A study found that tax havens offer a major conduit through which investors can fund agribusiness in tropical areas; 68% of all investigated foreign capital flowing into nine of the top companies in the soy and beef sectors in the Brazilian Amazon was transferred through tax havens between 2000 and 2011. A large proportion of this was through the Cayman Islands. The report noted that the secrecy and transparency offered by such havens appear to be important to those investing large sums in agribusiness companies responsible for significant land conversion in the Amazon, likely because it protects them and allows them to more thoroughly conceal their involvement.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, soy, primary production, tax evasion
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0497-3
According to Mongabay, it was uncovered in February 2023 that three landowners had orchestrated the largest single instance of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon's history, clearing 6,469 hectares of forest in Pará state. This large-scale land grab, conducted between February and May 2020, cost at least $2.5 million and is expected to yield nearly $20 million in profits from selling the land for soy farming or cattle ranching. This took place along the BR-163 highway, between the districts of Castelo dos Sonhos and Vila Isol, regions known for their economic activities, including gold mining, timber, cattle, and soy farming. The land, initially public and belonging to the Brazilian federal government, was illegally appropriated and cleared without environmental authorisation. This deforestation, larger than the area of Manhattan, represents a significant loss of biodiversity and a contribution to climate change, as well as a breach of Brazilian environmental laws. The three key figures behind this land grab are Jeferson de Andrade Rodrigues, Delmir José Alba, and his brother Augustinho Alba. They all have a history of environmental fines and infractions.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, illegal deforestation, agriculture
Sources: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/the-20m-flip-the-story-of-the-largest-land-grab-in-the-brazilian-amazon/
The Brazilian Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region convicted three companies for the illegal logging and subsequent transportation and trade of wood from the Rondônia region of the Legal Amazon. The companies involved are Celia Ceolin EPP, BV Indústria e Comércio de Madeiras Ltda ME, and Madeireira Mil Madeiras Ltda EPP. Each company was fined US$100,000 and ordered to plant 10 hectares of the protected Brazilian tree that had been illegally exploited. The conviction followed Operation Guardians of the Mountains in 2008, where authorities were able to seize 600 cubic metres of timber illegally logged in the Amazon, as well as 17 trucks. The wood had been sawn without authorisation, whereas Mil Madeiras had falsely advertised on their website that they operated in an environmentally conscious manner, claiming certification from Brazilian environmental authorities. However, the exploitation of Brazilian nut wood, found during the Operation, has been prohibited since the early 1990s. The court also found that, in addition to the illegal cutting of protected trees in the Amazon, the companies laundered the timber by mixing the illegally logged wood with legal logs, and their records never mention the Brazil nut.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, environmental crime, illegal timber trade
Sources: https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/16100-brazil-sentences-three-companies-for-timber-laundering
https://www.mpf.mp.br/regiao1/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-r1/empresas-sao-condenadas-pelo-transporte-e-comercio-ilegal-de-madeira-de-castanheira-extraida-da-amazonia-legal
A report by InSight Crime demonstrates the growing ties between drug trafficking and illegal timber logging in Brazil’s Amazon. The report details how timber shipments from the Amazon are now being used to conceal drugs, primarily cocaine, for export to foreign countries. From 2017 to 2021, authorities seized nearly nine tons of cocaine hidden within timber shipments destined for European countries. In addition to drugs being hidden in timber shipments, the ties between illegal timber logging and drug trafficking is also the consequence of organised crime groups in Brazil diversifying their activity. Indeed, organised crime groups in Brazil have also become involved in illegal mining, land grabbing, logging, gold trading, and invading indigenous lands. Criminal gangs have been known to buy land illegally in the rainforest to profit from logging and to establish marijuana plantations, particularly in Pará’s “Marijuana Polygon.”. From 2015 to 2020, more than two million marijuana plants were seized across the Amazon region, with 55% of these seizures occurring in Pará.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, trade and transport, drug trafficking, serious organised crime, illegal logging, illegal mining
Sources: https://insightcrime.org/news/intimate-relationship-between-cocaine-illegal-timber-brazil-amazon/
An investigatory report by Greenpeace led to allegations that South Korean machinery manufacturer HD Hyundai Construction Equipment (HD HCE) contributed to deforestation in the Amazon by providing excavators to illegal gold miners operating within Indigenous territories, in areas of Brazil which were degraded 202% more between 2019 and 2021 compared to the preceding decade.
