Soybean farmer lobby Aprosoja-MT based in western Mato Grosso state said on Wednesday that the agreement fostered “a purchasing cartel” while harming farmers who strictly comply with the South American nation’s forest code.

The group said in a statement that it formally asked antitrust watchdog CADE to end the deal.

Brazil is the world’s largest soybean grower and exporter, with Mato Grosso the country’s top-producing state.

Global commodity giants including ADM and Bunge voluntarily signed up for the “Amazon soy moratorium” in the mid-2000s, pledging to stop buying soy from farms in the rainforest that were deforested from 2008.

Under forestry rules, Amazon landowners can clear up to 20 per cent of their property. But an early 2000s deforestation surge sparked calls for action by companies that feared a wider ban.

Scientists and conservationists have praised the moratorium for slowing deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a bulwark against climate change since its trees absorb vast amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gases.

Aprosoja-MT noted it filed a complaint to CADE after years of failed negotiation attempts, adding that the moratorium generated 20 billion reais (C$4.75 billion) in losses for the state.

CADE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, Mato Grosso state lawmakers passed a law stripping tax breaks from firms adhering to the moratorium.

“Our commitment is with the families who have been harmed for almost 20 years,” Aprosoja said in a separate statement.

Last week, environmentalists accused grain traders of seeking to weaken the moratorium.

Trader lobby Abiove has said it was holding discussions on the moratorium, but without going into further detail.

Asked for comment on Wednesday, Abiove said it had no update.

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Cattle pasture is the most common initial use for deforested areas in the Amazon and neighboring Cerrado savanna, a practice that faces strict legal limits but continues illegally in Brazil, the world’s biggest beef exporter.

The government of Para state in northern Brazil will announce the program at the U.N. COP28 climate summit on Friday, according to The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation advocacy group working on the project.

The state government established the program in a decree published on Monday and sets the target of individual tracking of all 24 million cattle in Para by December 2026.

Cattle ranching in Brazil is linked to nearly 24 per cent of global annual tropical deforestation and approximately 10 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, the conservancy said.

Para has Brazil’s second biggest cattle herd behind the west-central state of Mato Grosso, according to government data.

The conservancy said the program will offer incentives for ranchers to join the traceability system to ensure compliance with the new law, without giving details on incentives.

“In a state larger than France, Spain and Norway combined, with over 24 million cattle on more than 295,000 farms, the program brings a new approach to ensure continued reductions in deforestation and associated greenhouse gas emissions from cattle,” the conservancy said.

The program is part of a drive led by Para Governor Helder Barbalho to bolster the state’s green credentials ahead of hosting the COP30 climate change summit in 2025.

“The Para Cattle Integrity Program, announced at COP28 today, is a foundational layer for addressing the biggest driver of deforestation and emissions in Brazil,” said Jack Hurd, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance, an initiative that works with commodities firms to reduce deforestation.

“The absence of full traceability in Para undermined their ability to attract legitimate investment into this sector.”

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In a presentation, federal prosecutors said they were “negotiating improvements” with companies such as JBS with “unsatisfactory and worsening” performance in the audit, which analyzed cattle transactions between January 2018 and June 2019.

In a statement, JBS said the audit changed some of its criteria, impacting the results. Prosecutors said nothing changed in their methodology or the way they audit companies.

JBS also acknowledged the need to implement “additional measures to reinforce its due diligence work in the state” and said it would invest five million reais (C$1.14 million) to improve the sustainability of its supply chain.

The 2020 audit found no irregularities related to cattle purchases from Minerva, South America’s largest beef exporter and a key rival of JBS, the presentation showed.

Cattle ranching is one of the main drivers of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and the results of the audit add to growing concern that JBS is contributing to the destruction by buying cattle from illegally cleared land.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is a crucial bulwark against climate change due to the carbon it absorbs and stores.

JBS, along with other major meatpackers, reached a settlement with prosecutors in 2013 in which the companies agreed not to buy cattle from ranches that were cleared illegally since 2008 or otherwise blacklisted for environmental crimes.

The companies also agreed to stop buying cattle from ranchers blacklisted for engaging in slave labour, occupying indigenous land and violating environmental preserves.

