UK retail chains threaten to boycott products from Brazil due to deforestation

British supermarkets have warned against passing a law in the National Congress that expands land regulation rights and could encourage deforestation

Gabriela Bello / Estadao . contentBritish retailers said they saw “extremely high levels of bushfires and deforestation in Brazil”

Retail giants United kingdom Threatened to boycott Brazilian agricultural commodities due to deforestation in Amazon. In a letter released on Wednesday, major supermarket chains said they would take measures if the Czech Republic’s government Jair Bolsonaro Approval of Bill 510/21, which expands rights to regulate land tenure and, according to activists, may encourage deforestation for agricultural use of the land. The initiative was signed by the multinationals Tesco, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and the main UK markets: Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, M&S, Co-Op, Waitrose and Iceland. “We will have no choice but to reconsider our support and use of the Brazilian agricultural commodity production chain,” warns the letter to the National Congress. “In the past year, we have witnessed a series of conditions that have led to extremely high levels of wildfires and deforestation in Brazil. At the same time, we note that the targets for reducing these levels, as well as the inspection budgets available to meet them, are increasingly inadequate”, the text continues. In 2019 and 2020, deforestation in the Amazon was 10,700 square kilometers and 9,800 square kilometers, respectively, the highest levels since 2008, according to official data.

Bill No. 510/21 provides for “the settlement of land ownership, by way of assignment or assignment of a real right of use, for the occupation of areas within the federation; it sets the date of May 25, 2012, when the Forestry Act was promulgated as the time frame for the occupation.” In addition, it “extends the area under settlement up to 2,500 hectares; it does not require a prior examination of the area to be regulated, and may be replaced by a declaration by the same occupant.” The signatories argue: “If this vote were passed in the Brazilian Congress, it would lead to even more destruction and pose an even greater danger to the lives of people and the wildlife that is home to them.”

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