In the Indigenous lands of Yanomami, Munduruku, and Kayapó, 75 Hyundai excavators were identified during aerial surveys conducted between 2021 and 2023. Illicit mining activities have led to a humanitarian crisis in these areas; for example, contaminated rivers have posed health risks to Yanomami adults and children.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, minerals, mining, supply of machinery/equipment, Indigenous rights
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/12/hyundai-urged-to-stop-miners-using-its-machines-in-amazon , https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/22/lula-accuses-jair-bolsonaro-genocide-yanomami-indigenous-amazon
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), seven individuals were detained in Pará, Brazil after suspicions of illegal Amazon timber trade. Among those detained is a former employee of the Pará Environmental Secretariat (SEMAS). Investigation began in 2019, with the operation “Dark Wood” involving a total of nine search and seizure warrants and the freezing of bank accounts. The two-year investigation sought to dismantle the criminal scheme that enabled the illegal extraction of sale and timber. The scheme involved laundering wood from illegal deforestation, yielding significant profits. It disguised the origins of illicit wood, which was then exported to the United States. Yellow Ipê wood, highly valued in the U.S., was a primary target. During their investigation, the Brazilian Civil Police eventually uncovered forged documents used to simulate forest product auctions. These allowed companies to introduce fraudulent permits into the Forest Products Commercialization and Transportation System (Sisflora). Operation “Dark Wood” resulted in the detention of guilty sawmill owners and former SEMAS employees across various locations in Pará and the Federal District. The identities of the suspects and companies remain undisclosed.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, procurement of permits, illegal timber trade, illegal logging, fraudulent documentation
Sources: https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/18805-brazil-detains-7-suspected-members-of-illegal-amazon-tiber-trade-ring
A 2023 investigation uncovered that seven agribusiness giants, including Bunge, Cargill and COFCO, bought grains, notably soy, from Brazilian farmers fined for illegal cultivation on Indigenous lands in Mato Grosso. However, the grain sales invoices failed to identify the farms as being inside the Indigenous lands, falsely stating other lands of origin to allow the business to take place. In addition, the investigation found that five identified producers fined by IBAMA in 2018 for cultivating crops within Indigenous lands continued to make sales to large international grain traders during the periods of interdiction from 2018 to 2019. A practice of ‘grain laundering’ was used to facilitate this illegal trade. This practice involves mixing illegally produced grains from conservation units, seized lands, or interdicted areas with legally planted and harvested soy and corn, thereby concealing the irregular origin of a portion of the crop. The close proximity of these farms, listed on invoices as the origin of the produce, to Indigenous lands facilitated this ‘grain laundering’. Grain laundering was openly acknowledged by farmers in the Paresí Indigenous region in March 2019.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, soy, primary production, Indigenous rights, fraudulent documentation, grain laundering
Sources: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/agro-giants-buy-grains-from-farmers-fined-for-using-indigenous-land-in-brazil/
A criminal complaint has been fined against several French banks, accusing them of money laundering and financing meat companies driving deforestation in Brazil. From 2013 to 2021, the four French banks involved, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, BPCE, and AXA, invested nearly $70 million in bonds issued by leading Brazilian meat companies, generating about $11.7 million in profits. An analysis of JBS and Marfrig slaughterhouses, financed by such investments, in Pará and Mato Grosso found that over 50% and 40% of suppliers, respectively, showed evidence of deforestation and intrusion into Indigenous lands. The founder of the NGO Harvest, that contributed to initiating the complaint, emphasised that banks have an obligation to prevent money laundering and must exclude actors profiting from illegal deforestation. In response to the complaint, Crédit Agricole and BPCE did not comment, while BNP Paribas and AXA provided statements emphasising their commitment to ESG standards.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, money laundering, Indigenous rights, illegal deforestation
Sources: https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/french-banks-accused-of-money-laundering-linked-to-amazon-deforestation/
https://www.asso-sherpa.org/complaint-filed-against-french-banks-for-money-laundering-and-concealment-of-proceeds-from-illegal-deforestation-in-the-amazon
