DEFORESTATION & - FOREST DEGRADATION

4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament commissioned Trase to assess the implications of the proposed EU regulation on deforestation-free products.1 The proposed regulation seeks to mini- mise the impact of EU imports of certain commodities, such as palm oil, soy, coffee and cocoa, on the conversion and degradation of forests, as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organiz. [...] Chang / Alamy Stock Photo 11 NATURAL VEGETATION COVERED BY THE CURRENT PROPOSAL OBJECTIVE 1: Assessing the coverage of natural vegetation in key biomes by the definition of forests in the proposed regulation INSIGHT: The current definition of forest means that 74% of the Cerrado (79 million hectares), 74% of the Pampa (6.6 million hectares), 76% of the Pantanal and 89% of the Caatin- ga are exclud. [...] The high-risk hotspots are in the Matopiba region of the Brazilian Cerrado (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia states) and in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil (encompassing Cerrado and Am- azon biomes), as well as in the the Atlantic Forest in the east region of Paraguay (Figure 4a). [...] Remote sensing techniques can help to operationalise the detection of degradation, firstly by establishing a reference of the structure of the non-degraded vegetation, and secondly in the identification of the types of dis- turbances, which helps in understanding the causes of these degradation events. [...] Deforestation: refers to the conversion of tropical and subtropical forest due to the recent expansion of commodity production - this does not align with the definition of forests and deforestation in the proposed regulation as the definition of deforestation by the data products used (Trase and Pendrill) are not aligned with the FAO definition of forests - de- forestation therefore includes the c.