Brazil: Report exposes link between livestock farming, forced labour and deforestation ahead of COP30; includes responses from companies
"Brazil: Cattle Ranching, Forced Labor Driving Deforestation Ahead of COP30", 09 October 2025
...Cattle ranchers exploiting forced labor and invading indigenous lands are fueling the destruction of Brazil’s forests while profiting from an industry-wide failure to establish transparent and sustainable supply chains, Climate Rights International said in a report and accompanying video released today. The Lula administration has decreased deforestation but has not taken crucial steps available to it to strengthen traceability within the cattle sector.
The 135-page report, “Before It’s Too Late: Curbing Cattle-Driven Deforestation and Rights Abuses in Brazil,” found that major global fashion and footwear brands are linked through their leather supply chains to Brazilian producers implicated in egregious environmental and human rights harms. The current lack of full traceability within the cattle sector means that Brazilian leather and beef—with limited exceptions—cannot be reliably considered free of illegal deforestation or rights abuses...
Ranchers clearing Brazil’s forests frequently subject their employees to forced labor and other forms of severe labor exploitation...
Cattle-driven deforestation often entails invasions of Indigenous territories by ranchers seeking to use their lands to graze cattle...
An investigation undertaken with Repórter Brasil documented ten recent cases in which cattle ranches implicated in deforestation, labor abuses, and/or invasions of Indigenous territories entered the supply chains of major Brazilian meatpackers. Some of these ranchers sold cattle directly to the slaughterhouses...
While some meatpackers and tanneries have improved oversight of their direct suppliers, tens of thousands of indirect suppliers remain unmonitored. Several companies have announced plans to develop new tracing systems to address this gap, but these will depend on the voluntary sharing of GTA data by suppliers at every level—something that cattle experts consulted by Climate Rights International consider highly unlikely...