Jack Kruf © (2022) December Forest [digital caption]. Breda: private collection.
The forest at this time of the year seems to come to a standstill, leading to fascinating colour palettes. The whole forest ecosystem is in fact in full preparation for the year to come. Here the beautiful browns and yellows of the eagle fern (Pteridium aquilinum L.) at an open place in the forest.
The Commission welcomes the provisional political agreement just reached between the European Parliament and the Council on an EU Regulation on deforestation-free supply chains.
Once adopted and applied, the new law will ensure that a set of key goods placed on the EU market will no longer contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and elsewhere in the world.
Since the EU is a major economy and consumer of these commodities, this step will help stop a significant share of global deforestation and forest degradation, in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.
This major agreement comes just before the start of the milestone Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) which is set to define protection goals for nature for decades to come.
Explanation
Apart from timber, the products concerned are cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, beef and rubber. Derived products such as leather, chocolate, furniture, paper and charcoal will also be banned if they contribute to deforestation, the European Commission said in a statement.
Products will be classified as banned if they come from land deforested after December 2020. Traders will have to start proving that the products are deforestation-free and legal. Importers must be able to provide “precise geographical information on agricultural land” to show where raw materials come from.
If the rules are not followed, member states must impose sanctions. The commission says the list of goods covered by the directive is regularly reviewed and updated. This takes into account new data, such as changing deforestation patterns.
Ongewis of bosbeheer beoogde resultaten op termijn levert. Het beeld dat de laatste jaren is ontstaan dat Staatsbosbeheer overal in het land grootschalig bossen kapt, is onjuist. Onderzoek van de Algemene Rekenkamer wijst uit dat Staatsbosbeheer niet meer oogst dan er bijgroeit. Maar of de werkwijze van de grootste bosbeheerder van Nederland en andere boseigenaren op lange termijn de beoogde resultaten geeft, is echter op landelijk niveau onbekend.
Het rapport Bosbeheer in Beeld gaat over (Staats)bosbeheer en bossenstrategie. Het beeld dat de laatste jaren is ontstaan dat Staatsbosbeheer overal in het land grootschalig bossen kapt, is onjuist.
Onderzoek van de Algemene Rekenkamer wijst uit dat Staatsbosbeheer niet meer oogst dan er bijgroeit. Maar of de werkwijze van de grootste bosbeheerder van Nederland en andere boseigenaren op lange termijn de beoogde resultaten geeft, is echter op landelijk niveau onbekend.
“De landelijke bossenstrategie, door de rijksoverheid en provincies gezamenlijk in 2020 ondertekend, vereist landelijk 10 % meer bos op termijn. Die doelstelling wordt waarschijnlijk niet gehaald. Sinds 2013 verdwijnt er namelijk bij alle natuurbeheerders opgeteld meer bos in Nederland dan dat er aangeplant wordt. Er is ruim 6.000 hectare bos minder dan bij de start van de bossenstrategie.”
De conclusies laten zich samenvatten in de volgende punten:
De conclusies liegen er niet om. De gedane aanbevelingen zijn boterzacht en vooruitschuivend. Nadere informatie en afspraken moet gemaakt worden. Inderdaad. Had dat niet al gemoeten dan?
De bossenstrategie faalt. En dat is niet goed. Helemaal niet.
Ivan Shishkin (1898) Mast tree grove [oil on canvas]. St. Petersburg, Russia: The State Russian Museum.
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
-John Muir
John Muir (1838 – 1914) is counted among the greatest naturalists. He – born in Dunbar, East-Lothian, Scotland – was an early advocate of the preservation of wilderness.
Margaret Wise Brown (author), Leonard Weisgard (illustrator) (1950) The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds. New York City: Harper & Brothers.
“As they listened, they began to understand the lives of the Forest, apart from themselves, indeed to feel themselves as the strangers where all other things were at home. […] Tom’s words laid bare the hearts of trees and their thoughts, which were dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning: destroyers and usurpers.
It was not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten woods; and in there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords. The countless years had filled them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice.”
Bibliography
Tolkien, J. (2014) The Fellowship of the Ring [The Lord of the Rings, part 1, ed. 60]. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Jack Kruf 