EUDR legality assessment under Article 3(b): protected areas and Indigenous lands per plot
Article 3(b) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 allows relevant commodities and products on the EU market only if they have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production. Article 2(40) lists what that legislation covers, including land use rights, environmental protection, forest-related rules and the rights of third parties; Article 10(2)(c) to (e) asks the risk assessment to weigh the presence of Indigenous Peoples, consultation with them and any claims they have raised. ERWAY Legality Assessment answers the protected-area and Indigenous-land part of that question per production plot.
The plots are the ones the EUDR product already holds: the same polygons, geolocated for the due diligence statement, read from the same register. Each is checked against international protected-area records, land-tenure records for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, heritage and wetland designations and threatened-species records, and receives one outcome with the strictest tier behind it. A plot inside a strictly protected area is prohibited; a plot on recognised Indigenous land carries the consent flag and is counted. The finding goes into the risk assessment as one dated input, not as the assessment itself.
What the Regulation asks
Article 3(b): production in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production. Article 2(40)(b), (c), (d) and (g): environmental protection, forest-related rules including forest management and biodiversity conservation, third parties' rights, and the principle of free, prior and informed consent. Article 10(2)(c) to (e): the presence of Indigenous Peoples in the country of production, consultation and cooperation with them in good faith, and the existence of duly reasoned claims by Indigenous Peoples over the area used for production.
What the product answers
Per production plot: overlap with a protected area, its category and class, the hectares and the share; tenure status and identity where the plot lies on Indigenous or community land, with the consent flag; relation to heritage and wetland designations; species context. The Indigenous-land screening page details the tenure logic; the protected-area screening page covers the overlap. Where the country of production keeps its own register of protected areas and legal reserves, that register is the authority, and the product states this.
What remains the operator's
The risk assessment under Article 10 as a whole, the risk mitigation under Article 11, and the due diligence statement. The screening is one input with a date and a source; it does not decide negligible risk and it does not replace the supplier's own documents. The post what the EUDR requires sets out the rest of the due diligence the Regulation asks for.