Amazon fires: H&M stops buying Brazilian leather amid concerns over deforestation

H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, has said that it will stop purchasing leather from Brazil over concerns that the country’s cattle industry has contributed to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

The announcement of the temporary ban is the second to hit the South American country after a spike in rainforest fires this year drew global outcry.

Last week, VF Corporation, which includes international brands like Timberland and The North Face, announced a temporary suspension of purchases of Brazilian leather, until its suppliers could prove they were not connected to any environmental harm.

Nearly 50,000 fires have been detected in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year — the highest number in almost a decade.

While fires happen every year during the dry season, as farmers and land grabbers clear trees to grow crops or graze cattle, the spike coincides with new policies by Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, that have encouraged greater access to protected lands.

Although it is unclear how much of the leather exported by Brazil is linked to Amazon deforestation, researchers connect much of it to the forest being cut down for pasture.

A 2016 report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation linked 80 per cent of deforestation in the country to cattle grazing.

The sudden rise in fires prompted world leaders and celebrities to issue warnings about the future of the world’s biggest rainforest.

Many took aim at Mr Bolsonaro’s policies, which also included slashing the budget of environmental protection agencies.

The Brazilian president dismissed the boycott concerns over the weekend, saying it was just some “pressure” and “part of the game”.

“This is normal in the whole world,” he told the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.

Last week, Mr Bolsonaro signed an executive order forbidding fires during the dry season in the Amazon.

The government also sent the military to fight the fires in the Amazon, but thousands of blazes are still raging there.

Swedish and Norwegian pension funds announced last week they had started investigations into whether international companies with investments in the Amazon were doing enough to save the rainforest.

The Norwegian pension fund mentioned it was looking at major US trading companies with large operations in Brazil, such as Cargill and Bunge.

H&M already had requirements in place to ensure that raw hides and leather used in its products did not originate from cattle raised in the Amazon, a spokeswoman said in an email.

Their ban on all leather from Brazil will remain “until there are credible assurance systems in place to verify that the leather does not contribute to environmental harm in the Amazon”, the company said.

The spokeswoman added that a “very small” amount of the retailer’s leather comes from Brazil, and that the vast majority comes from Europe, but could not immediately provide specifics.

The ban will extend to all of H&M’s brands, which include & Other Stories and COS.

H&M, based in Stockholm, has thousands of stores in more than 70 markets. Because of the company’s size, even minor decisions about its supply chain can have far-reaching effects.

At the same time, fast fashion retailers like H&M have attracted growing criticism in recent years for their environmental impact by generating waste with cheap, disposable clothing. Some companies have responded in part by introducing recycling programmes and drumming up publicity around new sustainability initiatives.

The New York Times