EU deforestation regulation (EUDR)

This European Union regulation governs the placing on the EU market, and the export from the Union, of products linked to deforestation and forest degradation, and replaces the 2010 timber regulation. It covers in particular wood, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya and cattle, as well as some derived products. The European operator importing these products must carry out due diligence: gather information, including the geolocation of production plots, assess the risk that the product comes from deforested land or breaches the law of the producing country, then mitigate that risk and file a statement. For a Gabonese exporter of processed wood or cocoa, this means requests for information and traceability evidence from the European buyer. According to the European Commission, application was postponed by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 to 30 December 2026 for most operators and to 30 June 2027 for micro-enterprises.