Geolocation under the EUDR: coordinates, polygons, and the four-hectare rule

Article 9 requires the geographic coordinates of all plots of land where the commodity was produced. The Commission's guidance sets the practical detail.

Precision and format

• Coordinates are given to six decimal degrees of precision.
• Plots larger than four hectares must be described as a polygon, not a single point.
• Plots of four hectares or less may be given as a point or a polygon.

Six decimal places is roughly 0.1 m at the equator. Rounding coordinates to fewer decimals is a common, avoidable rejection cause.

Why polygons matter for coffee

A point cannot tell you whether a loss signal falls inside or outside the parcel. A polygon lets the screening intersect the actual boundary, which is what separates a compliant plot from an adjacent cleared one. For smallholder coffee, that boundary work is where most of the real diligence lives.

In Sylva

Sylva enforces six-decimal precision, accepts GeoJSON polygon import, and applies the four-hectare rule automatically, then carries the geometry through to the satellite layers and the screening result.