Europe’s contribution to deforestation set to rise despite pledge to halt it
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/30/europes-contribution-to-deforestation-set-to-rise-despite-pledge-to-hal
But despite signing several international pledges to end #deforestation by this decade’s end, more than 5Mha of extra forest land will be needed annually by 2030 to meet EU demand for agricultural products, a draft EU feasibility study predicts.
[...] Land clearances for crop, livestock and biofuel production are by far the biggest causes of deforestation, and Europe is the end destination for nearly a quarter of such products – beef, soy, palm oil and leather – which have been cultivated on illegally deforested lands.
According to the draft EU feasibility study, which is meant to provide officials with policy options, the “embodied” deforestation rate – which is directly linked to EU consumption – will increase from between 250,000-500,000ha in 2015 to 340,000-590,000ha in 2030.