New Research Study Calls for Innovation & Collaboration ahead of the EU Forest-Risk Commodities Regulation

The EU Deforestation Regulation is expected to come into force later this year, which will require companies selling to or from the EU market to provide the geolocation data of production areas. In light of the pending implementation of the regulation, EIPCC researcher Karina Marzano conducted a study for the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) examining digital transparency initiatives in Brazil to understand digital technologies’ contribution to tracing products’ socio-environmental origin. Marzano argues that Brazil offers useful lessons for implementing the EU regulation while simultaneously proving that high-quality open data sources and digital platforms already exist to aid in the implementation. However, there remain political-institutional challenges that may hamper the implementation of the regulation. Ultimately there needs to be more innovation and collaboration between the EU and Brazil to ensure a successful implementation and operation of the new regulation.