The agreement was initially celebrated for contributing to a marked fall in deforestation, but in recent years has drawn increasing criticism from environmentalists for lacking teeth. Although prosecutors have the power to fine companies for poor compliance, they have so far chosen not to do so and preferred to work with meatpackers to improve their results.

Prosecutors monitoring that agreement in Para state found JBS had improved its compliance in a 2019 audit, when eight per cent of cattle bought by the company came from ranches with “irregularities,” down from 19 per cent in a 2018 audit.

However, that ratio jumped to 32 per cent — or more than 300,000 head of cattle — in the 2020 audit presented on Thursday.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ana Mano in Sao Paulo; writing by Brad Haynes.

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“We know it is very difficult to achieve this,” CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said in an interview. “It will challenge the entire company.”

JBS said in 2019 that its own operations produce an estimated 4.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions from industrial facilities and 1.6 million tonnes from energy use.

But some 90 per cent of overall JBS emissions come from its supply chain, Tomazoni said, without giving a specific figure. He said traditional cattle rearing emits 40-45 tonnes of carbon equivalent per tonne of meat produced.

Brazil is home to one of world’s largest commercial herds, and new cattle ranches are a major driver of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, an essential bulwark against catastrophic climate change.

Methane, a natural byproduct of digestion in cows and other ruminants, is also a major source of greenhouse emissions. About a third of greenhouse emissions from agricultural production, excluding land-use change, comes from methane released by cows, according to the Washington-based World Resources Institute.

The 2040 target announced by JBS comes amid a growing backlash from consumers and investors threatening to boycott or divest from companies contributing to deforestation in Brazil.

As part of its plan, JBS vowed to invest US$1 billion over the next decade in innovations aimed at reducing carbon emissions in its global operations. The commitment also involves a pledge to pay for reforestation and forest restoration initiatives.

The company has also promised to stop processing cattle coming from illegally deforested areas in the Amazon by 2025 and in other Brazilian biomes by 2030. Those targets also reflect when JBS will be able to track both its direct suppliers and their suppliers.

In the long run, JBS said the adoption of intensive cattle farming will replace the sprawling ranches that now dominate Brazil’s current approach, helping to cut emissions.

JBS said also that it will be using 100 per cent renewable energy worldwide by 2040, while executives’ variable pay will be measured against the delivery of environmental goals.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ana Mano and Nayara Figueiredo.

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The data from Brazil’s INPE space research agency, which showed deforestation soaring 29.5 per cent to 9,762 square km for the 12 months through July 2019, sparked an uncharacteristic admission by the government that something needed to be done to stem the tide.

It was the worst level of deforestation since 2008, heaping further pressure on the environmental policy of Bolsonaro who favours developing the Amazon region economically.

The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and is considered key to the fight against climate change because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide it absorbs.

Risks to the forest drew global concern in August when fires raged through the Amazon, drawing sharp criticism from France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

At a briefing to discuss the numbers, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said the rise in deforestation showed the need for a new strategy to combat the illegal logging, mining and land grabbing which he said were to blame.

Environmentalists and nongovernmental organizations placed the blame squarely on the government, saying that Bolsonaro’s strong pro-development rhetoric and policies to weaken environmental enforcement are behind the rise in illegal activity.

“The Bolsonaro government is responsible for every inch of forest destroyed. This government today is the worst enemy of the Amazon,” said Marcio Astrini, public policy co-ordinator for Greenpeace, in a statement.

Bolsonaro’s office directed Reuters to remarks made by Salles and another official and did not comment further on the issue.

In August, Reuters reported Bolsonaro’s government had systematically weakened environmental agency Ibama, grounding a team of elite enforcement commandos and forbidding agents from destroying machinery used to illegally deforest.

Brazil’s Climate Observatory, a network of nongovernmental organizations, said the 2019 increase in deforestation was the fastest in percentage terms since the 1990s and the third fastest of all-time.

In response to the numbers, Salles vowed to roll out a series of measures to counter the rising deforestation, including stepping up enforcement efforts assisted by high-resolution satellite imaging.

