We’re living in a time of growing environmental urgency, and protecting the world’s forests has never been more critical. Rainforests like the Amazon and the…
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Insights from CLEVER Researcher Rafaella F. Ziegert on the EUDR, land-use and policy interaction in Brazil
What happens when global trade regulations meet local realities? In this video interview, Rafaella Ferraz Ziegert, a researcher with the CLEVER project and PhD candidate at the University of Freiburg, shares her perspective on the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) — the first transnational policy designed to reduce the EU’s contribution to deforestation and land degradation abroad. While the EUDR aims to protect forests, it may also lead to unintended consequences in producer countries like Brazil, especially when it overlaps or conflicts with existing national policies.
Rafaella draws on her experience conducting environmental impact assessments across Brazil— a vast country with abundant land, yet one that faces intense pressure to meet multiple demands: food production, climate regulation, carbon storage, and mineral extraction. The central challenge? How to manage land use in a way that supports both people and the planet.
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This interview is part of the ‘Forest Governance Unpacked’ series with key experts in forest governance. It was developed in the context of the NewGo! project which aims to provide scientific knowledge on lessons learned from initiatives related to zero deforestation, forest restoration, and sustainable forest finance. The project sets the ground for the EFI Governance Programme.
Tell us a bit about who you are.
I am an economist with a diversified background in governance, from corporate and market governance to public matters, working exclusively on forest matters for the last 16 years. I built a great part of my experience in Brazil, where I had the privilege to work with federal, provincial and municipal governments, and the private sector to set up institutional arrangements in response to the 1988 Constitution mandate for decentralization, participation and accountability. I engaged with the climate change agenda early on, and have worked on increasing participation of native and planted forests in climate change mitigation since 1996. When REDD+ was formally accepted as a potential mitigation measure by the UNFCCC in the 2000s, I redirected my career towards forest development in the context of climate change. Since then, I worked both nationally and internationally, mostly with developing countries on governance, climate, and finance issues. This experience has been valuable to my current work at FAO, where I focus on governance to halt deforestation and forest degradation, as well as forests in the sustainable bioeconomy. As part of this work, we give special attention to building capacities for evidence-based policy-making and improved cross-sectoral coordination to respond to environmental and socioeconomic issues.
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