Brazil - Just as protecting the world’s forests is rapidly becoming a recognized necessity for fighting climate change, we have discovered that major fashion, food and sports brand names are unwittingly driving the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Top brands such as Adidas/Reebok, Timberland, Geox, Carrefour, Eurostar, Honda, Gucci, IKEA, Kraft, Clarks, Nike, Tesco and Wal-Mart involved.

Our three-year investigation into Brazil’s booming cattle industry - the largest source of deforestation in the world and Brazil’s main source of CO2 emissions - has found that some of the brands that we all know and love could be implicated in the widespread deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The investigation also uncovers how the Brazilian government is bankrolling the destruction and is undermining its own efforts to tackle the global climate crisis.

Dirty Farms

The new Greenpeace report Slaughtering the Amazon tracks beef, leather and other cattle products from ranches involved in illegal deforestation, invasion of indigenous lands and slavery in Brazil back to the supply chains of top brands such as Adidas/Reebok, Timberland, Geox, Carrefour, Eurostar, Honda, Gucci, IKEA, Kraft, Clarks, Nike, Tesco and Wal-Mart.

Greenpeace investigators found that the Brazilian government has a vested interest in the further expansion of the cattle industry; it part-owns three of the country’s cattle giants - Bertin, JBS and Marfrig - which are responsible for fuelling the destruction of huge tracts of the Amazon. That’s right; the Amazon rainforest is being wiped out to make room for the beef in your TV dinner and the leather on your sneakers. Humans rights abuses, deforestation and climate change seem to us like a pretty big price to pay for the trainers we put on before our morning run.

Lula’s loopholes

Brazilian President Lula’s government forecasts that the country’s share of the global beef market will double by 2018. 2018 seems to be a big year for the Brazilian government as it also claims this is the year by which it will have cut deforestation by 72 percent. The expansion of the cattle sector threatens to undermine the government’s ability to fulfill its pledge. Brazil is the fourth largest climate polluter in the world, with the majority of its climate emissions coming from the clearance and burning of the Amazon rainforest.

"By bankrolling the destruction of the Amazon for cattle, President Lula’s government is undermining its own climate commitments as well as the global effort to tackle the climate crisis," said Andre Muggiati, Greenpeace Brazil, Amazon campaigner. "If it wants to be part of the climate solution, Lula’s government must get out of bed with cattle industry, and instead commit to ending Amazon deforestation. Otherwise it will be culpable in the global climate catastrophe that will ensue," he added.

Greenpeace is calling for developed world governments to provide USD 140 billion a year to tackle the climate crisis, to fund both mitigation and adaptation measures in developing countries. Approximately USD 40 billion a year of this should be designated to forest protection. The funds would be provided in return for a commitment to stop deforestation by 2015 in the Amazon and globally by 2020.

World leaders must take personal responsibility to agree strong global deal at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 in order to avert catastrophic climate change. Tropical deforestation accounts for approximately 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the world’s entire transport sector, so any deal must effectively tackle deforestation.

Source: Greenpeace

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Belém, Pará State, Brazilian Amazon. 18 July 2008 – Greenpeace welcomes today's announcement of a pact between the Amazon State of Pará, the world's largest producer of Amazon timber, the Brazilian environment ministry and representatives of the logging industry of a pact aiming to ban trade in illegal timber and timber from deforestation.

Industry signatories to the agreement include the influential Association of Timber Exports Industries and the Pará Federation of Industries.

Building on the fruitful cooperation between civil society and industry that produced the July 2006 Brazilian soya moratorium, in which major traders agreed to stop trading in soya grown on newly deforested land, the "Pact for Legal and Sustainable Timber" recognises the importance of voluntary agreements that combine economic production with environmental protection.

"In a country where intention and action don't always meet, the implementation of this agreement by industry and Government will be vital for establishing effective protection for the forests while preserving jobs. It will benefit local communities and promote legal and sustainable logging activities ", said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaign Director.

The agreement is a major step towards creating the governance system necessary for reducing deforestation and forest degradation by the Amazon logging sector. Furthermore, the pact meets several long-time Greenpeace demands calling for law enforcement, combined with positive incentives for local communities and to that part of the industry committed to environmental sustainability. Pará is the source of 45% of Brazilian Amazon's sawed timber and is notorious for its high rates of illegal timber activity.

It is expected that the pact will strengthen international measures to halt illegal logging, including the recent US decision to ban illegal wood imports (including a wide range of forest products) as part of the Lacey Act. It is also hoped that it might influence current discussions by the European Commission regarding legislation to ban illegal timber from the European market.

Some 63% to 80% of the timber produced in the Amazon is illegal. Not only does illegal and intense timber exploitation destroy the livelihoods of local peoples, but it is a major contributor to climate change. Recent science has shown that destruction of tropical forests is responsible for about one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil is currently the fourth largest emitter of Greenhouse gases worldwide, primarily due to the Amazon deforestation.

Source: Greenpeace International

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Brasilia, Brazil, June 17, 2008 - Greenpeace welcomes the decision to extend by one year the Amazon soya moratorium, made today at a press conference in Brasilia by the soya traders association (Abiove) (1), together with Brazil’s new Environment Minister Carlos Minc, Greenpeace and other NGOs.

The moratorium, which prohibits the purchase of soya from newly deforested areas in the Amazon, or from farmers using indentured or forced labourers, was the direct result of a Greenpeace investigation documented in our 2006 report “Eating up the Amazon” (2) and our subsequent campaign. The moratorium will now run until July 2009. (3)

Several soya producers had begun using rising agricultural commodity prices and global demand for grain to pressure Abiove and traders not to extend the moratorium. A handful even used the global food crisis to justify further Amazon deforestation. “The decision to extend the moratorium against the backdrop of rising commodity prices and the food crises shows that government and industry now understand that it is possible to protect the forest, combat climate change and still ensure food production,” said Paulo Adario,
Greenpeace Amazon campaign director in Brazil.

Greenpeace, together with other NGOs, will continue to help Abiove to bring effective governance to the soya industry in the Amazon. Greenpeace warns however, that a one year extension may not be long enough to build the tools necessary to ensure that soya production does not result in further deforestation. (4)

An alliance of soya consumer companies, led by McDonalds, Marks & Spencer and Carrefour also welcomed the extension decision and, in a joint statement, renewed its commitment to remaining actively engaged.' (5) In Brazil, the companies Wal-Mart, Sadia and Yoki also supported the statement.

The direct involvement of the Brazilian government is key to providing the framework essential for farmers to comply with the law. (6)

“The moratorium is a successful initiative by civil society and the soya industry. The Federal Government is entering the process now and is committed to register and license all rural properties in the Amazon biome,” Minc told reporters. “Inspired by the success of this initiative, the Brazilian government is negotiating similar approaches with the timber and beef industries.”

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