Authorities in a western Brazil state are taking aim at deforestation of the Amazon with a slew of lawsuits against slaughterhouses and farmers accused of illegally raising cattle in a protected area.
The lawsuits seek millions of dollars for environmental damage in the Jaci-Parana reserve, an area that was once rainforest. It's now mostly grassland after decades of misuse by land-grabbers, loggers and cattle ranchers.
The state of Rondonia has brought the lawsuits against meat processing giant JBS and three smaller slaughterhouses, along with farmers accused of raising and selling cattle illegally.
And prosecutors say the evidence was provided by the ranchers themselves.
The Associated Press and Agencia Pública, a Brazilian nonprofit news agency, examined the 17 lawsuits as part of a collaboration that included visiting the Jaci-Parana to view damage to the reserve and to interview people who said they were forced from their homes there by land-grabbers using threats and violence.
Some takeaways from the work:
JBS A DEFENDANT
Three lawsuits name JBS along with farmers who allegedly provided 227 cattle raised in Jaci-Parana to the world´s largest meat producer. Those lawsuits seek some $3.4 million for damages to the reserve. The company declined to answer questions about the lawsuits from The Associated Press, saying JBS “has not been summoned by the court."
Three smaller meatpacking companies also accused in lawsuits of buying illegal cattle from Jaci-Parana — Frigon, Distriboi and Tangara — did not respond to questions.
Evidence in the lawsuits includes transfer documents for cows that show them coming from within the Jaci-Parana reserve. That documentation was a likely result of many land-grabbers seeking to demonstrate their occupancy of protected lands under former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who strongly supported development in the Amazon. Rondonia’s governor, a staunch Bolsonaro ally, actually signed a law in 2021 to shrink Jaci-Parana by 90%, though the law was later invalidated.
Illegal trade in cattle raised in the rainforest has been a persistent problem, and Brazil's federal prosecutor scrutinizes cattle sales to try to counter the deforestation that results. JBS operates four slaughterhouses in Rondonia, on Brazil's border with Bolivia. An audit published in October found that 12% of cattle purchased by them came from illegally deforested areas.
The Jaci-Parana cattle may have ended up on American tables. Both Frigon and the two JBS plants that allegedly bought from illegal farmers there have exported beef to the U.S. and several other countries. Those include China, Russia, Spain and Saudi Arabia, among others, according to data from Panjiva, a company that uses customs records to track international trade.
PROSECUTORS SAY DESTRUCTION NEAR $1 BILLION
A report included in court papers pegs damage to the reserve at about $1 billion, and some of the money sought in the lawsuits is intended to help cover the high costs of reforestation.
Associated Press journalists visited Jaci-Parana in July to see on the ground what satellite imagery had shown from space: The only forested areas left in the more than 760-square-mile (1,970 square kilometers) preserve are along the Jaci-Parana and Branco rivers. Almost 80% of the reserve, or an area roughly the size of Los Angeles, has been destroyed.
Deforestation is a major concern for the Amazon rainforest, where many seek to profit from its vast resources through mining, timber harvesting, agriculture and more. Besides harming a critical biosphere, the development pressure also threatens a critical carbon sink for a planet that’s warming dangerously from climate change.
EXPULSION OF RUBBER-TAPPER FAMILIES
Dozens of families who made their living by tapping rubber trees inside the reserve and harvesting Brazil nuts have been forcibly removed.
Lincoln Fernandes de Lima, 45, whose family has lived in the area for three generations, described land-grabbers removing timber methodically, and shooting up or destroying the homes of residents.
Lima said he was visited in September by two armed men who told him their boss had acquired the area. They gave him 24 hours to leave. He said it was the third time he had been forced out of the reserve. Five days later, his neighbor's home was burned down, Lima said.
Jaci-Parana village has also been the home of Rosa Maria Lopes. She was born in 1952 in a rubber grove inside the reserve. She said her family had lived in the same area for more than a century before they were pushed out cattle farmers. The place where she grew up is now a pasture.
“There’s nothing left there,” she told AP. “No one talks about Brazil nuts, copaiba (oil-producing tree), or rubber anymore. There’s no talk about corn, pumpkin, or whatever is served on the table. It’s only cattle, farms, and pasture. Are we only going to eat grass?”
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Valente reports for Agencia Publica. Maisonnave is The Associated Press correspondent for the Amazon basin. This article was produced as part of a collaboration between Agencia Publica and The Associated Press.
AP reporter Camille Fassett contributed to this story.
