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Cattle ranching is considered to trigger most of Amazon's deforestation.
Brazil's JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, announced on Wednesday that it would monitor its entire supply chain by 2025 alongside a broad set of measures to fight deforestation in the Amazon. This as pressure grows from environmentalists and consumers to take more radical actions amid ravaging fires in the rainforest.
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The company launched today its Together for the Amazon program, which includes funding of $182 million over the first five years allocated to forest conservation and deforestation, socioeconomic development of the communities, and scientific and technological development.
For years, the company has been criticized by several environmental organizations over receiving cattle that were raised in illegally deforested Amazon lands. These ranchers act as a third party by offering cattle to JBS's direct suppliers. Cattle ranching is considered to trigger most of Amazon's deforestation.
"Currently, the company does not monitor indirect suppliers, and no company does so. But we plan to close this gap using technology," explained the CEO of JBS Gilberto Tomazoni as assured that the company's 50.000 direct suppliers are already monitored.
#SomosTodosAmazônia: 110 famílias foram beneficiadas em Santarém, nessa terça-feira (22), pela entrega de alimentos adquiridos de pequenas agricultoras familiares da Associação de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais (Amabela).
— IPAM_Amazônia (@IPAM_Amazonia) September 23, 2020
Matéria completa: https://t.co/zMGCHQKiU9 pic.twitter.com/3xiQDrhUFH
"#SomosTodosAmazônia: 110 families benefited from Santarém, nessa terça-feira (22), for the delivery of food acquired from small family farmers of the Associação de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais (Amabela)."
The company said that its current monitoring scheme has "enabled commercial embargoes on 9,000 ranches, whose status is non-compliance with the JBS's procurement policies."
However, for the first time, the corporation will commit to "share its supplier monitoring technology with livestock farmers, financial institutions, and other companies seeking to adopt socioenvironmental criteria vis-a-vis their value chain."
Amazon's deforestation crisis has raised preoccupations among JBS investors, which forced the company to take a more proactive stance. In July 2020, Nordea Asset Management decided to eliminate JBS's funds from its shares over environmental concerns.
The program will start in Mato Grosso state, primarily affected by ongoing fires in the Pantanal wetland.
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