NGO links deforestation and land grabbing in the cerrado to Zara and H&M – 04/11/2024 – Environment

Until they arrive in the windows of giants like Zara and H&M, pants, shorts, t-shirts and cotton socks leave behind a trail of deforestation, land grabbing and human rights violations in Brazil. For the consumer, the pieces seem beyond suspicion: most bear a sustainable production seal.

The complaint is part of the Fashion Crimes report by the organization Earthsight, published this Thursday (11). Over the course of a year, a detailed investigation focused on the businesses that connect crops in Brazil, the fourth largest producer of the commodity in the world, to European brands.

The NGO analyzed the path taken by 816 thousand tons of cotton with the help of satellite images, records of merchandise shipments, public files and visits to producing regions.

According to the report, this raw material was destined especially for eight Asian companies that, between 2014 and 2023, manufactured around 250 million items for stores. Many of them, the investigation alleges, supplied brands such as H&M and Zara, among others.

“It’s shocking to see these links between global brands that are very recognized, but that, apparently, don’t make enough effort to have control over these supply chains, to know where the cotton comes from and what types of impact it causes”, says Rubens Carvalho, head of Deforestation Research at Earthsight, to DW.

Crimes in the cerrado

The problem, says the UK-based NGO, lies in the origin of the raw material. Exported cotton comes mainly from western Bahia, a region immersed in the Brazilian savannah, which is often illegally deforested to expand cultivation. On the rise, the cutting of this vegetation has doubled in the last five years, according to monitoring by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).

Among the cases analyzed in the report is the SLC Agrícola group. Founded in 1977 in Rio Grande do Sul, the group claims to be responsible for 11% of Brazilian cotton exported (2019/2020 harvest).

The Earthsight study also says that, in the last 12 years, an estimated 40,000 soccer fields of cerrado have been destroyed within SLC farms. In 2020, the company, which also grows soybeans, was identified as the biggest deforester in the biome, researchers from Chain Reaction Research calculate.

In 2021, SLC committed to a zero deforestation policy with suppliers. A year after the promise, a report by AidEnvironment identified the cutting of 1,365 hectares of Cerrado within cotton-growing properties, the equivalent of 1,300 football fields. Almost half were within the legal reserve.

A query carried out by Earthsight in the Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) database shows more than R$ 1.2 million in fines applied for environmental infractions since 2008 on the group’s farms in western Bahia.

One of SLC’s shareholders is the British Odey Asset Management. In 2020, in an interview with the British daily Financial Times, the company’s founder said that paying environmental penalties in Brazil was as commonplace as “paying traffic fines”.

When questioned, the group stated in a note to DW that “all conversions of area with native vegetation in SLC followed the limits established by law.” Specifically regarding the area deforested in 2022 highlighted in the AidEnvironment report, the company says that the destruction occurred due to “a natural fire, not caused by the opening of new areas for production”.

Regarding the fines imposed by Ibama, SLC Agrícola says it has appealed all the fines administratively. “The fines that were the subject of an appeal are in progress and there has not been, to date, a definitive judgment”, says the note.

“Green land grabbing”

Another group analyzed in detail is Horita, originally from Paraná and active in Bahia since the 1980s. Among the various complaints made by Earthsight is the so-called green land grabbing: imposition of legal reserves, or private property preservation areas, in areas where traditional communities live. The maneuver prevents families from carrying out subsistence activities and, in the worst cases, remaining on the land.

The land conflict between the Geraizeiras families, as these traditional communities in the region identify themselves, and farmers dates back to 1970. In the following decade, the company Delfin Rio purchased land and registered the enterprise as Agronegócio Condomínio Cachoeira do Estrondo. According to the state’s Association of Rural Workers Lawyers (AATR), the Horita group is one of the partners in the farm complex.

In 2017, Geraizeira families from the rural area of ​​Formosa do Rio Preto, in western Bahia, filed a lawsuit against Estrondo for land grabbing and gained, on an injunction basis, collective possession of 43 thousand hectares that the enterprise claimed to have purchased. Most of it is in the heart of Matopiba, an area of ​​agribusiness expansion that integrates the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, inhabited for more than 200 years by geraizeiros.