The minister said he would meet governors of Amazon states on Wednesday to discuss tactics to counter deforestation.

All options are on the table, according to Salles, including mobilizing the military for use in environmental enforcement operations.

Government reversal

Salles’ recognition that deforestation is indeed on the rise comes after months of the government casting doubt on preliminary monthly data showing destruction was skyrocketing.

At multiple press briefings earlier this year, Salles alleged the monthly data was unreliable and contained inconsistencies. He had urged journalists not to report the monthly figures and wait for the annual data, announced Monday.

Bolsonaro had accused the INPE space research agency of lying about the monthly data. In a high-profile dispute, then-INPE chief Ricardo Galvao stood by the data and called Bolsonaro “a joke of a 14-year-old boy that is not suitable for a president of Brazil.” Galvao was later fired.

The annual figure accounts for seven months under Bolsonaro, but also measures five months under the previous government.

It also does not account for destruction after July. Preliminary data for August to October shows deforestation more than doubled compared to the same period a year-prior to 3,704 square km.

NGOs say they fear that protections could be weakened further as the government considers allowing commercial agriculture on native reserves, expanding wildcat mining and allowing for illegally occupied land to be “regularized.”

Beef prices are also at record highs in Brazil, leading some environmentalists to fear it could fuel land grabbing for cattle ranching — one of the biggest drivers of deforestation.

“The coming years could be even worse,” said Carlos Rittl, executive secretary for Climate Observatory.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira; writing by Jake Spring and Stephen Eisenhammer.

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Recent rains in both countries have helped put out the wildfires, which were likely started by farmers and ranchers using slash-and-burn agricultural methods.

They have, however, destroyed large swaths of forest that lock in precipitation in the region, threatening a system of clouds known as “air rivers” in the Amazon that distributes 23 billion cubic metres of water across South America per year, said Leonardo Melgarejo, an agronomist with Brazil’s Santa Catarina Federal University.

That might mean less rain in places that produce beef and soy in not just Brazil and Bolivia but also Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, said Melgarejo, potentially knocking a key driver of regional economic growth.

“The borders that divide our countries are fictions from the point of view of nature,” said Melgarejo. Destruction of just five per cent more of the Amazon rainforest will trigger a worsening cycle of drought, fires and deforestation, Melgarejo said.

“We’re very close to a moment of collapse,” said Melgarejo told Reuters at a gathering of scientists in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, a lowland region hit hard by this year’s fires.

German Heinzenknecht, weather specialist with the Applied Climatology consultancy in Argentina, said areas of the Pampas farm belt, including the provinces of Cordoba and Santiago del Estero, could be vulnerable to fallout from the fires.

“It is very possible that parts of northern Argentina will be affected by a delay in the start of the rainy season or that rains will be altogether less than normal. Everything depends on the area that is affected by the fires in Bolivia and Brazil,” Heinzenknecht said.

Farmers were already concerned about dryness in Argentina’s western farm areas before the fires. The country is a major exporter of soy, corn and wheat, and it is the top supplier of soymeal livestock feed.

Brazilian right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and Bolivian leftist President Evo Morales, ideological opposites, have both been criticized for backing an expansion of soy and beef production in forested regions that environmentalists blame for the rash of fires this year. Both have downplayed the impacts amid the outcry.

Fires in Bolivia have swept over more than five million hectares, at least a two-decade record, according to Bolivian environmental group Friends of Nature Foundation.

Morales is up for re-election Oct. 20, with recent polls showing he may not have enough support to avoid a run-off vote for the first time ever.

Last week, Paraguay’s parliament passed a resolution urging President Mario Abdo to ask Bolivia for compensation for damages to Paraguay’s flora and fauna from fires lawmakers said started in Bolivia.

— Reporting for Reuters by Monica Machicao; additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Argentina.

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Speaking at an industry event in Sao Paulo, JBS CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said the company is using satellite technology to monitor a 450,000 square-km area of Brazil to guarantee it is not buying cattle from deforested areas.

“We need to offer what the consumer wants. We cannot do that without worrying about the environment and animal welfare,” Tomazoni said. “This is fundamental to our business.”

