Challenges in implementing the European Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products in Argentina

Insights from the case of the Province of Santa Fe

Abstract

Agricultural expansion is the main driver of deforestation worldwide, accounting for nearly 90% of the loss of forest cover. In response, the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products, which conditions access to the European market on compliance with requirements of georeferenced traceability, absence of deforestation after December 2020, and respect for the legislation of the country of origin. This article examines the challenges of its implementation in Argentina, with particular attention to the case of the province of Santa Fe, from six interrelated dimensions: legal, social, productive-economic, technological, environmental, and international trade.

The article analyzes the tensions between the European framework and Argentina’s environmental minimum standards legislation, conceptual divergences regarding the definition of forest, traditional rural practices associated with the use of fire and wood, and existing gaps in traceability and interjurisdictional coordination. It concludes that the effectiveness of the Regulation will depend on its ability to articulate European sustainability standards with the territorial, institutional, and cultural heterogeneity of producing countries. To that end, it is necessary to promote mechanisms of cooperation and regulatory co-construction that are sensitive to the historical asymmetries of global trade, preventing sustainability from becoming a new form of regulatory imposition and instead consolidating a more equitable relationship within the ecological transition.