More Questions About the Sustainability Credentials of Products From the Brazilian Rainforest
A few weeks ago, I posted about why it’s becoming increasingly important to look deeply into all components of your supply chain to ensure that your products are being manufactured as responsibly as possible. That particular post, “Are Your Suppliers Contributing to Deforestation of the Amazon…or Worse?”, discussed a Greenpeace report that mentions Adidas, Gucci, Nike, Timberland and Clarks as potential, and quite possibly unwitting, end users of the illegally-farmed leather.
Now, this week there’s another story emerging that underscores the difficulties all companies, but particularly manufacturers, face with regard to supplier traceability. Mongabay.com reports that A Brazilian federal prosecutor is leading an investigation into charges that illegal timber from the state of Pará is being laundered as “eco-certified” wood and exported to markets in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
We all know that buyers pay a premium for timber that’s certified as sustainable. However, apparently the Brazilian prosecutor has found evidence suggesting that timber companies “are doctoring paperwork and using other methods to disguise timber that is being illegally cut from reserves and indigenous lands,” according to Mongabay.com
So, I’m sorry to say, here’s another new wrinkle for businesses to consider: your suppliers could be deceiving you. What amount of due diligence and “looking deeply” into your suppliers can protect you from that?
The alleged scheme could involve as many as 3,000 companies across Para’s timber sector, which happens to have the highest deforestation rate in the Amazon. Last month ScienceDaily reported that since 2000, forest clearance rates in the Brazilian Amazon have averaged more than 1.8 million hectares per year (roughly the area of Kuwait). That means the deforestation frontier is advancing into the forest at a rate of more than four football fields every minute.
O Globo reporter Liana Mello posts about environmental issues in the Amazon rainforest at the blog BlogVerde . You can also find more information in this report, but it’s published in Portugese.
