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Judge in Brazil Orders Slaughterhouses to Pay for Amazon Reforestation

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Thursday, September 5, 2024

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A judge in the Brazilian state of Rondonia has found two beef slaughterhouses guilty of buying cattle from a protected area of former rainforest in the Amazon. The companies Distriboi and Frigon, along with three cattle ranchers, were ordered to pay compensation for causing environmental damage, according to the decision issued Wednesday. Cattle raising drives Amazon deforestation. The defendants may appeal.It is the first decision in several dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in environmental damages from the slaughterhouses for allegedly trading in cattle raised illegally in a protected area known as Jaci-Parana, which was rainforest but is now mostly converted to pasture. Four slaughterhouses are among the many parties charged, including JBS SA, which bills itself as the world’s largest protein producer. The court has not decided on the cases involving JBS.Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.The lawsuits are based on transfer documents first reported by the Associated Press that show cattle going directly from protected areas to slaughterhouses. The documents were filled out by the illegal ranchers themselves. Part of the decision is a collective penalty of $453,000 against the five defendants, who are linked to one farm. The money will be used to reforest 232 hectares (573 acres) of what is now pasture there.“When a slaughterhouse, whether by negligence or intent, buys and resells products from invaded and illegally deforested reserves, it is clear that it is directly benefiting from these illegal activities,” according to part of the original complaint which Judge Inês Moreira da Costa sustained in her ruling. “In such cases, there is an undeniable connection between the company’s actions and the environmental damage caused by the illegal exploitation.”Frigon and Distriboi did not respond to questions sent by email. In a filing, Frigon argued the state of Rondonia allowed ranchers to sell the cattle and said there is no relation between buying beef cattle and deforestation. In filings, Distriboi also denies any wrongdoing.JBS also did not reply to a request for comment.Rondonia, on the border with Bolivia, is the most badly deforested state in the Brazilian Amazon. In the past few weeks, most cities have been covered by thick smoke from wildfires, a sign of rampant deforestation. The situation is so dire that its main airport in Porto Velho was closed for seven consecutive days.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - July 2024

A court in the Brazilian state of Rondonia has found two beef slaughterhouses guilty of buying cattle out of what is supposed to be a protected area in the Brazilian Amazon, which is illegal

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A judge in the Brazilian state of Rondonia has found two beef slaughterhouses guilty of buying cattle from a protected area of former rainforest in the Amazon. The companies Distriboi and Frigon, along with three cattle ranchers, were ordered to pay compensation for causing environmental damage, according to the decision issued Wednesday. Cattle raising drives Amazon deforestation. The defendants may appeal.

It is the first decision in several dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in environmental damages from the slaughterhouses for allegedly trading in cattle raised illegally in a protected area known as Jaci-Parana, which was rainforest but is now mostly converted to pasture.

Four slaughterhouses are among the many parties charged, including JBS SA, which bills itself as the world’s largest protein producer. The court has not decided on the cases involving JBS.

Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.

The lawsuits are based on transfer documents first reported by the Associated Press that show cattle going directly from protected areas to slaughterhouses. The documents were filled out by the illegal ranchers themselves.

Part of the decision is a collective penalty of $453,000 against the five defendants, who are linked to one farm. The money will be used to reforest 232 hectares (573 acres) of what is now pasture there.

“When a slaughterhouse, whether by negligence or intent, buys and resells products from invaded and illegally deforested reserves, it is clear that it is directly benefiting from these illegal activities,” according to part of the original complaint which Judge Inês Moreira da Costa sustained in her ruling. “In such cases, there is an undeniable connection between the company’s actions and the environmental damage caused by the illegal exploitation.”

Frigon and Distriboi did not respond to questions sent by email. In a filing, Frigon argued the state of Rondonia allowed ranchers to sell the cattle and said there is no relation between buying beef cattle and deforestation. In filings, Distriboi also denies any wrongdoing.

JBS also did not reply to a request for comment.

Rondonia, on the border with Bolivia, is the most badly deforested state in the Brazilian Amazon. In the past few weeks, most cities have been covered by thick smoke from wildfires, a sign of rampant deforestation. The situation is so dire that its main airport in Porto Velho was closed for seven consecutive days.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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A Continent Ablaze: South America Surpasses Record for Fires

By Jake Spring and Stefanie EschenbacherSAO PAULO (Reuters) - South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the...

