EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products: Reference Document for Cocoa Producers and Importers

New and emerging regulations setting mandatory Due Diligence rules for forest commodity supply chain actors, such as the EU regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), have been praised as an important step forward to reduce the risk of deforestation associated with commodities such as cocoa.*

In this reference document, Proforest synthesises existing best practices and tools for conducting supply chain Deforestation Due Diligence in the cocoa sector and identifies key unanswered questions for regulators and companies. Throughout the document, potential negative impacts of Deforestation Due Diligence regulations are identified, and best practices to avoid them are discussed. The document is available in English and French, and, tailored for the latin american context, a version in Spanish.

The guidance introduces the main operational steps anticipated for cocoa importers and producers in a Deforestation Due Diligence system, and presents the existing approaches and tools that can be used to support them with the Deforestation Due Diligence process. 

This reference document does not focus on a specific Deforestation Due Diligence regulation but mostly contains references to the EU regulation on deforestation free products, as it is the most developed and complete example. 

In addition to this reference document, Proforest has developed an operational guidance intended for cocoa supply chain companies and focusing on the EU regulation on deforestation-free products. The operational guidance is a complementary, shorter, and more operational version of this reference document.

*At the time of writing the EUDR had not yet been published.