European supermarkets pull beef products linked to Brazil deforestation

Multiple supermarkets across Europe have pledged to remove beef products that are linked to deforestation in Brazil, a US activist group announced on Thursday.

Chains including Carrefour Belgium, Delhaize and Auchan will be removing products. Other chains including Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, as well as Lidl and Sainsbury's and Princes in the UK, are also involved.

Products that are being withdrawn include corned beef, beef jerky and fresh prime cuts, which are suspected to have been sourced from cattle raised in the Amazon and the Pantanal tropical wetlands.

The withdrawals come after US activist group Mighty Earth partnered with Brazilian non-government organization, Reporter Brasil, to reveal links between deforestation and the Sao Paulo manufacturing plants of Brazilian meat processing giants JBS, Marfrig and Minerva.

The world's most important forests need protection Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest is an important carbon sink and one of world's the most biodiverse places. But decades of extensive logging and cattle farming have eradicated about 2 million square kilometers (772.2 million square miles) of it, while less than half of what remains is under protection. A recent study showed that some parts of the Amazon now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

The world's most important forests need protection Taiga This subarctic northern forest, mainly composed of conifers, stretches across Scandinavia and large parts of Russia. Conservation of the taiga varies from country to country. In Eastern Siberia, for example, strict Soviet era protections left the landscape largely intact but Russia's ensuing economic downturn has prompted increasingly destructive levels of logging.

The world's most important forests need protection Canada’s Boreal Forests North America's subarctic taiga are known as boreal forests and stretch from Alaska to Quebec — covering a third of Canada. About 94% of Canada’s boreal forests are on public land and controlled by the government but only about 8% is protected. Canada, one of the world's main exporters of paper products, logs about 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles) of this forest every year.

The world's most important forests need protection Congo Basin Rainforest The Congo River nurtures one of the world's oldest and densest rainforests — home to some of Africa's most iconic animals, including gorillas, elephants, and chimpanzees. But the region is also rich in oil, gold, diamonds and other valuable minerals. Mining and hunting have fueled its rapid deforestation, which scientists say will entirely wipe it out by 2100 at current rates.

The world's most important forests need protection Borneo Tropical Forests A 140-million-year-old ecoregion that expands across Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia and gives shelter to hundreds of endangered species such as red orangutan and Sumatran rhino, large swaths of rainforest here are being degraded for timber, palm oil, pulp, rubber and minerals. Such activities have also boosted illegal wildlife trade as cleared forests have enabled hunters to access remote areas.

The world's most important forests need protection Primorye Forest Located in Russia's far east, the coniferous forest hosts the Siberian tiger and dozens of other endangered species. With its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the forest sees tropical conditions in summer and arctic weather in winter. The Primorye Forest's remoteness, along with preservation efforts, have left it largely intact but expanding commercial logging has become a growing threat.

The world's most important forests need protection Valdivian Temperate Rainforests This forest region covers a narrow strip of land between the western slope of the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. Trees like the slow-growth, long-lived Nothofagus and Fitzroya grow in parts of the Valdivian. Extensive logging threatens these endemic trees, which are being replaced with fast-growing pines and eucalyptus that cannot sustain the region's biodiversity. Author: Monir Ghaedi

Reporter Brasil has alleged that JBS was involved in a scheme known as "cattle laundering," where cows are indirectly sourced cows from illegally deforested areas. In such a scheme, cows are raised on illegally deforested land, then sold on to a legitimate farm before being sent to the slaughterhouse, to obscure the origin of the cattle.

The widest-reaching pledge came from Lidl Netherlands, which said it would stop selling all beef originating in South America starting in 2022. The less dramatic moves were limited to halting sales of certain corned beef or beef jerky products.

Mighty Earth criticized German supermarkets, including Rewe, Edeka, Metro and Netto, for failing to commit to similar initiatives.

"We look at the origin of the products that we would have in other countries — if we find any — to make similar decisions if the case arises," Agathe Grossmith, Carrefour's director of corporate social responsibility, told the AFP news agency.

A spokesman for Sainsbury's, which sources most of its beef products from Britain and Ireland, told AFP it was working to ensure proper sourcing of its corned beef products outside Brazil.

An Albert Heijn spokesperson told AFP: "We have now taken the decision to eliminate progressively Brazilian beef and are seeking out alternatives from other countries of origin."

Watch video 08:10 Brazil's appetite for beef eats into rainforest

Meat processor JBS told the Reuters news agency that it had zero tolerance for illegal deforestation and that it has already blocked more than 14,000 suppliers for failing to comply with its policies. It also said monitoring indirect suppliers was a challenge for the entire sector, but that JBS will institute a system capable of doing so by 2025.

Under the rule of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation has soared in Brazil's Amazon, with Bolsonaro claiming it will lift people out of poverty.Deforestation hit a 15-year high in 2021, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

Most of the deforested land is used for cattle ranching.

Mighty Earth director Nico Muzi said in a statement that the "noose [is] tightening" around the necks of those involved in deforestation.