Some of world’s largest footwear brands have demanded an immediate stop to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their Brazilian leather suppliers.
The move follows three years of undercover research by Greenpeace, published this summer in a report entitled Slaughtering the Amazon.
The investigation concluded that leading Brazilian suppliers of leather and beef for products had obtained cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation.
Footwear companies, including Adidas, Clarks and Nike will now refuse to buy leather sourced from farms on both legally and illegally deforested land. They have also demanded that suppliers bring in a stringent traceability system within a year, ‘credibly’ guaranteeing the source of all leather.
Clarks said it will require suppliers of Brazilian leather ‘to certify, in writing, that they are not supplying leather from recently deforested areas’.
Some beef companies named in the report, such as Bertin, JBS and Marfrig, have also agreed to take measures to combat illegal deforestation.
The Brazilian government, though it has invested heavily in the beef and leather industry, has welcomed the actions.
Clearing tropical forests for agriculture is estimated to produce 17 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions – more than the global transport system – while cattle farming is now the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest. Brazil’s leather industry is worth $2billion (£1.2bn) a year, behind only China, and the country is the world’s largest beef exporter.
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