In a surprise move, the European Parliament voted on September 13 in favour of obliging EU-based banks to conduct due diligence to prevent investment projects linked to deforestation. The agreement, by the Members of European Parliament (MEP) meeting in Strasbourg, must be backed by all three EU institutions, including the European Commission (EC) and the Council, before it can become law across the 27 EU member states.
The decision by MEPs to toughen up the EC’s proposal for an EU Deforestation Regulation was “a ray of hope for the world’s forests and the indigenous communities struggling to protect them”, said Giulia Bondi, senior EU forests campaigner at Global Witness, an non-governmental organisation. “Preventing European financial institutions from financing the destruction of forests would be a monumental step forward in the fight to protect threatened ecosystems like the Amazon.”