A legal complaint against the US-based agricultural giant Cargill has been filed following its failure to adequately deal with its participation in soy-driven deforestation and human rights violations in Brazil. Cargill allegedly failed to implement adequate monitoring methods to oversee the vast quantities of soy it trades, handles at its ports, and ships to global markets. This deficiency prevented the company from identifying and eliminating links to deforestation and human rights abuses, thereby breaching its legal due diligence responsibilities. Due diligence deficiencies include a lack of proper environmental due diligence on soy bought from third-party traders, no due diligence on soy owned by other companies passing through its ports and failure to address indirect land use change. The complaint also highlights human rights failures, including forced displacement and violence against land defenders linked to Cargill’s operations, and the destruction of traditional ways of living due to deforestation.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, soy, primary production, human rights violations
Sources: https://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press/agricultural-giant-cargill-faces-legal-complaint-over-deforestation-and-human-rights-failings-in-brazil/
Belo Sun Mining Ltd, a Canadian company based in Toronto, has been developing the Volta Grande gold project in Pará State, Brazil since 2012. The project, including a planned open-pit gold mine, is the ancestral home of several Indigenous Peoples and riverine (Ribeirinho) communities. The project has faced numerous legal challenges and complaints. The main issues include inadequate impact studies on the impact to Indigenous Peoples, questionable licensing processes, insufficient consultation with Ribeirinho communities, and potential violations of land rights. Despite these challenges, the project was designated a priority under Brazil's 2021 Pro-Strategic Minerals Policy. Human rights defenders, including Indigenous Peoples, have faced ongoing threats and intimidation related to their opposition to the project. Belo Sun's security firm, Invictus, reportedly intimidated local communities with armed patrols and surveillance. For instance, in October 2023, Belo Sun filed a criminal complaint against 40 individuals accusing them of criminal activities related to land protests.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, minerals, gold, primary production, Indigenous rights, human rights violations, land grabbing
Sources: https://srdefenders.org/brazil-threats-intimidation-and-harassment-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-context-of-the-volta-grande-gold-mining-project-joint-communication/
Brazilian federal authorities launched an investigation into a money laundering network suspected of moving millions of dollars’ worth of illicit gold in 2023. Through a network of shell companies, individuals are alleged to have moved money linked to gold illegally sourced from Brazil’s northern neighbor Guyana. In one instance, a shell company purportedly to be trading hospital supplies was alleged to have laundered over $12.3 million in gold. Shell companies play an important role in Brazil’s illicit gold industry, with these companies providing a way for criminals to issue invoices without a physical address to hide the illegal origin of exported gold. Authorities have estimated that over 30 tonnes of gold is illegally extracted each year from the Brazilian Amazon, with this illicit practice exploiting low-earning miners in areas of poor human and economic development, causing considerable deforestation and socio-economic harm.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, minerals, gold, primary production, deforestation, illegal mining
Source: https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/17831-brazil-launches-investigation-into-r-80-million-in-illegal-gold
In Pará, Brazil’s largest palm oil-producing region, violence, land grabbing, and forced evictions of Indigenous, Quilombola, riverine, and campesino communities have been escalating since early 2022. Local leaders allege that government officials have encouraged palm oil producers to suppress any opposition violently. Two major palm oil companies are at the centre of these conflicts. Brasil Biofuels (BBF) is accused of using violence and intimidation against Indigenous and traditional communities. BBF allegedly employs armed security to intimidate and forcibly remove community members from their lands, leading to violent conflicts with the Tembé, Turiuara, and Pitauã Indigenous peoples. Agropalma is linked to fraudulent land grabs, acquiring land with illegal titles, and displacing communities. Despite their denials, both companies are reportedly responsible for severe human rights abuses. Major international brands such Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever continue to source palm oil from BBF and Agropalma, indirectly supporting these human rights violations.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, palm oil, primary production, land grabbing, Indigenous rights, human rights violations
Sources: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/amazon-palm/
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/brazils-biggest-palm-oil-producers-agropalma-and-brasil-biofuels-human-rights-violations-para-region/
