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It’s been a turbulent few weeks in the Brazilian cattle world – new data on illegal deforestation, JBS caught apparently ‘laundering’ cattle from farms with #deforestation, investor threats, and one European fund dumping all JBS stock altogether.
ICYMI, a THREAD.
ICYMI, a THREAD.
A timely study measured illegal deforestation in Brazil revealing how current approaches don't address it, though it's concentrated on a small number of properties. Companies need to improve transparency in their supply chains to weed out the ‘bad apples’ https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6501/246
And as the fire season begins, things risk getting worse - despite a temporary ban on new burns, INPE spotted 2,248 fires in the Amazon in June 2020 compared with 1,880 in June last year. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/01/americas/brazil-forest-fires-amazon-intl/index.html
Against this backdrop, there has been growing investor pressure for the government to get deforestation under control. In early July, 29 global investment firms with $3.7 trillion in assets threatened to divest from Brazil... https://in.reuters.com/article/brazil-environment-investors/global-investors-demand-to-meet-brazil-diplomats-over-deforestation-idINKBN23V0DL
This move prompted 39 Brazilian companies, including the meat packer Marfrig, to write to the Brazilian government requesting increased efforts to control deforestation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment/brazilian-companies-join-call-for-action-on-amazon-deforestation-idUSKBN2482FK
In addition, Marfrig seem to have put forward a ‘positive plan’ to tackle deforestation, and Minerva report they are trialing the ‘visipec’ tool for monitoring indirect suppliers – both good news (though perhaps long overdue)... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/28/investors-drop-brazil-meat-giant-jbs
JBS on the other hand, were caught apparently using their own trucks to move cattle from a farm with deforestation to another ‘clean’ farm, which supplies JBS’s slaughterhouses. Great investigation by @TBIJ and @reporterbrasil: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2020-07-27/brazilian-meat-giant-jbs-trucked-cattle-from-deforested-amazon-ranch
And JBS’ lack of progress on deforestation even led to them being dropped altogether by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a €230bn (£210bn) investment fund.
This list of developments just scratch the surface – there was also an open letter by Ibama, the Brazilian environmental enforcement agency, highlighting measures that need to be taken to curb deforestation…
http://www.ascemanacional.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Technical-statement-to-the-President-of-IBAMA_.pdf
Who know where things will go from here…
http://www.ascemanacional.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Technical-statement-to-the-President-of-IBAMA_.pdf
Who know where things will go from here…