The executive noted a new generation of consumers believe that “modern agriculture” destroys the planet. He called that perception misguided given that such up-to-date methods allow JBS and others to produce more food with far fewer resources.

His remarks come as fires burning in parts of the Amazon rainforest have sparked a global outcry against Brazil for allegedly failing to protect what is widely viewed as a key bulwark against global climate change.

Last month, local media reported JBS had been buying cattle from ranchers operating on deforested land in the Amazon, a claim denied by the company, which is the world’s largest producer of beef, chicken and leather products.

In a statement sent to Reuters, however, JBS admitted at the time that surveying indirect cattle suppliers was challenging due to a lack of public databases that would allow development of a proper monitoring system.

— Ana Mano is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Sao Paulo.

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French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres both took to Twitter to express their concern about the fires which have reached a record number this year, devastating vast swathes of forest considered a vital bulwark against climate change.

Bolsonaro responded angrily to what he regarded as meddling.

“These countries that send money here, they don’t send it out of charity… They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty,” he said in a Facebook Live broadcast.

However, earlier on Thursday, he said that Brazil alone lacked the resources to control the fires.

“The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?,” he asked reporters as he left the presidential residence. “We do not have the resources for that.”

Fires in the Amazon have surged 83 per cent so far this year compared with the same period a year earlier, government figures show.

Although fires are a regular and natural occurrence during the dry season at this time of year, environmentalists blamed the sharp rise on farmers setting the forest alight to clear land for pasture.

In that, they may have had at least tacit encouragement from the firebrand right-wing president, who took power in January. Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he believes Brazil should open the Amazon up to business interests, to allow mining, agricultural and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.

On Wednesday, he blamed non-governmental organizations for setting the fires, without providing evidence, but appeared to row back on Thursday, when he said for the first time that farmers could be behind them.

‘International crisis’

Macron took to Twitter to call the Amazon fires an “international crisis” that should be discussed by the G7 summit that will begin on Saturday in Biarritz, France. The Group of Seven rich countries does not include Brazil.

Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the fires, adding “we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity.”

Federal prosecutors in Brazil said they were investigating a spike in deforestation and wildfires raging in the Amazon state of Para to determine whether there has been reduced monitoring and enforcement of environmental protections.

Prosecutors said they would look into an ad that they said was published in a local newspaper encouraging farmers to participate in a “Fire Day,” in which they would burn large areas of forest “to show Bolsonaro their willingness to work.”

Brazil is facing growing international criticism over its handling of the Amazon, 60 per cent of which lies in the country.

Earlier this month, Norway and Germany suspended funding for projects to curb deforestation in Brazil after becoming alarmed by changes to the way projects were selected under Bolsonaro.

At the time, when asked about the loss of German funding, Bolsonaro said, “Brazil does not need that.”

Others were less sanguine.

Brazil’s lower house speaker, Rodrigo Maia, said on Twitter he would create “an external committee” to monitor the burning of the rainforest. He also vowed to form a group “to evaluate the situation and propose solutions to the government.”

The Bishops Conference for Latin America expressed concern about the “tragedy,” and on Thursday called on countries to take immediate action to protect the rainforest and nearby communities.

“We urge the governments of the Amazon countries, especially Brazil and Bolivia, the United Nations and the international community to take serious measures to save the world’s lungs,” it said.

Wildfires are also raging in Bolivia, where officials estimate that an area the size of Delaware has burned in recent days.

— Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, Stephen Eisenhammer and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia and Mitra Taj in Lima.

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Although the report stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat-free, it called for big changes to farming and eating habits to limit the impact of population growth and changing consumption patterns on stretched land and water resources.

Plant-based foods and sustainable animal-sourced food could free up several million square kilometres of land by 2050 and cut 0.7 to eight gigatonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.

“There are certain kinds of diets that have a lower carbon footprint and put less pressure on land,” Jim Skea, professor at London’s Imperial College, said on Thursday.

The IPCC met this week in Geneva to finalize its report which should help to guide governments meeting this year in Chile on ways to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“The IPCC does not recommend people’s diets… Dietary choices are very often shaped or influenced by local production practices and cultural habits,” Skea, who is one of the report’s authors, told reporters in Geneva.

