Earlier this year, we attended a series of online discussions on the EUDR, traceability and reconciling public and private data to enhance transparency. Here’s a quick wrap up on key points from each session:

Tackling Traceability: Exploring Opportunities and Challenges under the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)

On June 20th, Competere.eu, an EU policy institute for sustainable development, hosted a roundtable session to discuss the most complex requirement in the EUDR - ensuring traceability throughout the entire supply chain.

• Pietro Paganini, President of Competere, moderated the discussion between:

• Jose Angel Olivero, Sales Director of LIPSA (a leading supplier in the market and the largest vegetable oil refinery in southern Europe

• Luis Francisco Dangond-Lacouture, Director-General Manager of Oilsum Olequimica de Colombia

• Louis Roy, CEO & President of OPTEL Group

Key points:

Jose Angel highlighted that importers will have to trace the supply chain of their vegetable oil imports prior to the arrival of shipments, emphasizing that this is a big change for local players. He expressed his doubts on whether smallholders will be able to provide GPS coordinates, or polygons, stating that blockchain technology will be needed to trace the origins of raw materials. Jose stressed that compliance is still mainly on the onus of producers. He recommended that their costs should be transferred to the European export markets.

Luis Francisco emphasized that track and trace has to be accessible, comprehensible and manageable, but most importantly, meaningful to smallholders. He underlined the importance of reliable, secure and accessible technology that would allow the consensual transfer of information without contravening national and international data privacy laws. He stated the initial costs should be a shared responsibility along the value chain.

Louis Roy believes the technology is mature, but the timeframe to execute changes is challenging. He urged industry players to clean their supply chains from the very first transaction, which will be made easier through mobile phone verifications. This connectivity will accelerate the digitalization of smallholders, improving their financing while reducing their carbon footprints. He recommended that smallholders join corporations or federations to help with consolidation and enhance ease of traceability.

Politics, Plots, and Smallholders: The Palm Oil Industry and The EU Deforestation Regulation

On June 21st, MapHubs hosted a webinar to tackle the implementation of the EUDR, focusing on the mapping of smallholders, interpretations of the regulation and clarifying the meaning of the term, “plot”.

List of panelists:

• Perrine Fournier, Trade and Forest Campaigner at Fern

• Tobias Zobel, Director of Global Procurement Lauric Oils & Primary Oleochemicals at BASF Mansuetus Darto, National Secretariat General of SPKS

• Leo Bottril, Founder and CEO of MapHubs

Key points:

On the biggest challenges of the EUDR, Perrine emphasized that the regulation should not become a political tool while Darto highlighted the difficulties in obtaining data from smallholders and the importance of including farmers in talks with the EU. Tobias outlined a lack of clarity in the regulation’s implementation, stating that an open, unique and standardized approach is needed. Leo identified that a universal mill list is vital for effective tracking and tracing.

On specific actions that have been taken to prepare for the EUDR, Perrinne spoke about Fern’s efforts in reminding EU member states of their obligations and gathering inputs from various countries on how they intend to use the regulation. Darto described how SPKS is collecting smallholder data on a massive scale and engaging with companies to develop EUDR implementation plans. He urged more support from the EU in training farmers and enhancing monitoring efforts, along with fostering partnerships between companies, farmers, indigenous people & local communities. As a direct importer, Tobias explained that BASF will be focusing on due diligence obligations and ensuring transparency in output production. He believes a unified plot approach is the best way to go.

The panelists agreed that the EU would interpret the term ‘plot’ by reference to polygons around existing estates, and not according to concessions. They also hope the EU authorities will provide more clarity in the near future to help with compliance mechanisms.

Data Wars: Can We Unlock the Power of Private Data for Public Good?

On July 19th, the Forest Data Partnership organized a webinar to discuss the use of private and public data to address key challenges, while exploring how to reconcile the two in order to create greater transparency and trust.

List of panelists:

• Andrew Wilcox, Senior Manager, Sustainable Sourcing & Digital Programs, Unilever

• Leo Bottrill, Founder and CEO, MapHubs

• Rob McWilliam, Director of Technical Services, Earthworm Foundation

• Jackson Harris, Senior Geospatial Analyst, Mighty Earth

• Tara O’Shea, Senior Director, Forests & Land Use, Planet

• Fred Stolle, Deputy Director, Forests, WRI

• Crystal Davis, Global Director, Food, Land & Water Program, WRI (Moderator)

Key points:

Jackson highlighted that while data transparency has been enhanced in the past decade, more must be done, citing the need for information on concession boundaries of palm oil plantations. However, he emphasized that certain datasets must be kept private for security reasons, especially in relation to smallholder land rights and the risk of eviction. Leo echoed his sentiments, also stating the importance of establishing a universal plot list. He added that the Malaysian and Indonesian governments need to make industrial plot information public; Malaysia specifically is seeing increased deforestation due to this lack of open data. Andrew hopes that we learn from experiences with tree maps and deforestation alerts, and apply these to the question of data transparency.

The discussion then moved to the respective roles of public and private data, their conflation and funding. Tara spoke about the importance of sustainable business models in creating commercial datasets and how companies must be innovative with licensing models for different user groups and sectors. These models would democratize access and sustain operations of commercial data providers like Planet. Agreeing with this point, Andrew added that a natural economy for this data must be seen. It was also highlighted that public data is not ‘free’, largely funded by taxpayers and donors.

The panelists commented that these market imperfections should never be the reason behind inaction, with Jackson emphasizing that the common goal is to end deforestation.