TRACES warning · EUDR
TRACES: "Polygon with holes are not accepted by the system" — why, and how to fix it
When you import an EUDR GeoJSON into TRACES and a plot is a polygon with an inner ring (a "hole"), the system shows: Warning: Geometry not valid: commodity 1, producer {1}, production place index {2}, reason: Polygon with holes are not accepted by the system. It is the one geometry the EU system actively refuses — nearly everything else is accepted silently. Update — verified July 2026: on acceptance build 8.2.0.2 the warning no longer appears at all — the same donut file imports silently, and the hole's hectares are still counted as production (our test plot showed 119.11 ha where the true net area is ≈100 ha). Older builds still show the warning; either way the fix below applies.
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Why TRACES shows this warning
The EUDR GeoJSON File Description does not allow polygons with interior rings. A donut shape — an outer boundary with a cut-out — is exactly what triggers Polygon with holes are not accepted by the system. TRACES flags it in yellow rather than hard-blocking, so it is easy to dismiss and submit anyway.
The blank {1} and {2} in the message are unfilled placeholders in the acceptance build — they should name the producer and production-place index. The warning still points at a real problem in your file.
What the warning hides
TRACES computes Total Area from the outer ring only — the hole is not subtracted. So the plot is over-declared: you are claiming productive land that the geometry itself says is not there. Ignore the warning and the declaration goes in with an inflated area.
Fix it in DDSpass
Drop the file in and DDSpass detects the interior ring, removes the hole, and reports the exact hectares cut out so the declared area is the true net area — after the fix the warning no longer appears. It converts KML, Excel and Shapefile sources in the same pass. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Questions
Is "Polygon with holes are not accepted" a hard block?
On build 8.2.0.1 it is a yellow warning, not a hard stop — and on build 8.2.0.2 the warning is gone entirely: the file imports silently. Either way the geometry is invalid per the EUDR GeoJSON spec and the area is over-declared, so fix it before you submit.
Why are {1} and {2} empty in the message?
They are unfilled placeholders for the producer and production-place index — a display bug in the TRACES build. The underlying cause, a polygon with an inner ring, is real.