Brazilian beef barons are greenwashing to preserve their place on your plate

brazil cattle farming
0 comments :: Rating: unrated

Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

s the world's biggest exporter of beef. Huge areas of semi-forested grasslands are being cleared to make way for cattle pastures to feed the global love of cattle meat. And Britain is one of the biggest importers.

Now, under greater scrutiny at home for their environmental and humanitarian sins, Brazilian beef barons are buying up land across the border in Paraguay – and bulldozing traditional Indian lands there. But, hey, it's all right, they say. Because, in among the ranches, they are creating nature reserves.

Are the ranchers going green – or engaging in flagrant greenwash to preserve their place on your plate? Now one company has been accused of invading the land of one of the few surviving tribal groups that are uncontacted by the outside world, and setting aside part of it for nature. And it has lined up the unlikely figure of Charlie Chaplin in its defence, bizarrely saying British-born "Chaplin would be turning in his grave in shame" at the accusations from his "countrymen" at Survival International, which has its headquarters in the UK.

I don't usually promote other people's greenwash awards. But this time I make an exception. For this brazen misappropriation of environmental virtue, the NGO Survival, which campaigns for tribal groups, last week gave the company Yaguarete Pora SA its 2010 Greenwash award.

Survival says the uncontacted people are from the Totobiegosode tribe, which is part of a wider family of tribes known as the Ayoreo. "Yaguarete has already destroyed thousands of hectares of the tribe's forests. The company plans to convert around two-thirds of the land to cattle ranching," according to Survival, which has released recent satellite images to prove its claims.

The reclusive forest community has asked for protection via relatives in the wider Totobiegosode tribe, who began legal action on their behalf to secure legal title to their land back in 1993. The case remains unresolved.

The disputed land is 400 kilometres north of the Paraguayan capital Asunción, in the province of Alto Paraguay, where local estimates say 90% of the land is now in the hands of Brazilian cattle ranchers. Media reports say that the government's National Environmental Council last year cancelled logging permits for Yaguarete in the area because of breaches of environmental regulations.

To read full article, copy and paste the link below into your browser

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/jan/28/brazilian-beef-greenwash

beef, brazil, paraguay

Comments Login to leave comment

Vote: +0

"I personally think this is just yet another way for someone to pretend that they have the planet's best interest at hand. Not only have they crossed borders but they are cutting down natural habitats that most definitely will effect the environment. We need to stop trying to justify everything we do that has an impact on the environment with wishful thinking and start doing something proactive. By cutting more and more trees, we are only dooming our planet to more sacrifice and at what cost? The cost of not having a planet that is sustainable for all of its inhabitants, surely there has go to be better ways to make these decisions."

By: candeeb :: 2 years ago