a historic law to fight against deforestation

Cultivated in tropical countries, cocoa, soya or palm oil are products from plantations that are the cause of massive deforestation. To put an end to it, the European Union will ban the import of any product resulting from deforestation, a historic law. “We are going to guarantee to all Europeans, who have a cup of coffee or chocolate in the morning, the fact that they will no longer contribute, even without knowing it, to the deforestation of the Amazon”explains Pascal Canfin, president of the environment commission of the parliament, Wednesday April 19th.

Controls will not be systematic

The landscape of the Amazon has changed dramatically in just three years. In the world, since 2000, nearly four million square kilometers of forest have been destroyed by man, of which 16% because of the European market. For coffee, when it arrives in Europe, customs will check the history of its exploitation using satellites. The controls will be random, but not systematic, a regret for the associations fighting against deforestation.