In 2019, the Federal Police’s Operation Faroeste revealed a collusion by the high-ranking Bahian magistrate to favor farmers in the same region. According to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), a sentence purchase scheme would have generated billions of dollars in land disputes and involved the participation of magistrates, businesspeople, lawyers and public servants. Walter Horita, one of the group’s founders, is one of the defendants in the case, which is still on trial.

One of the magistrates accused of selling sentences to land grabbers, according to Operation Faroeste, acted in the action that judged the collective ownership of the land grabbers. According to AATR, the injunction in favor of the communities was only enforced after the judge’s removal and arrest.

Contacted by DW, Grupo Horita declared this Wednesday that it “will await the release of the report for any new statement, in addition to those already made by its legal department, in response to the NGO’s accusations”.

“All negative allegations against Grupo Horita contained in the Earthsight Letter, dated 08/23/2023, as supposed ‘findings’, do not correspond to the truth”, says an excerpt of the response sent to the NGO.

Route to European brands

During the investigation, Earthsight followed the route of 816 thousand tons of cotton exports that left SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita between 2014 and 2023 to the main destinations: China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Based on data that allows tracking — which does not occur in the Chinese case —, the clues led to eight clothing manufacturers in Asia.

All identified intermediaries (PT Kahatex, in Indonesia; Noam Group and Jamuna Group, in Bagladesh; Nisha, Interloop, YBG, Sapphire, Mtmt, in Pakistan) supply finished products to brands such as Zara and H&M, according to the NGO.

“The cotton we associate with land rights and environmental abuses in Bahia is Better Cotton certified. This initiative failed to prevent this cotton from reaching concerned consumers,” the Earthsight report states.

Created in 2009 by industry and other organizations, including WWF, the initiative created a seal to certify the origin of raw materials in order to guarantee quality and respect for the environment. In Brazil, according to data from Better Cotton, there are 370 farms certified in partnership with Abrapa (Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers).

In 2018, an analysis carried out by the Changing Markets Foundation, an organization that aims to align markets with sustainability standards based in the Netherlands, on certifiers highlighted problems at Better Cotton. “In general, standards for certified cotton are low and only apply at the beginning of the cotton supply chain. Considering certification to be a guarantee of sustainability is misleading,” the survey said.

Geneva-based Better Cotton told DW it has just completed an enhanced third-party audit of the farms involved and needs time to analyze the findings and implement changes if necessary. “The questions raised [pelo relatório] demonstrate the pressing need for government support in addressing the issues brought to light and ensuring a fair and effective implementation of the rule of law”, says the initiative’s email.

More control of chains

To DW, H&M stated that “the report’s conclusions are highly worrying” and that they take the issue very seriously. “We are in close dialogue with Better Cotton to monitor the outcome of the investigation and the next steps that will be taken to strengthen and review its standard”, replied the retailer, also via email.

Zara told DW that it takes “the allegations against Better Cotton extremely seriously” and demands that the certifier share the results of its investigation as soon as possible.

“In addition, we urgently request the steps taken by Better Cotton to ensure sustainable cotton certification to the highest standards,” the retailer said in a statement.

This Wednesday, Inditex, owner of Zara, demanded more transparency from Better Cotton after announcing the release of the report for this Thursday. Inditex sent a letter to the initiative dated April 8, asking for clarification on the certification process and progress in production chain tracking practices. Inditex does not purchase cotton directly from suppliers, but producing companies are audited by certification bodies such as Better Cotton.

For Rubens Carvalho, from Earthsight, holding Europeans accountable is part of the solution to end deforestation and rights violations in commodity producing centers, such as Brazil.

“Cotton is still poorly regulated in European markets. They need to regulate its consumption and separate it from negative environmental and human impacts. Serious regulation is needed, which punishes in case of non-compliance. This increases the pressure on producers”, he argues Oak.