After industry pressure, the EU removed leather from its anti-deforestation laws

After a 'campaign' by industry groups, the European Commission announced on Monday that it had decided to exclude leather imports from its anti-deforestation laws.

Leather, hides, and'skins will be exempted from the law. This is a world-first, as it requires companies that sell goods such as soy, beef, palm oil, and coffee into the EU, to prove they did not cause deforestation.

The EU's decision "confirmed" a report from last week.

The European Commission said in a statement that "the main driver of deforestation" is the expansion of land used for agriculture, linked to seven commodities covered under the'regulation - cocoa, wood, palm oil and coffee, as well as some of their derived products."

The report added that "under the Regulation, any operator who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports them from there, must be in a position to prove?that they 'do not 'originate?from land recently deforested, or have contributed... to forest degradation." (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett)

(source: Reuters)