Brazil Investments Drive Amazon Deforestation, Report Claims

The Brazilian government has invested $2.65 billion in three major beef trading and leather processing companies that are key players in driving deforestation of the Amazon, according to a three-year investigation by the environmental group, Greenpeace. The group also said that shoe companies such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Timberland, which claim not to buy leather from cattle raised on cleared Amazon land, are in fact doing so — perhaps unwittingly — by purchasing leather from three companies that trade in cattle from the Amazon. Greenpeace identified the three companies involved in buying cattle grazed on illegally cleared Amazon land as Bertin, the world’s largest leather trader; JBS, the world’s largest beef trader; and Marfig, the world’s fourth-largest beef trader. The Brazilian government has a financial stake in all three companies, Greenpeace said in its report, “Slaughtering the Amazon.” Largely because of the clearing and burning of the Amazon — much of it for cattle production — Brazil is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.