BRAZIL – Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency, IBAMA, has fined cattle ranchers and meatpacking companies, including global giant JBS SA, a combined 365 million reais (US$64 million) for their roles in cattle-raising operations linked to illegal Amazon deforestation, Reuters reports.
IBAMA’s investigation identified 69 properties responsible for raising approximately 18,000 cattle on illegally cleared Amazon land, with 23 meatpacking companies in the states of Pará and Amazonas purchasing cattle from these ranches.
This latest enforcement effort is part of IBAMA’s ongoing strategy to reduce Amazon deforestation by tracking supply chains that involve cattle from illegally deforested areas.
JBS SA, the world’s largest meat processor, refuted IBAMA’s findings, stating that none of its purchases came from restricted or embargoed areas.
The company claims its geospatial monitoring systems are designed to prevent sourcing from farms engaged in illegal deforestation or encroaching on protected lands, such as indigenous territories and environmental conservation areas.
The Amazon region has seen significant deforestation over recent decades, fueled by large-scale cattle ranching, land clearing for timber sales, and soy farming.
The vast scale of this deforestation has drawn international attention and domestic regulations.
In 2013, numerous meatpacking companies, including JBS, committed to agreements with Brazilian prosecutors to avoid cattle purchases from ranches involved in illegal land clearing or flagged for environmental violations.
JBS and other major agricultural companies have since pledged to remove deforestation from their supply chains by 2025, including indirect suppliers selling cattle to middlemen who then supply meatpacking facilities.
Deforestation remains a major environmental challenge in Brazil, which previously led global deforestation rates and recorded its highest levels in 2005.
Since 1970, over 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest have been lost, reducing the forest’s size to roughly 87% of its original area by 2001.
Official data indicates that approximately 729,000 square kilometers, or 17% of the Amazon biome, have been cleared to date, with an estimated 300,000 square kilometers lost in the past two decades alone.
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