Native American leader links EUDR to colonialism
A senior representative of native American peoples has described the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) as “a new spin on colonialism”.
Tribal chair of the Cow Creek band of the Umpqua people, Carla Keene, recently shared her views on EUDR in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. She welcomed the December announcement confirming a new one-year delay in the implementation of EUDR, but said the delay laid bare the truth that EU lawmakers “understand that the law is flawed”.
According to Ms Keene, EUDR’s “complex traceability rules are incompatible with real-world supply chains”. She expressed hope that the review of EUDR that the European Commission must complete by April will identify “avenues for simplification” and provide “an opportunity to correct course”.
She said this was important to her because her people have been managing forests in what is now Oregon for many generations.
The main focus of her criticism, though, was that EUDR was an example of what she called the European Union “over-reaching”. She said the EU was using its global influence to exert control over other people’s lands and to “project its values, assumptions and expectations on the rest of the world”.
She said EUDR was based on “the flawed premise that Europeans know what’s best for the rest of us”.
