Overview

• The European Commission has proposed a further one-year postponement of the EUDR, citing expected overload of the IT system required to process traceability declarations.
• Farmers' groups and some national leaders, including Austria's government and Germany's agriculture minister Alois Rainer, warn the current design creates unworkable bureaucracy, and the DIHK questions its practicality and legal certainty.
• Environmental NGOs such as WWF and FERN caution that delay or reopening could weaken protections and increase forest loss, with WWF estimating more than 30 million trees could be lost in a one-year deferment.
• The Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 documents severe tropical damage, including 6.73 million hectares affected by fires and Amazon-region emissions estimated at 791 million tonnes CO2-equivalent.
• EU demand is linked to roughly 190,000 hectares of deforestation annually, even as producer countries like Brazil prepare cattle traceability for deforestation-free beef and the Republic of Congo advances land-use reforms.