Investigation links Zara and H&M cotton to illegal deforestation, land grabbing, violence and corruption in Brazil

An investigation by a non-governmental organization has linked multinational corporations Zara and H&M, both popular clothing brands, to illegal deforestation, land grabbing, violence and corruption in Brazil.

The investigation, published this Thursday, analyzes the significant development of Brazilian cotton export production and traces the fate of more than 800 thousand tons of this cotton, contaminated but certified, delivered to companies in Asia, where it is processed into clothing items for brands that will be sold later, especially in Europe.

The allegations come from Earthsight, a British non-governmental research organization that uses in-depth research to expose environmental and social crimes, injustices and links to global consumption.

In extensive work to which Lusa had access, Earthsight reveals that the company spent more than a year analyzing satellite images, court decisions, shipping reports and secret trips to global trade fairs to find and track this cotton.

Produced in Brazil’s Cerrado by two large companies (which denied any illegality), the cotton was sold between 2014 and 2023 to eight clothing manufacturers in countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan or Bangladesh, suppliers Zara and H&M.

The investigation says the cotton farms in question have a long history of lawsuits, cases of corruption, illegal deforestation of 100,000 hectares of land and illegal land appropriation in the Cerrado, a region that covers a quarter of Brazil and is home to 5% of all species in the world, including armadillos and anteaters.

More than half of the Cerrado has been cleared for large-scale agriculture, especially cotton, leaving hundreds of species on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss.

According to the document, in 2030, Brazil is expected to surpass the United States to become the world’s largest cotton exporter.

The rise of cotton production led to the decline of traditional communities.

Earthsight speaks of a “destructive mix of corruption, greed, violence and impunity” that has led to the dispossession of public lands and the seizure of land from local communities, who are subject to intimidation and cattle rustling.

Businesses and consumers in Europe and North America are contributing to deforestation, land grabbing and human rights abuses in new ways “not by what they eat, but by what they wear,” writes Earthsight, which notes that neither H&M, Neither Zara buys cotton directly from producers.

“Every year, billions of liters of fresh water flow into cotton fields, which are soaked with 600 million liters of the most toxic pesticides,” says the NGO, leaving yet another complaint about cotton certification.

According to Earthsight, all of the contaminated cotton has been certified as sustainable by Better Cotton, an organization that claims to be the largest cotton sustainability program in the world and whose mission is to help communities thrive by protecting and restoring the environment.

Earthsight reports that most H&M and Zara products are made from cotton under the Better Cotton brand, a company based in Geneva and London that has been accused of greenwashing (spreading false sustainability ideas) in the past. practices through “marketing” activities), secrecy and lack of compliance with human rights requirements.

Faced with the allegations from Earthsight, Better Cotton said it had launched an investigation.

H&M responded to the NGO that it identified a need to improve the certification process under the Better Cotton Initiative, and Zara acknowledged that it had worked with the Pakistani companies mentioned, but said that they denied purchasing cotton directly from any producer in Brazil. And he also confirmed that Better Cotton has launched an investigation.

Brazilian farmers have denied all accusations.

But even so, Earthsight director Sam Lawson leaves a warning: “If you have cotton clothes, towels or sheets from H&M or Zara, it is possible that they are stained with Cerrado rip-offs. These companies talk about best practices, social responsibility and certification systems, and claim to invest in traceability and sustainability, but all of this now seems as false as the mechanisms in their windows.”

The association recalls that there are few laws governing supply chains, and says European Union rules on sustainable development and deforestation do not apply to cotton. And he says the biggest culprits are the largest consumer markets.

The European Union is the world’s largest clothing importer, followed by the United States.