Dr. Elke Verhaeghe

Elke Verhaeghe obtained her PhD in Political Sciences in 2023. Her research focuses on the European Union’s actions against global deforestation from socio-ecological justice, political ecology, Indigenous justice and transformations perspective.  

 

She is currently involved as a postdoctoral researcher in FWO-SBO project MEDIATE (Mediating Due Diligence: Understanding and strengthening the role of intermediaries in implementing due diligence), where she focusses on the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR). The EUDR sets out to obtain legal and deforestation-free supply chains for seven “forest-risk commodities” and derived products traded in the EU market (cattle and beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood). To this end, the EUDR requires traders to prove that their products and supply chains are not linked to deforestation and illegal land use – or that the risk is only negligible. 

 

MEDIATE explores the role that intermediaries – such as NGOs, consultants, trade unions, auditors, certification bodies and sector federations – can play in implementing processes of due diligence, while equally contributing to intermediary capacity-building and partnerships. Dr. Verhaeghe takes on the external pillar of the MEDIATE project, studying intermediary engagement in the implementation of the EUDR in the Ugandan coffee sector.