London / Rio de Janeiro. Clothing factories that supply H&M and Zara are buying cotton linked to environmental destruction and land grabs in Brazil’s Cerrado, according to research by non-profit organization Earthsight.
While global concern has focused on the impact of cattle and soy farming in the Amazon, deforestation alerts in Brazil’s lesser-known Cerrado area increased 44 percent in 2023, according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
The Cerrado is a key area for biodiversity in the Brazilian tropical savannah where deforestation is skyrocketing, according to Earthsight research. Cotton is one of the main culprits, as the country aims to become the world’s largest exporter.
“Businesses and consumers in Europe and North America are driving this destruction in a new way. Not by what they eat, but by what they wear,” said the report, details of which were first obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The group’s researchers traced thousands of shipping records between two cotton producers, which they said were linked to land grabbing and illegal deforestation in the Cerrado, to Asian manufacturers who supply finished garments to brands such as H&M and Zara, owned by Inditex, the largest in the world and the center of Earthsight research.
Better Cotton strictly prohibits land grabbing and deforestation.
Zara owner spokesperson.
According to the report, a sustainability standard used by fashion brands called Better Cotton is “fundamentally flawed” and does not guarantee consumers that they are not buying cotton from Brazilian farms implicated in environmental crimes.
Better Cotton certifies producers who meet its sustainability standards and labor practices, and says it covers 22 percent of global cotton production.
H&M called Earthsight’s initial findings “very concerning” and said it had asked Better Cotton to conduct a third-party investigation, the results of which a Better Cotton spokesperson said the organization was still analyzing.
A spokesperson for InditexITX.MC, which owns Zara, said Better Cotton “strictly prohibits” practices such as land grabbing and deforestation and that it takes the allegations against Better Cotton “very seriously,” pledging to monitor the outcome of the investigation.
Brazil’s cotton exports have caused it to lose half of its vegetation
Brazil’s cotton exports have increased sharply in the last decade due to a boom in production in the Cerrado, which has lost about half of its natural vegetation to agriculture and where laws restricting deforestation are less strict. than in the Amazon.
With an area larger than that of Mexico, the savannah includes forest areas and other vegetation vital to slowing global warming by absorbing and storing carbon. Additionally, it is home to endangered animals such as the maned wolf and the giant anteater.
It is also a key source of water for much of South America, but the expansion of farming is threatening the water reserves of traditional communities and has pushed them off the grazing lands they have used for generations, environmental researchers say.
Communities have lost access to plateaus that used to have natural pastures where family livestock grazed.
Mauricio Correia Silva, research consultant.
According to data from the IPAM environmental institute, three quarters of the savannah vegetation lost in 2023 was located in Matopiba, headquarters of the vast Agronegocio Estrondo farm, which mainly produces cotton, soybeans and corn.
Estrondo, which is made up of several farms, has been expanding into untouched areas even closer to villagers, and in the past established checkpoints with armed security to restrict residents’ movements and activities, Earthsight noted.
Farmer Adão Batista Gomes, 62, whose family has lived in the region for generations, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that his nephew was shot in the leg in 2019 by a man who worked for Estrondo when he tried to recover the cattle held by the guards of a corral, after entering an area claimed by the farmers of the farm.
2024-04-11 02:08:27
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