Now exempt from EU deforestation rules, leather industry moves to repair reputation

The European Commission has formally exempted bovine hides from its anti-deforestation regulation, even as beef from the same cattle remains covered, following months of lobbying by tanners and luxury brands. The Commission's own estimate put leather's share of EU deforestation risk at up to 17 percent, a figure the industry disputes, and it left the door open with a mandatory review in 2030.

At a Paris forum of roughly 400 tanners, brand reps and meatpacking executives, industry leaders framed leather as a sustainable byproduct rescued from waste rather than a driver of deforestation, citing a single industry-funded, non-peer-reviewed study as their main evidence. Researchers counter that splitting hide and meat from the same slaughtered animal into separate regulatory tracks simply moves accountability around rather than closing the gap.

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