Forests
Brazil
Small banner: Annual report 2020 - Time for a climate revolution

For more examples of our impact, see our 2020 annual report 

Our investigation Beef, Banks and the Brazilian Amazon revealed that a chain of actors from cattle ranchers through to multinational beef traders, international financiers, supermarkets and fast-food chains, and the governments that regulate them, are either destroying rainforests or are complicit in the destruction of the Amazon, with flawed audits undertaken by US and European auditors.

Intact forest and biodiversity in Acre state, Brazil, November 2020

Intact forest and biodiversity in Acre state, Brazil, November 2020. Lalo de Almeida / Panos / Global Witness

Our findings contributed to the work of other civil society organisations to secure a commitment from Brazilian beef giant JBS to monitor indirect beef suppliers for deforestation in their supply chain. Due to our exposé, the company also blocked one of its prized cattle suppliers that was fined by Brazilian forest enforcement agencies for committing illegal forest clearance, but which had previously escaped JBS’s due diligence procedures.

Meanwhile, in the days after our report was published, it was reported that UK supermarket Morrisons would stop stocking JBS beef. Separately, Brazilian Federal Prosecutors also agreed to review our evidence in their audits of the company’s compliance with its legal ‘no deforestation’ agreements. 

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