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Slaughtering the Amazon?
Posted by jossc on 1 June 2009.
Boots and training shoes are not the first things that spring to mind when you think about the causes of rainforest destruction and climate change. But just because the connection isn't obvious doesn't mean it isn't real - as our researchers have been busy proving in a new report released today.
Slaughtering the Amazon tracks beef and leather products on their journey from farms involved in illegal deforestation and in some cases slavery, via giant processing facilities to the supply chains of some of our best known global brands. Shoe companies like Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Timberland and even Clarks are sourcing a significant proportion of their leather from the Amazon - and it's big business.
But it's not only shoes. Products as diverse as handbags and ready meals, and companies as big as Tesco, BMW, IKEA and Kraft also rely on Amazon leather and beef. Practically all of us will have some by-product of Amazon destruction in our homes somewhere, whether we like it or not. Effectively, these brands are driving this destruction by buying beef and leather products from unscrupulous suppliers in Brazil.
Right now the cattle industry is the single biggest cause of deforestation in the world as trees are cleared to make way for ranches. And the Brazilian government is also fuelling the process by offering billions of dollars in loans to support the expansion of the cattle industry. President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva has pledged to double his country's share of the global beef market by 2018. The report contrasts these investments with Lula's recent promise to cut deforestation by 72 per cent by the same date and to set up an international fund for protecting the Amazon.
This is a disaster for the fight against climate change and it's got to stop. We're asking President Lula to announce an immediate end to the felling of Amazon trees to create large cattle ranches, and commit to zero deforestation in the rainforest by 2015.
And here, at the other end of the supply chain, it's about time that our high street shoe brands recognised that wrecking the rainforest and the climate in search of a quick profit is not going to endear them to their customers. If they want to retain the good name of their brands they'd be wise to take a stand and stop doing business with the worst Brazilian suppliers immediately.
What you can do
Write to the CEOs of leading shoe companies and explain to them that their dependence on Amazon leather is supporting forest destruction and global climate change.
