JBS pressured to cease purchase of illegal cattle from the Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the last week of April, JBS, recognized as the world’s largest beef producer, was pressured by Amnesty International to halt its purchase of cattle that have illegally grazed in Amazon protected areas.

With deforestation rates breaking successive records, the world’s attention focuses ever more on the Brazilian Amazon, particularly after the Climate Summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden, in which Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest by 2030.

“The conservation of the Amazon is also about protecting the people who live in the region. We demand an end to human rights violations of Brazilians living there,” says Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil.

Electronically, the organization delivered the petition “Tell JBS not to buy illegal cattle from the Amazon,” to the company’s board of directors, with over 57,000 signatures from people in 84 countries.

“JBS needs to undertake a public commitment in partnership with its suppliers to compensate indigenous people and residents of protected areas where there has been illegal cattle ranching. Illegal cattle ranching favors other practices also associated with human rights violations such as land grabbing, land invasion and deforestation,” adds Werneck.

In parallel, Amnesty International launched the petition along with the report Da Floresta à Fazenda (From Forest to Farm), which accuses the presence, in the JBS supply chain, of illegally raised cattle in protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon forest.

The report charges   that in 2019 the company purchased cattle raised on illegal farms in the Amazonian state of Rondônia. Located in protected areas, these farms were operating illegally in the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau indigenous land and the Rio Jacy-Paraná and Rio Ouro Preto Extractive Reserves.

“We demonstrate in this document an association between forest destruction, cattle ranching, and human rights violations that urgently needs to stop,” concludes the executive director.

Source: Moneytimes