According to a press release issued by the Brazilian government, an operation led by its Federal Police dismantled an international criminal organisation involved in the illegal extraction, trade, and export of precious stones, particularly rough diamonds and gold. On April 26, 2023, Brazil's Federal Police launched Operation Itamarã, which encompassed a total of 42 search and seizure warrants and eight preventive arrest warrants across several Brazilian states and involved international cooperation with the United States, Belgium, England, and the United Arab Emirates. Investigations began in 2020, as the organisation’s activities were first revealed through the arrest of a suspect at Guarulhos International Airport. The suspect was found carrying rough diamonds without proper documentation. Subsequent seizures included gold bars at Confins/MG Airport and rough diamonds intercepted with the help of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. The operation eventually uncovered that the criminal organisation had extensive operations in over a dozen countries, involving complex financial schemes and the use of shell companies to issue false invoices. They also co-opted legitimate companies to facilitate the illegal export of precious stones.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, mining, diamonds, gold, illegal mining, serious organised crime, fraudulent documentation
Sources: https://www.gov.br/pf/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2023/04/pf-deflagra-operacao-contra-organizacao-criminosa-de-extracao-e-comercio-ilegal-de-diamantes
According to Mongabay, a boom in illegal cattle ranching activities in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in Brazil has caused illegal deforestation and violations of Indigenous rights. An increase in commercial cattle ranching has encroached on large plots of the Arariboia Indigenous Territory. Several bans against such establishments are in place, but cattle ranchers are able to find loopholes since Brazilian laws do not require buffer zones around Indigenous territories, unlike conservation units. Commercial cattle ranching in the area has caused illegal deforestation, as well as other illegal activities such as the construction of an unlicensed airstrip in mid-2023. In addition, the local Indigenous community, the Guajajara, has faced harassment and violence from the illicit loggers. In 2023, four killings and three attempts on their lives were recorded. Killings correlate with areas of illegal activities and police operations against illegal logging. In addition, water contamination and reduced fish stocks due to cattle farming chemicals affect the Guajajara's health and food sources.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, illegal deforestation, human rights violations, Indigenous rights violations
Sources: https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/revealed-illegal-cattle-boom-in-arariboia-territory-in-deadliest-year-for-indigenous-guajajara/
Significant labour rights violations were uncovered at the Pedreira farm in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The farm is owned by the family of Cooxupé president Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo. Cooxupé is the world’s largest coffee cooperative, and supplies major international brands like Starbucks and Nespresso. Workers at the Pedreira farm had up to 30% of their wages illegally deducted to pay for essential equipment, like portable coffee harvesting machines, which should legally have been provided by the employer free of charge. In 2021, an inspection revealed that 19 workers, who had migrated from the impoverished Jequitinhonha Valley, were affected by these illegal deductions. This violation occurred despite Cooxupé’s substantial profits, which nearly doubled to $61 million in 2020 on revenues of $1 billion. The Melo family subsequently agreed to return the deducted wages and pay each worker 2,000 reais ($370) as compensation for moral damages. This incident is part of a broader issue of labour exploitation in Brazil’s coffee industry. In 2020, 140 workers were rescued from slave-like conditions on coffee plantations in Minas Gerais.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, coffee, primary production, forced labour, modern slavery
Source: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/labor-rights-violations-at-brazil-coffee-farm-linked-to-starbucks-nespresso/
Cattle can both themselves be laundered (if they are grazed on land that has been illegally cleared and converted to pasture) and used as a means of laundering criminal proceeds from other exploits, like drugs trafficking. In Brazil, cattle have been laundered to obscure their links to land clearing, when they are moved from ranches that have contributed to land conversion through “clean” ranches that have not resulted in recent forest loss.
In 2009, several Brazilian slaughterhouses signed the Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, an initiative of the Federal Prosecution Office and the Public Commitment on Cattle Ranching, and a voluntary protocol developed by Greenpeace, which precludes them from purchasing cattle reared on deforested land. However, a single cow might pass through up to 10 farms before it is slaughtered (from birth, through rearing and fattening). Any of these farms might be linked to illegal deforestation but many slaughterhouses assess links to deforestation only on the last farm a cow passes through - their direct supplier. As long as the last farm in the supply chain is from a “clean” ranch that is free from recent deforestation then slaughterhouses (and subsequent transporters and retailers, like supermarkets) are likely to mark them as deforestation-free, even if they have spent the majority of their life on and have passed through nine other ranches that have been converted from forested land. Indeed, data indicates that some ranchers own both “dirty” and “clean” ranches and launder cattle through their own properties. So long as one property is kept clean, they can continue to clear land for cattle grazing purposes on any number of other ranches.
