Scientists step up
Scientists and experts from seven EU countries - Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden - step up to answer the Internet’s most searched questions on deforestation.
In 2020, through the #Together4Forests campaign, 1.2 EU citizens asked for a law that would keep deforestation out of their fridges and off their kitchen tables. Later on, around summer 2022, when ministers in the Environment Council and Members in the European Parliament were discussing a future EU Deforestation law, people at home asked the World Wide Web questions about forests. Eight scientists and experts stepped up.
Giorgio Vacchiano, Italy:
We lose 5 million hectares of forests every year!
Dr Réka Aszalós, Hungary:
Forests will become burgers!
Katarzyna Karpa-Świderek, Poland:
Losing forests, we lose cultural identity
Miguel Bastos Araújo, Portugal:
What we consume has an impact
In Belgium, we consume tropical forests the size of the Brussels region each year
Bart Muys, Belgium: “It is true that a lot of palm oil is imported as a result of recent deforestation, but that is not always the case. So, if we can find chocolate spread that's made with palm oil but that's certified not to come from recent deforestation, that's pretty good”.
Patrick Meyfroidt, Belgium: “Imported deforestation is deforestation that takes place particularly in tropical regions, to produce agricultural or forestry products that are then imported into different countries, for example, Belgium”.