By Jake Spring and Stefanie EschenbacherSAO PAULO (Reuters) - South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to Sept. 11.Satellite data analyzed by Brazil's space research agency Inpe has registered 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America, topping the earlier 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots in a data series that goes back to 1998.A Reuters photographer traveling in the heart of Brazil's Amazon this week witnessed massive fires burning in vegetation along roadways, blackening the landscape and leaving trees like burned matchsticks.Smoke billowing from the Brazilian fires has darkened the skies above cities like Sao Paulo, feeding into a corridor of wildfire smoke seen from space stretching diagonally across the continent from Colombia in the northwest to Uruguay in the southeast.Brazil and Bolivia have dispatched thousands of firefighters to attempt to control the blazes, but remain mostly at the mercy of extreme weather fueling the fires.Scientists say that while most fires are set by humans, the recent hot and dry conditions being driven by climate change are helping the fires spread more quickly. South America has been hit by a series of heatwaves since last year."We never had winter," said Karla Longo, an air quality researcher at Inpe, of the weather in Sao Paulo in recent months. "It's absurd."Despite still being winter in the Southern Hemisphere, high temperatures in Sao Paulo have held at over 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) since Saturday.Hundreds of people marched in Bolivia's highland, political capital La Paz to demand action against the fires, holding banners and placards saying "Bolivia in flames" and "For cleaner air stop burning.""Please realize what is really happening in the country, we have lost millions of hectares," said Fernanda Negron, an animal rights activist in the protest. "Millions of animals have been burned to death."In Brazil, a drought that began last year has become the worst on record, according to national disaster monitoring agency Cemaden."In general, the 2023-2024 drought is the most intense, long-lasting in some regions and extensive in recent history, at least in the data since 1950," said Ana Paula Cunha, a drought researcher with Cemaden.The greatest number of fires this month is in Brazil and Bolivia, followed by Peru, Argentina and Paraguay, according to Inpe data. Unusually intense fires that hit Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia earlier in the year contributed to the record but have largely subsided.Fire from deforestation in the Amazon create particularly intense smoke because of the density of the vegetation burning, Longo said."The sensation you get flying next to one of these plumes is like that of an atomic mushroom cloud," said Longo of Inpe.Roughly 9 million sq km (3.5 million sq miles) of South America have been covered in smoke at times, more than half of the continent, she said.Sao Paulo, the most populous city in the Western Hemisphere, earlier this week had the worst air quality globally, higher than famous pollution hotspots like China and India, according to website IQAir.com. Bolivia's capital of La Paz was similarly blanketed in smoke.Exposure to the smoke will drive up the number of people seeking hospital treatment for respiratory issues and may cause thousands of premature deaths, Longo said.Inhaling wildfire smoke contributes to an average 12,000 early deaths a year in South America, according to a 2023 study in the academic journal Environmental Research: Health.September is typically the peak month for fires in South America. It's unclear whether the continent will continue to have high numbers of fires this year.While rain is forecast next week for Brazil's center south, where Sao Paulo is located, drought conditions are expected to continue through October in Brazil's northern Amazon region and center-west agricultural region.(Reporting by Jake Spring and Stefanie Eschenbacher in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Santiago Limachi and Monica Machicao in La Paz; Editing by Katy Daigle and Sandra Maler)Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

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Activism
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Takeaways From AP's Story on the Ashaninka Tribe's Reforestation Model in the Brazilian Amazon

The Ashaninka of the Amonia River, inhabitants of the western Amazon, reclaimed their land from cattle ranchers more than 30 years ago

APIWTXA VILLAGE, Brazil (AP) — The Ashaninka tribe of Amonia River live in a largely preserved area of Brazil's western Amazon rainforest. Over the past three decades, they have taken back their territory from cattle farmers and loggers, replacing pasture with fruit and timber trees, the sacred Ayahuasca vine, acai palm trees and medicinal plants.With their autonomy secured, the Ashaninka are now working to share their experience with neighbors to protect the whole region from deforestation and overexploitation of its natural resources. In 2016, an Ashaninka was elected mayor of nearby Marechal Thaumaturgo, the first Indigenous to achieve this in Western Amazon's Acre state.Now, an Ashaninka-led regional organization has secured a $6.8 million grant to improve territory management in neighboring Indigenous territories, collectively an area the size of the U.S. State of Delaware.Thirty-two years ago, following a long struggle for recognition, Brazil's federal government created the Ashaninka territory of Amonia River. Loggers and cattle farmers who had hired Indigenous people, often having them work in slave-like conditions, were forced to leave.The Ashaninka transferred their main village, Apiwtxa, to an abandoned pasture in a strategic location for surveillance. There, they started reforestation and pursued self-sufficiency through food production while protecting the territory from loggers and hunters.The Piyãko family has led the Ashaninka's transformation. In 2016, Isaac Piyãko was the first, and so far only, Indigenous mayor elected in Acre state. That ended the traditional political dominance by rubber barons, loggers and farmers. Four years later, Piyãko was reelected. Meanwhile his brother, Francisco Piyãko, is the mastermind of a project to share Apiwtxa's experience with neighboring Indigenous territories.The Jurua Basin has been severely affected by extreme weather. Last year, during the Amazon’s record drought, the Amonia River was so warm that for the first time the Ashaninka stopped bathing in its waters, and thousands of fish died. A few months later, historic flooding destroyed crops across the region and swept away a fish farm. This year, Amazon communities are again suffering from widespread drought.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - July 2024

