00:00A majority of EU countries are proposing changes to simplify the EU's deforestation law,
00:08a legislation approved in 2023 which aims at reducing the EU's impact on global deforestation.
00:16But the NGO Earthside has warned that these changes could facilitate illegal exports of timber from Russia and Belarus.
00:24In an interview with EroNews, Tara Ganesh, a timber expert at Earthside, said that the simplification measures would create more opportunities for fraud.
00:35Lighter rules could be applied to certain third countries, potentially resulting in fewer inspections and no mandatory geolocalization requirements.
00:44Well, that's where the EU deforestation regulation would really close the circle in terms of the existing EU legislation
00:53and make it a requirement across the board for companies to not just know where their wood is coming from,
01:00because the EUTR to some extent already requires that, but to show geolocation coordinates, for example,
01:05for where the wood in their products, you know, comes from, which is a very, very powerful tool
01:11because, you know, that can be used to debunk fake harvest claims, fake origin claims.
01:17The experts said that eight of the countries pushing for these amendments are, incidentally, benefiting significantly from the illegal timber trade.
01:27According to the NGO, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia
01:35account for 67% of the revenue generated from the fraudulent activity since the sanction came into force.
01:42Incidentally, a lot of the member states that were calling for the no risk proposal were also some of the member states
01:48that were getting some of the highest volumes of, you know, conflict plywood.
01:52Russian and Belarusian timber has been under EU sanctions since July 2022, following the start of the war in Ukraine in February that year.
02:02Russian and Belgica
02:05Russian and Belarusian
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02:16Russian and Belarusian
02:17Canadian
02:25Russian and Belarusian
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