The Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, Mims Davies, has welcomed the Government’s new consultation on illegal deforestation, which is providing the opportunity to seek the views of people across the country on whether the United Kingdom should legislate to prevent forests and other important natural areas from being converted illegally into agricultural land.
The new law the Government is proposing would set clear requirements for businesses to ensure they would have to undertake due diligence to show any clearing of environments was proportionate and legal. This would be a clear, fresh requirement and businesses which do not comply would be subject to fines, large businesses are the focus as they have the influence to set a good example to producers.
Commenting, the Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, Mims Davies said:
“It is so important we recognise where our food comes from and illegally cleared land is a huge threat to both our high environmental standards and our farmers who do such great work protecting and enhancing our environment in Mid Sussex and across the UK. Many people have been writing to me on this, calling on the UK to use our place in the world to lead the way on major environmental issues.
“I would encourage all constituents who are interested to make their views on this matter known. The consultation is open until 5th October and how you feed into the consultation will directly impact on the policy. The consultation will inform the Government’s response to the original recommendation. The current proposals would make it illegal for large companies to use forest products which have not been produced in accordance with relevant local laws. This is a great step forward in fighting illegal logging and I’m so pleased the Government is consulting on this important matter.”
All Mid Sussex constituents can give their views on the potentially new law until 5th October. https://consult.defra.gov.uk/eu/due-diligence-on-forest-risk-commodities/
Ends.
Notes to Editors
For any questions you may have please contact the Sustainable Commodities Team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – due.diligence@defra.gov.uk