When, on 29 June 2023, the EU Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) entered into force, it was like a small earthquake – at least for whoever was dealing with EU agricultural imports. Never before, neither in the EU nor in the rest of the world, such an ambitious anti-deforestation piece of legislation has ever been enacted. Perhaps more importantly, it was the first to directly address the leading cause of global deforestation: agriculture. The EUDR indeed completely forbids the entry into the EU market of key agricultural commodities whose production caused deforestation after a cut-off date (identified as 31 December 2020).

As the EU is one of the leading importers of tropical deforestation (through agricultural commodities), the Regulation has indeed the potential to become one of the most important tools to protect global forests, and to be successful where other plans and initiatives have failed (as in the case of the UN’s REDD+ and the EU’s FLEGT). However, its approval has triggered significant protests first from key partner countries (Indonesia and Brazil in particular), which then extended to a larger share of the Global South in 2023 and even reached EU member states, the US and Australia in 2024. Opposition has been so significant that, despite having entered into force more than a year ago, its future is still unclear and there are growing chances its application will be even delayed by one or two years – the Regulation is structured in a way that is should be applied at a later stage than its entry into force, currently set for December 2024. A mix of political support and fine-tuning of the tools available for implementation will be required to guarantee the EUDR’s now uncertain success.