Less than two weeks after the release of the Greenpeace report “Slaughtering the Amazon”, which analyzes the Amazon cattle industry, Brazil’s three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, decided to suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved with deforestation in the region.

Furthermore, the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras) stated that guidelines will be developed to prevent that from happening again, and independent auditing will be allowed to ensure that cattle products are sourced only from legally explored Amazon lands.

Following this trend, Adidas and Timberland stated that they too will ask their suppliers for guarantees that the leather they use does not come from areas of deforestation.

“This is an important first step towards winning a halt to further deforestation for cattle in the Amazon,” stated Greenpeace on its blog.

Cattle ranching, the biggest driver of deforestation in the country, accounts for roughly 80% of forest clearing in the Brazilian Amazon, which is now home to more that 80 million cattle, scattered across more than 214,000 square miles. That’s more than 85% of the total U.S. herd, occupying a territory that surpasses the area of France.

Contributed by Maurice Soares, appearing on PSFK Sao Paulo / Mandalah

[Image via Midia News]

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