Brazil
We're fighting to protect the biggest rainforest in the world and everyone who depends on it.
We're fighting to protect the biggest rainforest in the world and everyone who depends on it.
Brazil is home to approximately 60% of the Amazon rainforest - the biggest in the world - as well as a range of other diverse biomes such as the cerrado, caatinga, pantanal, and pampa. These biomes, which sequester huge amounts of carbon and host some of the world’s highest concentrations of biodiversity, are under great threat - as are the indigenous peoples and local communities who protect them.
Brazil is also one of the world’s leading exporters of agricultural commodities – among them soy, beef and leather. Our work in Brazil engages with government, civil society, Indigenous peoples’ groups, and the private sector to promote land and natural resource use that is both sustainable, accountable, and compliant with law.
This also involves looking at financial actors whose investments are driving those climate and biodiversity impacts.
We collaborate with Brazilian and EU partners to make sure the EU Deforestation Regulation is complied with and properly enforced. Brazil is a huge exporter of soy, beef, leather and other high-risk commodities; we work with partners to achieve compliance and target the biggest offenders.
We're planning legal actions that tackle the main causes of deforestation and violations of Indigenous and Local Community (IPLC) rights. This involves steps like investigating the import/export chains of garimpo gold production (such as identifying companies profiting from the trade), supporting legal processes to protect Indigenous territories, and finding ways to enhance legal assistance for IPLC lawyers.
We’re filing a legal complaint against US-based agribusiness giant Cargill over its failure to deal with its contribution to deforestation and related human rights abuses in Brazil.
Cargill is one of the biggest food companies on the planet and one of the largest exporters of Brazilian soy, supplying major retail brands including Tesco, McDonalds and Sainsbury's. But we’ve found that the company is failing to carry out proper checks on the vast amount of soy it buys, trades and ships to markets worldwide to ensure it isn’t causing harm to people and nature.