Brazilian slaughterhouses fail to fully meet first deadline for stopping Amazon deforestation

Brazil has become one of the world’s leading exporters of beef, leather, and other cattle products, and the country’s government is fostering further development of this sector. If they want to keep leading the global market, it is in the Brazilian slaughterhouses’ best interest to ensure cattle do not come from newly deforested parts of the Amazon or ranches that profit from the use of slave labor.

Photo courtesy of Leonardo Freitas/Flickr

Brazil could halt Amazon deforestation within a decade

Funds generated under a U.S. cap-and-trade or a broader U.N.-supported scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation ("REDD") could play a critical role in bringing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon to a halt, reports a team writing in the journal Science.

[Photograph by: Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace]

JBS commits to Amazon deforestation moratorium

Brazilian beef giant JBS has agreed to stop sourcing cattle from farms responsible for deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

[Photograph by: Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace]