Researchers estimate that cattle ranching drives between 80% to 90% of deforestation in the Amazon, with fires sparked by drought and land mismanagement quickly pushing the crucial biome toward a climate tipping point that scientists hoped was much further away. A recent Climate Rights International (CRI) report noted that these issues are not contained to the Amazon: in fact, many major international brands are implicated in the illegal deforestation, forced labor and Indigenous land theft through their leather supply chains.
“Demand for leather, cotton and viscose fuels deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado, two interconnected biomes essential for climate stability,” says Fashion Revolution Brazil’s Luglio.
The local fashion industry’s engagement with these issues remains low, however. Earlier this month, the Brazilian arm of campaigning non-profit Fashion Revolution released the latest edition of its Fashion Transparency Index, evaluating 60 major fashion brands operating in Brazil based on their public disclosure of climate commitments, emissions data and worker protections. The index revealed that 80% of Brazilian brands have no public, time-bound zero-deforestation commitments for even one key material, despite shifts in land use and agriculture accounting for approximately 75% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions
2. Cotton monocultures and the Cerrado
If the Amazon is the earth’s lungs, the Cerrado keeps them pumping. The lesser known biome, which is second only to the Amazon, acts as a sponge, absorbing rainwater and slowly releasing it into rivers and aquifers feeding the Amazon basin.
But Brazil is also the world’s largest cotton exporter, an industry that contributes to the decimation of the Cerrado through land grabs and pesticide-heavy monocultures. “Agribusiness models based on heavy pesticide use damage ecosystems while harming the very communities that grow the cotton,” explains Pinheiro Dias.
Deforestation in the Cerrado will have a prime spot on the agenda at COP30, when Brazil plans to launch a series of initiatives making it more profitable to restore degraded parts of the Cerrado than to clear its forests.
3. Indigenous rights as a supply chain imperative
Indigenous peoples, Quilombola communities, riverside populations and smallholder farmers play a critical role in protecting and regenerating Brazil’s biomes. Brazil’s 1988 Constitution legally guarantees these communities the right to own and manage their ancestral lands and make their own decisions about how they live. However, these protections often aren’t enforced in practice, leaving communities vulnerable to land grabs and exploitation, with oil drilling, mining, illegal logging, organized crime and agribusiness encroaching on their territories.
