EUDR field data verification with Meridia Verify
Comprehensive risk assessment beyond deforestation
Our methodology for Meridia Verify goes beyond deforestation tests and data quality checks. It checks if sourcing from protected areas and IPLC territories is legal. It also flags human rights risks in your supply chain.
We check the data for legal compliance in line with the legislation of the country of production. We cover topics like deforestation, protected areas, Indigenous territories, and human rights. Our approach aligns with EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) articles, covering four key areas from over 35 origins.
Data quality assessment for EUDR compliance
Ensuring data quality is the first step for EUDR compliance. You need accurate geospatial data to assess land use risks linked to commodity production. Despite recent data collection, field data often contains a significant percentage of data issues.
Verify checks different aspects of data quality. Based on the risk assessment, users can quickly identify farm records marked as "critical risk" that need immediate attention. The results also include less urgent issues that you can address later.
Data quality tests help prepare for submission to EUDR systems and potential checks by a competent authority.
Integrity
Integrity tests evaluate the quality of each farm plot record. They look for major issues that could affect processing, analysis, or interpretation. Not all problems are a cause for concern, but some may need prompt attention.
Consistency
Consistency tests review farm plot records in a dataset. They look for consistency and identify conflicts or contradictions. Not all issues with internal consistency require immediate action.
Plausibility
Plausibility tests evaluate the accuracy of farm plot data in relation to its context. Even if there are no technical problems or internal conflicts, the data may still seem implausible based on context.
How Verify ensures accurate deforestation mapping
The EUDR supports deforestation-free products by reducing the EU’s impact on deforestation and forest degradation. It defines a forest as land over 0.5 hectares, with trees taller than 5 meters and at least 10% canopy cover.
This also includes trees that can grow to these heights. However, it does not include land mainly used for farming or urban areas (Article 2 (2)). The EUDR defines deforestation as the conversion of forest into agricultural land after 31st December 2020.
Meridia Verify uses the latest public datasets from trusted sources. These include the EU Joint Research Centre and Global Forest Watch.
This helps create a clear and easy-to-understand baseline for deforestation activity. We create our maps to lower false positives for known problems, like overestimating forests. We also support your challenges to any results with a careful manual review using extra satellite images.
We also use commercial maps from Space Intelligence, a top forestry satellite company. We are the only platform that offers deforestation assurance with these maps for trade on ICE CoT.
*ICE CoT EUDR Deforestation Map. Produced by Space Intelligence for use in the ICE CoT platform. Licensed by ICE Benchmark Administration Limited
Managing land use and legal risks in your supply chain
We can highlight which farm plots put your supply chain at risk. We also indicate where you need supporting documentation to meet the EUDR due diligence requirements.
Land use in many countries is complicated. Local laws only allow for some types of agriculture and some practices. Global researchers have developed our protected areas data to pinpoint precisely what local legislation requires to comply with EUDR.
Legality
Producers must make commodities according to the relevant legislation of the country where they operate. This is required for EUDR compliance (EUDR Article 3(b)). These laws cover many areas. They include land use rights, environmental protections, labour rights, and human rights (EUDR Article 2(40)).
Ensuring traceability (add-on)
Between the farm gate and EU import by operators and traders, there are multiple modification steps that a parcel can go through. Our risk rating assesses the truthfulness of traceability data at the parcel level. This ensures the chain of custody remains intact. We assess data integrity, consistency, and plausibility, and review the overall quality of documentation.
Risk scoring Verify
When conducting tests on farms, each test provides a risk score from low risk to critical risk.
We organise these scores into a matrix. Each row represents a farm, and each column denotes a different test. However, interpreting this matrix becomes challenging when dealing with a large number of farms and tests.
To simplify this, Meridia developed an actionable scoring system. It combines all the test results into a single score for each farm. This greatly simplifies the understanding and comparison of risk levels across numerous farms.
Combining real-world insights with advanced technology
Our software integrates on-the-ground expertise and data-driven analysis to provide a comprehensive solution for EUDR risk assessment.
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