(Brussels) – The European Commission’s announcement that it would not initiate a process to further amend the text of its milestone anti-deforestation regulation paves the way for it to be implemented by the end of 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. However, at the same time, the Commission has proposed to exclude leather from the list of products covered by the regulation, which would create a major loophole.
“It is hard to overstate the transformative effect that the prospect of the regulation has had in hotspots for deforestation and rights abuses,” said Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch. “For this momentum to continue, we need to see robust implementation, and no unjustifiable exclusions.”
In May 2023, the EU adopted the Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which requires EU-based companies to ensure that their imports and exports are deforestation-free and are not tainted by being linked to human rights abuses. The regulation applies to seven commodities—wood, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa, rubber, and cattle—and many products derived from these commodities, such as leather in the case of cattle. To trim obligations for businesses, EU institutions have twice delayed the date by which companies have to start complying and amended the text. The deadline for compliance is now December.
The prospect of implementing the regulation has already prompted positive reforms in tropical forest countries. In Malaysian Borneo, for example, the state of Sarawak announced a moratorium in February 2025 on new permits for oil palm plantations, citing pressure from EU regulations and following a campaign by Human Rights Watch, Indigenous organizations SAVE Rivers and KERUAN, and the international groups Bruno Manser Fonds and Borneo Project.
In Brazil’s state of Pará, government officials told Human Rights Watch that their decision to pioneer the first individual cattle traceability system in the Brazilian Amazon was to get ahead of the European regulation requirements, as well as to anticipate similar requirements from Asian markets.
Some member states’ representatives, including from Austria, Germany, and Italy, had sought an amendment to the regulation to exclude jurisdictions with low deforestation rates. However, on May 4, the European Commission said it would not reopen the core text of the regulation for additional amendments. This is a positive development, and the European Council and Parliament should also commit to preserving the integrity of this milestone legislation and work promptly towards its robust implementation, Human Rights Watch said. Last year, the world lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary rainforest, an area roughly the size of Denmark, according to Global Forest Watch.
Also on May 4, the European Commission opened for public consultation a draft delegated act that would change the list of products covered by the regulation. The consultation is open through June 1. The draft, published following extensive public lobbying by leather industry groups, proposes to exclude leather. Excluding leather from the scope of the regulation would be inconsistent because it would mean that beef from cows raised on illegally deforested land would be excluded from the EU market but leather from those same cows would not be, Human Rights Watch said. The Commission should keep leather within scope of the regulation, the organization said.
In its October 2025 report “Tainted,” Human Rights Watch found that illegal cattle ranching has devastated the territories of small farmers and Indigenous peoples in Pará. Between 2020 and 2025, JBS, the world’s largest meat company, may have exported both beef and leather hides from cattle sourced from illegal ranches in this region to the European Union. JBS said in August 2025 that it would start tracking indirect suppliers in January 2026, but has not replied since to Human Rights Watch queries about implementation of its system. Italy is by far the largest importer of Brazilian hides in the EU. Italian policy makers and industry groups have also pressed for excluding leather.
“It would be absurd to exclude leather from an anti-deforestation law since most of the world’s deforestation is driven by cattle ranching and this industry also produces leather,” said Téllez Chávez. “This supply chain is plagued by allegations of violence against activists, encroachment on Indigenous territories and small-holders, and laundering of illegal assets.”
