodities, including rubber, and prohibits imports from land deforested after December 31, 2020.