A group of 225 global NGOs from more than 40 countries has issued a statement urging the European Parliament and EU governments to reject a proposal that would delay the implementation of the EU’s ambitious anti-deforestation law by a year.

The collective statement, titled “Hands off the EU deforestation regulation!,” noted that the law was adopted democratically, “with a record level of public engagement and support.” It added that delaying its implementation would undermine “the EU’s credibility as a global leader in the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and human rights violations.”

“Delaying action against deforestation means letting down millions of European citizens who have been calling for this law and countless businesses and small farmers — including those outside the EU — who have strongly supported it and made significant investments to comply with it on time,” Michael Rice, from the environmental law group ClientEarth, said in a statement.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is a first-of-its-kind law requiring forest-related products that are sold in the EU market to be deforestation-free. The law mandates that producers and companies exporting timber, beef, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa and rubber products to the EU must ensure their commodities don’t originate from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Compliance includes actions like sharing geolocation coordinates to trace the origin of the commodities.

The EUDR was scheduled to go into force from Dec. 30, 2024, but faced opposition from several countries, including Brazil, China, India and the U.S., as well as pressure from industries. In response, the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, announced on Oct. 2 that it was proposing a 12-month delay to the EUDR’s implementation. This, it said, would “give concerned parties additional time to prepare.” In mid-October, the European Council, made up of the leaders of all EU countries, agreed with the Commission’s proposal. The European Parliament, the EU’s legislative branch, is expected to vote on it in a plenary session on Nov. 13-14.

The 225 environmental NGOs noted in their Oct. 15 statement that the one-year delay of the EUDR “will effectively reward those companies who are continuing to profit from environmental destruction and do not want to change their business behaviours, while penalising those who have already spent resources to comply with the EUDR.”

“This is not the moment to give companies even more time to destroy our remaining forests,” Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, manager of forests at WWF’s European Policy Office, said in the statement. “The delay would penalise those companies that made significant investments to comply with the law on time, and reward the laggards. Is this really the signal EU policy-makers want to send?”

Banner image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.