C 125/274
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
5.4.2023
Tuesday 13 September 2022
Amendment 213 Proposal for a regulation Article 28 — paragraph 1 Text proposed by the Commission
Amendment
1.
The Commission shall engage with producer countries concerned by this Regulation to develop partnerships and cooperation to jointly address deforestation and forest degrada­ tion.
Such partnerships and cooperation mechanisms will focus on the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of forests, deforestation, forest degradation and the transition to sustainable commodity production, consumption processing and trade methods.
Partnerships and cooperation mechanisms may include structured dialogues, support programmes and actions, administrative arrangements and provisions in existing agree­ ments or agreements that enable producer countries to make the transition to an agricultural production that facilitates the compliance of relevant commodities and products with the requirements of this regulation.
Such agreements and their effective implementation will be taken into account as part of the benchmarking under Article 27 of this Regulation.
1.
In a coordinated approach the Commission and Member States, shall engage with producer countries concerned by this Regulation, local governments and interested parties, in particular those exporting significant volumes of commodities listed in Annex I, including via the use of existing and future partnerships and free trade agreements and the alignment of existing aid tools to jointly address the root causes of deforestation, forest degradation and forest conversion.
Such partnerships and cooperation mechanisms shall be supported with adequate resources and shall focus on the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of forests, deforestation, forest degradation, forest conversion and the transition to sustainable commodity production, consumption processing and trade methods, good governance, as well as protecting the rights and livelihoods and subsistence of forest-dependent commu­ nities, including indigenous peoples, local communities, other customary tenure rights holders and smallholders.
Partnerships and cooperation mechanisms may include, but are not limited to, structured dialogues, financial and technical support programmes and actions, administrative arrangements that enable producer countries and parts thereof to make the transition to an agricultural production that facilitates the compliance of relevant commodities and products with the requirements of this regulation.
The Commission shall ensure that indigenous peoples, local communities and civil society, are involved in the development of joint roadmaps.
The joint roadmaps shall be based on milestones agreed with local stakeholders.
The Commission shall particularly engage with producing countries to remove legal obstacles to their compliance, including national land tenure governance and data protection law.
The aim of those partnerships shall be the development of joint roadmaps, including sustained dialogue and cooperation, in particular with countries and parts thereof identified as high-risk, to support their continuous improve­ ment towards the standard risk category referred to in Article 27.
Partnerships and cooperation mechanisms shall pay particular attention to smallholders in order to enable these smallholders to transition to sustainable farming and forestry practices and to comply with the requirements of this Regulation, including through enabling sufficient and userfriendly information.
Adequate financial resources shall be available to meet the needs of smallholders.