Your EU buyers are preparing to file Due Diligence Statements under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and to do that they need evidence from you. This checklist tells you exactly what your buyers will ask for, organized by evidence category, so you can prepare before the request arrives. If you cannot provide what they need, they will find a supplier who can.
What is the EUDR buyer evidence requirement?
Under Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU operators must gather "adequately conclusive and verifiable information" (Article 9) to demonstrate that commodities are deforestation-free and legally produced. This obligation flows upstream through the entire chain. The regulation covers rubber, timber, palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, and cattle. Enforcement begins December 30, 2026 for large and medium operators; June 30, 2027 for micro and small enterprises. The items below are what buyer data requests will contain.
What this template covers
Six evidence categories, each with specific documents, datasets, or attestations your buyers will request. Where you have gaps, guidance under each section explains how to start.
Company and Registration
- Full legal entity name, registration number, and registered address
- Trade licence or business registration certificate
- Tax identification number
- Names and roles of authorized representatives for compliance communications
- EORI number (if you export directly to the EU)
- If applicable, EU-recognized operator or trader reference number
If you do not have this yet: Work with legal counsel to formalize any informal registrations. These are standard documents — resolve gaps early.
Sourcing and Geolocation
- List of all production sites (farms, plantations, concessions, smallholder plots) supplying the exported product
- Geolocation coordinates for each plot — polygons for plots over four hectares, centroids for four hectares or less (WGS84/EPSG:4326, six decimal places)
- Supply chain map: producer to collection point to processing to export
- Supplier registry linking producers to each batch or shipment
- For aggregated supply (cooperatives): individual plot-level data, not cooperative-level summaries
- Production date or harvest date range for each sourcing lot
If you do not have this yet: Start with your largest supply areas. Use GPS-enabled devices to capture field boundaries — not administrative approximations. See the EUDR Geolocation Data Collection Template for technical specifications.
Deforestation-Free Evidence
- Deforestation screening results for each production plot, referenced against the December 31, 2020 cutoff
- Data sources used (e.g., Global Forest Watch, Hansen tree cover loss, Copernicus, national monitoring systems)
- Methodology documentation: how deforestation-free status was determined, at what resolution, and what thresholds applied
- For high-risk plots: corroborating evidence (multi-temporal imagery, ground-truth verification)
- Confirmation that no forest degradation has occurred on production plots since December 31, 2020
If you do not have this yet: Your buyer may commission screening directly, but will expect you to provide geolocation data and cooperate with verification. Third-party providers offer screening services that produce auditable reports.
Legality Evidence
- Land title, concession agreement, or documentation of lawful land-use rights for each production site
- For informal tenure: alternative documentation (village head attestation, local authority recognition, customary tenure records)
- Environmental permits and impact assessments required under local law
- Evidence of labour law compliance, including prohibition of forced labour and child labour
- Evidence that indigenous peoples' rights and FPIC have been respected where applicable
- Tax and royalty payment records for the production period
- Export permits and customs documentation
If you do not have this yet: Start with a legal review of which national laws apply to your operations. The EUDR covers all relevant laws of the country of production — not only forestry or environmental regulations.
Processing and Traceability
- Processing facility registration and operating licences
- Chain of custody methodology: identity preservation or physical segregation (mass balance is prohibited under the EUDR)
- Batch or lot traceability records linking finished product back to specific production plots
- Processing conversion ratios (e.g., dry rubber content, palm oil extraction rates) to reconcile input and output volumes
- Records confirming compliant material was not mixed with unverified material at any processing stage
If you do not have this yet: Establish physical segregation procedures before enforcement. This is an operational change, not just a documentation task.
Certifications and Standards
- Current sustainability certifications (FSC, PEFC, RSPO, Rainforest Alliance) if held
- Audit reports from most recent certification cycle
- Industry-standard assessment details (e.g., GPSNR for rubber, NDPE for palm oil)
- Internal sustainability policies or environmental management documentation
If you do not have this yet: Certifications are not required by the EUDR and do not substitute for the operator's own due diligence. Buyers request them as supplementary data. If you do not hold any, focus on the evidence categories above — they are what the regulation requires.
How to use this template
Step 1: Work through each category and mark items you can provide today. Be honest about gaps — your buyers will find them.
Step 2: For gaps, note whether it is a data collection problem (information not yet gathered) or a documentation problem (evidence exists but is not organized).
Step 3: Prioritize geolocation and deforestation-free evidence — these have the longest lead times.
Step 4: Build a standardized evidence package you can provide to any EU buyer on request. The interactive supply chain template can help you structure this digitally.
How to implement this in your organisation
Assign ownership. Your compliance officer or sustainability manager owns this checklist and is accountable for maintaining a complete, current evidence package. Procurement staff contribute supplier and sourcing data; processing teams provide traceability and conversion records. Refer to the relevant commodity-specific checklist for operational details on evidence collection for your commodity group.
Set the review cadence. Reassess evidence readiness quarterly and immediately when triggered by a new supplier, a new production plot entering the supply base, or a country risk reclassification by the European Commission. Anticipate that EU buyers will send updated questionnaires ahead of each enforcement milestone — your evidence package should be current before requests arrive.
Define your escalation path. Any evidence gap that would prevent an EU buyer from filing a defensible DDS must be escalated to the export manager within 48 hours. The responsible team member documents the gap and proposed remediation timeline. Unresolved gaps jeopardise commercial relationships — buyers will source from suppliers who can provide complete evidence.
Connect to existing workflows. Integrate evidence assembly into your supplier onboarding and export documentation workflows so data is compiled in parallel with commercial processes. Build a standardised evidence package that can be provided to any EU buyer on request, and store completed packages alongside export records for the mandatory five-year retention period.
Who needs this template
- Exporters of EUDR-covered commodities who will receive due diligence data requests from EU buyers
- Processors who aggregate from multiple producers and need to demonstrate traceability
- Sustainability officers coordinating evidence collection across sourcing, processing, and export
- Cooperative managers collecting from smallholders who need to provide plot-level data downstream
How far in advance should I prepare this evidence?
Begin now. Geolocation data collection and supplier mapping often require months of fieldwork. EU buyers are already sending preliminary questionnaires ahead of the December 30, 2026 enforcement date. Having evidence organized before the first formal request demonstrates readiness and protects your commercial position.
Will my EU buyer accept self-declared evidence?
Generally, no. Under Article 10, EU operators must assess whether information is "adequately conclusive and verifiable." Data without independent verification, collection timestamps, or methodology documentation is unlikely to meet this standard. Expect buyers to request evidence of how data was collected, not just the data itself.
Do I need to provide this evidence for every shipment?
Yes. The EUDR requires a DDS for each product placed on the EU market. Buyers will need batch-level traceability linking each consignment to specific production plots. A one-time evidence package is a starting point, but ongoing data provision per shipment is the operational reality.
What if I supply multiple EU buyers?
The requirements are identical regardless of buyer — all derive from the same regulation. Prepare one standardized evidence package and adapt it for each buyer's submission format. This is more efficient than responding to each questionnaire from scratch.
Ready to organize your supply chain evidence before your buyers ask? ResourceLedger helps exporters and processors build structured, verifiable evidence records — from plot-level geolocation to batch traceability — so you can respond to any EU buyer's due diligence request with confidence. Book a demo to see how it works.