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Brazil's Lula Pledges to Finish Paving Road That Experts Say Could Worsen Amazon Deforestation

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is pledging to finish paving a roadway in the heart of the Amazon that experts and some in his own government say could worsen deforestation

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — In a visit to see the damage caused by drought and fire in the Amazon, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to pave a road that environmentalists and some in his own government say threatens to vastly increase destruction of the world’s largest tropical forest — and contribute to climate change.The BR-319 roadway is a mostly dirt road through the rainforest that connects the states of Amazonas and Roraima to the rest of the country. It ends in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city with over 2 million people, and runs parallel to the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon River. The Madeira is at its lowest recorded level, disrupting cargo navigation, with most of its riverbed now endless sand dunes under a sky thick with smoke.“We are aware that, while the river was navigable and full, the highway didn’t have the importance it has now, while the Madeira River was alive. We can’t leave two capitals isolated. But we will do it with the utmost responsibility," Lula said Tuesday during a visit to an Indigenous community in Manaquiri, in Amazonas state. He didn’t specify what steps the government would take to try to prevent deforestation from increasing after paving.Hours later, he oversaw the signing of a contract to pave 52 kilometers (32 miles) of the road, and promised to begin work before his term ends in 2026 on the most controversial section of the road — a 400-kilometer (249-mile) stretch through old-growth forest. A permit for the longer stretch was issued under Lula's far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who favored development in the Amazon and weakened environmental protections. In July, a federal court suspended the permit in a lawsuit brought by the Climate Observatory, a network of 119 environmental, civil society and academic groups.Lula’s government had appealed the suspension, but it wasn’t until his visit on Tuesday that Lula made clear his plan to move ahead with paving. The Climate Observatory lamented the move.“Without the forest, there is no water, it’s interconnected,” said Suely Araújo, a public policy coordinator with the group. "The paving of the middle section of BR-319, without ensuring environmental governance and the presence of the government in the region, will lead to historic deforestation, as pointed out by many specialists and by Brazil’s federal environmental agency in the licensing process.”“The world that buys our food is demanding that we preserve the Amazon," he said. "And why? Because they want us to take care of the air they breathe. They didn’t preserve their own lands in the last century during the Industrial Revolution.”Brazil is enduring its worst drought ever recorded, with 59% of the country under stress — an area about half the size of the U.S. In the Amazon, rivers’ low levels have stranded hundreds of riverine communities, with shortage of potable water and food. Lula announced a wide distribution of water filters and other measures during his visit to the region.Meanwhile, most of Brazil has been under a thick layer of smoke from wildfires in the Amazon, affecting millions of people in faraway cities such as Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Curitiba and reaching as far south as Argentina and Paraguay. At Lula’s event, Environment Minister Marina Silva blamed the extreme drought brought by climate change for the widespread fires in a rainforest usually resistant to fire, calling it “a phenomenon we don’t even know how to handle.”Silva has been more cautious than Lula about paving the roadway. At a congressional hearing earlier, she called the Bolsonaro era’s permit a “sham” and praised the judicial ruling that suspended it.Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, contributing nearly 3% of global emissions, according to Climate Watch, an online platform managed by the World Resources Institute. Almost half these emissions stem from destruction of trees in the Amazon rainforest.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - July 2024

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Brazil's Lula Backs Highway Through Amazon That Could Drive Deforestation

By Bruno Kelly and Anthony BoadleMANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after months of hedging on the issue, has...

