The European Union’s new deforestation rule is already rippling through Mississippi’s timber industry - creating confusion, restrictions, and growing financial worries for landowners who say they never saw it coming.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) became law in 2023, but, after multiple delays, European officials recently shifted the implementation timeline again - this time moving it back up to December 2025.

Mississippi officials said mills have begun applying the rule immediately, even though full enforcement hasn’t begun.

For eighth-generation landowner David Ham, the change was sudden and startling.

“It kind of popped up out of nowhere,” he said. “A lot of landowners and timber growers really don’t know anything about it so far.”

Ham’s family has held their property since the 1830s.

Over nearly 200 years, the land has moved between timber, crops, and cattle, depending on economic need. The idea that it must now remain forest forever, he said, is unrealistic.

“This place has been many things over the years,” Ham said. “We may need to do something… plant pecan trees, or we may want to go back and plant corn or row crops for food production. It’s unfair for anybody overseas, especially the EU, to dictate what we can or can’t do with our property.”

Under the EU rule, companies selling into European markets must prove their timber did not come from land being converted to another use.

Mills have responded by inserting new contract requirements, asking Mississippi landowners to guarantee that any harvested land will remain forest permanently. Ham said he has already been asked to sign language stating that, if his property is clear-cut, it cannot be transformed back into pasture or crops.

“You’re basically having the EU dictate what you can or can’t do with your U.S. property,” he said. “That’s unfair.”

Mississippi Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson has been fighting the rule for two years and said the latest change pushed it to the top of his agenda.

“We’ve been pushing back against the EUDR for a couple of years now,” Gipson said. “It actually went into effect in 2023… but then recently, this fall, the EU decided they were going to re-up and just make it effective immediately, like now.”

He said the sudden shift is already hurting the state’s timber markets.

“It’s depressing the prices,” he said. “We don’t need this kind of foreign influence here in the state of Mississippi.”

Gipson argues that the EU’s definition of “deforestation” is incompatible with Mississippi’s forestry practices.

“They take it to mean if you cut a tree, you’re deforesting,” he said. “That’s not the case in Mississippi. For every tree that we harvest, we plant three or four back.”

He said Europe’s expectation — that land historically used as forest must always remain forest — ignores the reality of farming in Mississippi.

“It may need to be pasture land. It might need to go back into row crop production,” Gipson said. “They’re asking farmers to certify that this land will never change in its nature today, and that is totally unacceptable.”

Both Gipson and Ham said Mississippi is being treated like high-risk deforestation zones such as Brazil, even though state data shows forests here are expanding.

“We’re growing twice the number of trees that we need,” Ham said. “We don’t really deforest… most of it is planted back.”

“This rule was designed for Brazil, which is cutting down rainforests. That’s not the case in Mississippi,” added Gipson.

The economic impact is already visible.

“Our landowners are losing money,” Gipson said. “Timber should be worth this much, but it’s worth a whole lot less because this market is going away. They just won’t buy it unless the landowner agrees to all these restrictions, and folks are not going to do that.”

Ham hasn’t cut timber recently, but he sees what’s coming.

“Basically the large timber companies are falling in line because they want to sell these products overseas,” he said. “Follow the money.”

Ham’s biggest fear is the unknown.

“How would it be enforced? Is somebody from the European Union gonna come over and sue us?” he said. “How does somebody from the EU enforce something on American soil?”

Gipson said he and other states are now working with the Trump administration to block the rule entirely, not just delay it.

“We’re not going to let Europe tell us what we can and can’t do with our land in Mississippi, period,” he said. “Get Europe out of the business of trying to mess with our business in America.”

Ham is hopeful, but uncertain.

“We feel like it’s headed in the right direction,” Ham said. “We will get this overturned.”

Source: wlbt.com