Towards smallholder-inclusive risk mitigation under the EU Deforestation Regulation

🇫🇷 Aussi disponible en français : Vers des mesures d’atténuation des risques favorables aux producteurs à petite échelle dans le cadre du Règlement de l’UE sur la déforestation

Briefing paper by 17 organisations including CED: how to apply Article 11 of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) without excluding smallholder cocoa, coffee and oil palm farmers. Five principles and recommendations for companies, competent authorities and the European Commission, ahead of the EUDR’s application on 30 December 2026.

Key points

1. Complement individual supply chain approaches with landscape strategies. National or landscape/jurisdictional actions, with authorities, to cover all smallholders in a sourcing area and address structural risks.
2. Be preventive and long-term. Forward-looking investments and stable commercial relationships with farmers built on trust, dialogue and long-term direct contracts.
3. Treat exclusion as a last resort, no “cut and run”. Responsible disengagement only where deforestation or illegality persists, after joint investigation of alerts and appeals.
4. Share compliance costs and data fairly. European companies pay for mapping and documentation; informed consent and data ownership for cooperatives and farmers.
5. Be gender-responsive. Address the specific barriers women smallholders face in training, data systems and cooperative decision-making.

Avec CODED, Coffee Watch, Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Fairtrade International, Fern, Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform, Green Development Advocates, INADES-Formation Côte d’Ivoire, IDEF, Oxfam, Plateforme Ivoirienne pour le Cacao Durable, Rainforest Alliance, Solidaridad, SPKS, VOCAL Coffee Alliance, VOICE Cocoa Network.

Ce document peut être cité et partagé pour un usage non commercial, en mentionnant ses auteurs et le CED comme source.