The European Commission has released a proposal that aims to reverse deforestation. While any efforts to reverse deforestation should be welcomed, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise is concerned with a number of elements of the proposal.
The Swedish business community is fully supportive of efforts to make the economy more sustainable. This includes the efforts to halt and reverse the process of deforestation, which is increasing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating the loss of biodiversity. We do not want Swedish - or EU – businesses to be a part of such destruction.
While the degradation of forests is a serious problem, the issue is complex and is both context- and country-dependent. For this reason, it is important that any new law takes into account the differing situation globally and also considers other critical aspects, such as local needs and how to ensure forest regeneration.
With this in mind, we have outlined a series of specific areas where we would like the European Parliament to pay particular attention.