A joint briefing paper by: Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Fern, IUCN NL, Rainforest Alliance, Solidaridad, and Tropenbos International

This briefing explains that the EU will need to deliver a smart and comprehensive mix of demand and supply-side measures to halt deforestation, forest degradation and the destruction of other ecosystems, which includes measures to involve and support smallholders. The EU should: 

• Jointly develop and then implement roadmaps with producer countries to help smallholders to comply with EU requirements. These should be developed and implemented with the proper participation of smallholders themselves.
• Promote, in partnership with producer countries, financial incentives for smallholders to move towards sustainable practices.
• Promote landscape/jurisdictional approaches in which farmers organisations, the private sector and governments work together to roll out sustainable farming at the local level.
• Increase smallholders’ access to affordable financing and loans to invest in sustainable production.
• Strengthen smallholders’ tenure rights. 
• Facilitate a process between stakeholders to develop pricing models that enable farmers to earn a living income and produce sustainable deforestation-free goods. 

The EU needs to maintain the ambition of its regulatory proposal without excluding smallholders from the market. In fact, implementing measures to support smallholders will enhance its effectiveness, promote social justice, and help the EU fulfill its commitments under the European Green Deal, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sustainable Development Goals.