Implementing the EU Deforestation Regulation with an equity perspective and its potential regulatory impacts on forests and livelihoods

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) seeks to ban commodities associated with deforestation from the EU market. Even though uncertainty about regulatory enforcement and its impacts persists, governments, companies and civil society in origin countries of cocoa, coffee and other commodities are already engaging in complex implementation processes. This study aims at tracing the implementation processes of the EUDR in Peru, and it examines how equity in implementation processes may shape emerging impacts of the EUDR on forests and livelihoods. We use an in-depth case-study research design in the Peruvian cocoa and coffee sectors. Our results show how the EUDR has triggered changes in public policy and service provision, in geolocation, traceability and due diligence systems as well as in Peru's international cooperation projects. Indicators of distributive, procedural and recognitional equity show both advances and limitations. An equity-inspired approach suggests that a shift in language from zero-deforestation towards forest conservation as well as an emphasis on domestic value creation and capturing may promote more positive impacts of EUDR on forests and livelihoods, but we do not find indications how an equity approach in EUDR implementation may prevent agricultural expansion and trade diversion. This study may inspire analyses of networks of implementation processes, and it suggests to conceive equity not only as an outcome or assessment framework but also a factor to explain and a means to promote intended impacts on forests and livelihoods.