By Bruno Kelly and Anthony BoadleMANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after months of hedging on the issue, has committed his government to finishing a road through a pristine part of the Amazon rainforest, a move scientists say will bring disastrous deforestation.Lula is under pressure to complete paving the BR-319 as an alternative for transportation now that the Amazon is facing a record drought that has lowered river water levels and hindered navigation on major waterways linking the north of Brazil, such as the Madeira river."While the Madeira river was navigable, the highway did not have the importance it has now. We are going to finish it with the greatest responsibility," Lula said on Tuesday.The paving of BR-319 is a rare political stance that Lula holds in common with his nemesis, ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over sky-rocketing deforestation and also championed the roadway.Federal highway BR-319, a roughly 900 km (560 miles) stretch from Porto Velho near Bolivia to the Amazon's largest city of Manaus, was first bulldozed through the forest in the 1970s by Brazil's military dictatorship, but was then abandoned and the jungle overgrew most of the road.Sections at both ends have been paved, but more than 400 km in the middle are still dirt road that turns to impassable mud in the rainy season.Scientists and environmental activists say completion of the road will open access to illegal loggers and miners, and farmers who clear the forest by setting fires to open the land for cattle ranching.One study estimated the project would result in a five-fold rise in deforestation by 2030, the equivalent of an area larger than the U.S. state of Florida.Lula's Environmental Minister Marina Silva opposed the highway, saying it was not viable in economic and environmental terms. But in June a Transport Ministry working group contradicted her, concluding that the road was viable and her view has lost ground in the administration.Visiting the region on Tuesday, Lula denied Silva opposed paving the highway, which was suspended in July by a federal judge due to the lack of safeguards against deforestation.Speaking alongside Amazon state Governor Wilson Lima and two conservative senators who also back the project, Lula proposed negotiating a "definite solution" to recover the highway.Much work needs to be done to finish the highway, including rebuilding two bridges that collapsed and the construction of a new bridge across the Igapo-Acu river, where trucks have to line up to get across on a ferry barge.The consequences of the current drought are evident in the unprecedented number of fires burning along the BR-319, destroying thousands of hectares of rainforest, as witnessed this week by a Reuters photographer.Experts say fires in a tropical rainforest do not ignite on their own but are started by people, often purposely to clear land for farming. The flames spread rapidly through the vegetation parched by drought. Paving BR-319 can only increase destruction by fire, they say."As unprecedented drought and fires ravage the Amazon, the paving of the BR-319 highway will unleash a catastrophic wave of deforestation that further exacerbates today's crisis, with dire global climatic implications," said Christian Poirier, a spokesperson for Amazon Watch campaign group.Lula's decision to proceed with the highway contradicted his administration's avowed goal of containing destruction of the Amazon.He brushed off international pressure to preserve the rainforest that climate experts say is vital to slow global warming."The world that buys our food is demanding that we preserve the Amazon. And why? Because they want us to take care of the air they breathe," he said, stating that Brazil will not keep the Amazon as a "sanctuary for humanity" but will develop the region economically in a sustainable way.(Reporting by Bruno Kelly in Manaus and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

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Drought Is Making Sao Paulo's River Emerald Green While Smoke Turns Its Skies Grey

A major river in the Brazilian metropolis Sao Paulo is suddenly emerald green and clear skies have turned from blue to grey

SAO PAULO (AP) — A major river in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo is suddenly emerald green and clear skies this week turned from blue to grey. In the late afternoon, the sun's rays filtering through the smoky haze exhibit the color of deep orange.This isn't a fantasy world: Environmental threats in recent days have transformed the colors of the city's landscape.The state's environmental authority attributes the Pinheiros River's new green hue to an algae bloom, the result of severe drought that has significantly lowered water levels. The phenomenon was visible starting Monday and continued Tuesday. Those same days, the city suffered smoke-filled air, which the agency attributed to a hot, dry mass complicating the dispersal of pollutants originating in forested areas with ongoing wildfires. Brazil is enduring its worst drought since nationwide measurements began over seven decades ago, with 59% of the country under stress — an area roughly half the size of the U.S. Major Amazon basin rivers are registering historic lows. Uncontrolled, manmade wildfires — in the Amazon rainforest and other biomes across the country — have ravaged protected areas and spread smoke over a vast expanse, worsening air quality nationwide.Residents of South America’s most populous city are complaining about both the smoke throughout the city and a putrid smell near the river.“If it’s hot during the day and the temperature drops, the stench increases a lot after 10 p.m.,” Flavio Xavier Santana, a systems analyst, said in an interview with The Associated Press near the river.For two consecutive days, smoke caused Sao Paulo, a metropolitan area of 21 million people, to breathe the second-most polluted air in the world, according to data gathered by IQAir, a Swiss air technology company. On Tuesday afternoon, the city's air pollution was second only to that of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Sao Paulo state's environmental agency classified Tuesday's air quality in the metropolitan region as very poor, and advised people to avoid strenuous outdoor exercise, stay hydrated, and keep doors and windows closed.“I can’t even manage to practice physical activities on the street," actress Ingrid Camboí told the AP. "I’m not even opening the balcony of my house, because the air is really bad, it really affects my health.” Brazilian pop singer Marina Sena shared on social media a video from her window overlooking Sao Paulo, expressing alarm at the smoke blurring the view of buildings on the horizon.“You live in a place where there’s a constant layer of smoke in the sky, a haze. A place where you can’t breathe. What the hell is happening?” she said. “Guys, I feel like we need to take 20 steps back."Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - July 2024

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