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Brazilian beef giants agree to moratorium on Amazon deforestation mongabay.com October 07, 2009 JBS-Friboi, Bertin, Minerva and Marfrig will implement certification and monitoring systems to ensure that beef and leather in their supply chains is not being produced as a result of new forest clearing. The companies also agreed to ban buying of cattle from ranches using slave labor or illegally occupying protected areas and indigenous reserves. “This is an important step in the fight to stop the destruction of one of the world’s most critical rainforests and vital to helping tackle climate change,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign director. The agreement [the text of which follows the "Related articles" section at the bottom of the post] is partly a response to the fallout from a report Greenpeace published in June. The report linked some of the world's best known consumer product brands to illegal Amazon rainforest felling. Days after the report was released, Brazil's biggest domestic beef buyers, supermarket chains Wal-Mart, Carrefour, and Pão de Açúcar, announced they would suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation. Bertin, the world's second largest beef exporter, saw its $90 million loan from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation withdrawn. Investigators raided the offices of JBS, the world's largest beef processor, and other firms, arresting executives for corruption, fraud, and collusion. And a Brazilian federal prosecutor filed a billion-dollar law suit against the cattle industry for environmental damage, warning that firms found to be marketing tainted meat will be subject to fines of 500 reais ($260) per kilo. BNDES, the development bank that accounts for most financing for the agricultural sector in Brazil, announced it would reform its lending policies, making loans contingent on environmental performance. These developments virtually ensured that the industry would have to establish better monitoring and verfication systems for their supply chains. Now the question is whether these systems will be credible enough to appease buyers, regulators, and environmental pressure groups. Related articles Concerns over deforestation may drive new approach to cattle ranching in the Amazon 
(09/08/2009) While you're browsing the mall for running shoes, the Amazon rainforest is probably the farthest thing from your mind. Perhaps it shouldn't be. The globalization of commodity supply chains has created links between consumer products and distant ecosystems like the Amazon. Shoes sold in downtown Manhattan may have been assembled in Vietnam using leather supplied from a Brazilian processor that subcontracted to a rancher in the Amazon. But while demand for these products is currently driving environmental degradation, this connection may also hold the key to slowing the destruction of Earth's largest rainforest.
Brazil's development bank to require beef-tracking system to avoid illegal Amazon deforestation (07/01/2009) Responding to allegations that major Brazilian cattle producers are responsible for illegal forest clearing in the Amazon, Brazil's development bank BNDES will soon require processors to trace the origin of beef back to the ranch where it was produced in order to qualify for loans, reports Brazil's Agencia Estado. The traceability program aims to ensure that cattle products do not come from illegally deforested land. Wal-Mart bans beef illegally produced in the Amazon rainforest 
(06/12/2009) Brazil's three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, will suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation, reports O Globo. The decision, announced at a meeting of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras) this week, comes less than two weeks after Greenpeace's exposé of the Amazon cattle industry. The report, titled Slaughtering the Amazon, linked some of the world's most prominent brands — including Nike, Toyota, Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and Johnson & Johnson, among dozens of others — to destruction of the Amazon rainforest for cattle pasture.
Nike, Unilever, Burger King, IKEA may unwittingly contribute to Amazon destruction, says Greenpeace
(06/01/2009) Major international companies are unwittingly driving the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest through their purchases of leather, beef and other products supplied from the Brazil cattle industry, alleges a new report from Greenpeace. The report, Slaughtering the Amazon, is based on a three-year undercover investigation of the Brazilian cattle industry, which accounts for 80 percent of Amazon deforestation and roughly 14 percent of the world's annual forest loss. Greenpeace found that Brazilian beef companies are important suppliers of raw materials used by leading global brands, including Adidas/Reebok, Nike, Carrefour, Eurostar, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Honda, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, IKEA, Kraft, Tesco and Wal-Mart, among others.
MINIMUM CRITERIA FOR INDUSTRIAL SCALE CATTLE OPERATIONS IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON BIOME The following criteria apply to all agribusiness companies operating within the Brazilian Amazon biome, hereafter referred to as COMPANIES, and for all and any property which supplies COMPANIES with cattle, including beef, leather and other cattle by-products. These criteria must be met as pre-conditions to any purchase or commercial contract and in all relevant operations of the COMPANIES, their affiliates and subsidiaries. The criteria shall not be used to justify future deforestation of any kind in any other region. 1. ZERO DEFORESTATION IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: No new deforestation for cattle ranching will be accepted after 4 October 2009.
b) Within a period of two years after the signing of the commitment to adopt these criteria, COMPANIES commit to proving, in a manner that can be monitored, verified and reportable, that none of their indirect suppliers (such as rearing and nursery farms involved in the COMPANIES’ supply chain) engaged in deforestation of the Amazon biome after the reference date of this agreement, is on the supplier list. c) Within a period of six months, the COMPANY will reassess, together with Greenpeace and other stakeholders, the deadlines related to indirect suppliers quoted on item 1.b. d) Rural properties in the Amazon biome where deforestation is proven to be taking place after the reference date of this agreement will be excluded from the COMPANY’s list of suppliers and will only be accepted again after they have proved environmental damages have been repaired, have signed the Terms of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC), any applicable fines have been paid and can provide evidence of complying with current environmental legislation into force, including complying with the one related to land tenure. 2. REJECTION OF INVASION OF INDIGENOUS LANDS AND PROTECTED AREAS: COMPANIES and their products must be free from involvement in the invasion of indigenous lands and protected areas under federal, State or municipal law. a) Farms accused by the Public Prosecution Office (MPF) or FUNAI (the National Agency dealing with Indigenous Issues) of invading Indigenous lands; which are included in the list of properties embargoed by IBAMA (the Brazilian Environmental Agency); or which have been fined by State or Federal authorities for invading protected areas, will be removed from the COMPANIES’ list of suppliers, at the moment in which the COMPANY becomes well aware of the facts. Those farms will only be accepted again after they have proved environmental damages have been repaired, have signed a Terms of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC), any applicable fines have been paid and can provide evidence of complying with current legislation established by the Ministry of Labour (MTE), the Public Prosecution Office (MPF), FUNAI, IBAMA, and others. 3. REJECTION OF SLAVERY WORK: COMPANIES must sign and comply strictly with the National Pact against Slave Labour.
Cattle and by-products shall only be supplied by farms or groups who have formally committed to adopting a trustworthy tracking system which, apart from meeting current demands – such as those established by the SISBOV system currently in place, also includes clear environmental criteria aimed at putting an end to deforestation.
COMPANIES must inform their suppliers of all above requirements and must make clear that those which are not in accordance with these criteria will not be accepted as suppliers. A commission shall be constituted for monitoring and following-up the protocol hereafter signed with the aim of analyzing, studying and correcting the path of the sector towards the goal of zero deforestation. With these aims, the commission will meet every month with representatives of the cattle sector, NGOs, clients, financial system and government. PDF version of the agreement SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
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