Other investigations by Global Witness have found that ranchers have fraudulently edited the boundaries of their ranch once they have cleared areas of land, so that this land conversion is no longer included within the property’s scope and the ranch appears free from deforestation. This is alleged to be the case for the Fazenda Espora de Ouro II Ranch in Brazil’s Pará state, which Global Witness also found appears to be registered in the name of an individual who could not legally be its owner (based on assessment of a database of land titles and beneficiaries).
Cattle can also – and concurrently – be used as a means of laundering the proceeds of illicit activity. Drug traffickers – especially in Colombia (where the traceability of beef produce is particularly poor), Honduras, and Guatemala – are known to launder revenue from drugs by buying or grabbing land which they convert into pasture for cattle, which they also purchase with narcotrafficking proceeds. When the cattle are sold, profits are hard to trace back to the drug network and their illicit proceeds are effectively laundered. This practice, known as “narco-ranching”, is suspected of contributing up to 87% of deforestation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a large UNESCO heritage area of forest which covers over 2 million hectares of rainforest across northern Guatemala and borders other protected forests in Mexico and Belize. The Reserve is highly vulnerable to deforestation by crime groups due to its strategic location along a significant drug trafficking route up through Guatemala and Mexico leading to the US.
Cattle ranching in such areas also frequently serves to hide airstrips and production facilities used by traffickers to produce and transport drugs or other illicit products. Airstrips now pepper the Maya Biosphere reserve, which are used by planes coming in from Colombia and Venezuela with cocaine to be smuggled across the border into Mexico.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, money laundering, drug trafficking, illegal deforestation
Source: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2022/10/19/23403330/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-cattle-laundering
According to the U.S. Bureau of International Labour Affairs, there is strong evidence of forced labour, child labour, and other labour violations in cattle raising areas of Brazil and Paraguay, specifically in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul and in the Paraguayan Department of Boquerón. Indeed, in Brazil and Paraguay's extensive cattle-raising industries, employers are using coercive recruitment and employment practices. These primarily affect rural and indigenous populations that are falsely promised improved livelihoods. The growing global demand for beef is driving the expansion of cattle operations in these countries, exacerbating the risk of forced labour. In both countries, small and medium cattle producers, supplying to larger international slaughterhouses, often use advance payments to trap workers in debt bondage. Workers face coercion, threats, and restrictions on their freedom, with employers commonly retaining their identification documents. The remote locations of cattle ranches and workers' reliance on employers for food and housing further contribute to conditions that facilitate forced labour.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, cattle, primary production, forced labour, child labour, human rights violations, modern slavery
Sources: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/project-increase-worker-voice-and-address-forced-labor-child-labor-and-other-labor#:~:text=Employers%20in%20Brazil%20and%20Paraguay's,the%20promise%20of%20better%20livelihoods
A joint investigation by InSight Crime and the Igarapé Institute has revealed that illegal timber harvesting is rampant in the forests of the Amazon’s tri-border regions, covering Peru, Brazil and Colombia. The investigation highlights how multinational networks target valuable hardwood species, falsifying logging and transport permits to legitimise the timber and export it. In order to further conceal the illicit activity, the timber may also be transported to places such as Leticia, Colombia, where traffickers are able to avoid certain taxes and controls. The scale of this illegal timber trafficking is extensive, with a 2012 World Bank report finding that about 80% of Peru’s timber is illegally extracted. Another aspect of this illegal trade is the exploitation of Indigenous community members by timber bosses, or "patrones,". The latter will promise jobs and earnings that almost always fail to materialise. For example, the Matsés Indigenous community entered into an agreement with timber patron Teodulfo Palomino Ludeña, who falsified documents and harvested excess timber, leading to fines and permits for the community. Timber brokers are also involved in laundering illegal timber, using their companies to legitimise illegal wood from the Amazon.
Keywords: Latin America, Brazil, timber, primary production, trade and transport, tax evasion, fraudulent documentation, Indigenous rights
Sources: https://insightcrime.org/investigations/beneath-surface-timber-trafficking-peru-colombia-brazil-border/