Land can be both a source and sink of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, and better land management can help to tackle climate change, the IPCC said.

But it is not the only solution and cutting emissions from all sectors is essential to quickly curtail global warming.

“The window for making these changes is closing fast. If there is further delay in reducing emissions, we will miss the opportunity to successfully manage the climate change transition in the land sector,” it said.

Since the pre-industrial era, land surface air temperature has risen by 1.53 C, twice as much as the global average temperature (0.87 C), causing more heatwaves, droughts and heavy rain, as well as land degradation and desertification.

Human use directly affects more than 70 per cent of the global, ice-free land surface and agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of freshwater use, the IPCC added in the report.

Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for 23 per cent of total net man-made greenhouse gas emissions during 2007-2016. When pre- and post-production activity in the food system are included, that rises to up to 37 per cent.

Last year the IPCC’s first special report warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 C, rather than the 2 C target agreed under the Paris accord, required rapid change across society.

Food security

The IPCC warned of more disruption to global food chains as extreme weather becomes more frequent due to climate change and said environmental costs should be factored into food.

It projects a median increase of 7.6 per cent in cereal prices by 2050, meaning higher food prices and an increased risk of hunger.

While an estimated 821 million people are undernourished, changing consumption habits have already contributed to about two billion adults being overweight or obese.

Per capita supply of vegetable oils and meat has more than doubled based on data since 1961 but 25-30 per cent of total food produced is still lost or wasted.

Yields of crops such as maize and wheat have declined in some regions, while those of maize, wheat and sugar beets have increased in others in recent decades.

Forest factor

While forests can soak up heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere, desertification and deforestation can amplify warming due to the loss of vegetation cover and soil erosion.

Measures to cut emissions, such as the production of biofuels and biochar — made from biomass — as well as planting trees, will also increase demand for land conversion.

Reducing deforestation and forest degradation could result in a reduction of 0.4-5.8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, the report said.

The Amazon, about 60 per cent of which lies in Brazil, is sometimes called the “lungs of the world” due to the amount of CO2 it can absorb but it was not directly mentioned in the IPCC’s summary for policymakers.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has supported opening up protected areas of the world’s largest tropical rainforest to facilitate agriculture and mining since taking office in January.

The report text is prepared by over 100 scientists but has to be approved by governments. In those discussions, Brazil and India were very active to protect their national agro-industrial interests, a source familiar with the talks said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nina Chestney in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by Megan Rowling.

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Restaurant Brands International, one of the world’s largest fast-food restaurant operators, has been criticized by activists for buying soy and beef from newly deforested land in Brazil and other South American countries.

It its first sustainability report, the firm, which also owns Tim Hortons and Popeyes, committed to making sure its suppliers stopped clearing primary forests or disturbing lands with a high conservation value by 2030.

“It is our intention to report regularly on our progress towards eliminating deforestation,” RBI said in its report released on Thursday.

The company also pledged to respect the land rights of communities who live in areas where its suppliers cultivate soy, cattle and other farm products to make sure local people grant informed consent concerning development on their land.

“As a company with global operations and a complex supply chain, we know we have a key role to play in promoting sustainable business practices,” company spokesman Patrick McGrade said in a statement.

Campaigners, however, say the promised changes are too slow and do not go far enough.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based advocacy group, said the company’s environmental pledges are “embarrassingly weak.”

The firm should commit to ending deforestation in its supply chain by 2020 in line with other large restaurant chains rather than 2030, Sharan Smith, the group’s spokeswoman said.

“When it comes to protecting forests, Burger King means fast food and slow action,” Glenn Hurowitz from the U.S.-based campaign group Mighty Earth said in a statement.

Over the past 13 years, 271 million acres of rainforest has been destroyed around the world to make room for products like Burger King’s Whopper sandwiches, Hurowitz said.

“Burger King is sending a message that it’s OK… to keep revving up the bulldozers.”

RBI did not respond to interview requests from the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Deforestation accounts for about 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change, the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

— Chris Arsenault reports for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters for coverage of humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience.

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