Brazilian state demands millions in environmental damage from giant meat packer

Brazilian authorities are seeking millions of dollars in damages and fines from the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS, and three smaller slaughterhouses, according to court documents accusing them of buying cattle raised on illegally deforested lands in the Amazon rainforest .

The lawsuits come as JBS pursues a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which would give the company greater access to capital. They are expected to increase pressure on the company, which was the case recently the subject of a Senate hearing because of the link between the supply chain and deforestation. The United States is JBS’s largest market.

The 17 lawsuits, filed by the state of Rondônia, in the west of the country, say the companies bought livestock raised in one of the Amazon’s most devastated protected areas, the Jaci-Paraná Extractive Reserve, which accounts for 77 percent of has lost its forest cover since it was founded. was founded in 1996. Dozens of members of traditional communities there have left in fear of the land grabbers and farmers who have taken over most of the reserve.

JBS is the largest buyer of livestock from the Amazon rainforest, and experts say ranching is the biggest cause of deforestation there. Forest destruction, coupled with climate change, is already transforming moist ecosystems that store large amounts of planet-warming gases into drier zones that instead release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The result is a double whammy for efforts to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.

A 2021 Times investigation found that leather from cattle raised in Jaci-Paraná had ended up on the seats of pickup trucks, SUVs and other vehicles sold by some of the world’s largest automakers. JBS was a major supplier of the leather. At the time, it disputed allegations that it had purchased cattle raised on illegally deforested lands.

In a statement on Wednesday, JBS said it operates a robust monitoring system in Brazil covering an area three times the size of Britain to ensure its suppliers are not occupying areas illegally. “JBS is committed to a sustainable beef supply chain,” the company said.

Three of the seventeen lawsuits, which were first reported by The Associated Press And Agência Publica, are against JBS and a group of ranchers accused of selling company cattle raised on ranches on the reservation. The other lawsuits are against three smaller meatpackers accused of purchasing hundreds of cattle raised on the reservation.

Rondônia state authorities say farmers sold 227 cattle raised on about 1,000 hectares of illegally deforested land to JBS between 2019 and 2021. The state is seeking nearly $3.5 million in damages from the company and farmers. It also imposes fines on JBS of more than $400,000, although these can be challenged in court. Attorneys for the state did not respond to a request for comment.

JBS has made some progress on compliance in recent years, following federal prosecutors in Pará state has filed lawsuits environmental damage caused by a group of meat packers in 2009. Prosecutors did not win the case, but continued to establish a program that controls livestock purchases.

An audit of JBS’s livestock purchases in Pará found that 6 percent came from so-called irregular ranches. a steep decline from 2020, when an audit found that 32 percent of animals came from illegal sources. The same audit in Rondônia this year found that 12 percent of livestock purchases by JBS did not comply with the law.

Under the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, deforestation in Brazil’s rainforest has fallen to its lowest level in five years in the past 12 months.

“There are signs that things are improving,” said Paulo Barreto, a researcher focused on livestock farming at Imazon, a nonprofit research organization based in Belém, Brazil. But, he added, change wasn’t coming quickly enough.

Governments come and go, he said, so “this stronger commitment from companies is very important to signal to politicians that things will not go back to the way they were before.”

Lawsuits seeking to hold meatpackers responsible for deforestation are rare, Barreto said. This is partly because purchases of livestock raised in illegally deforested areas are often difficult to trace; they go through intermediaries who provide documents proving the animals come from legal farms, the Times’ 2021 investigation found.

Daniel Azeredo, a federal prosecutor who has been investigating the livestock industry for more than a decade, said the Rondônia lawsuits “reinforce the need for the country to improve traceability.” Without that, he added, “we will continue to have the same problems.”

A judge in Rondônia, Pedro Sillas Carvalho, has expressed doubts about the lawsuits filed by the state, according to a filing last week. He wrote that prosecutors should consider the economic impact of their actions because the departure of illegal farmers from the reserve could cause “loss of revenue.” The Times could not reach Judge Sillas Carvalho for comment.