Fashion chains’ ‘dirty cotton’ destroying niche Brazilian habitat

Stretching across the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic Forests and the tropical wetland habitat of the Pantanal, lies the world’s most biodiverse savanna, the Cerrado,

Roughly four times the size of France, the ecosystem is home to unique vegetation and wildlife including endangered species like the maned wolf and giant anteater.

But all this may be at risk, with fast fashion destroying the terrain.

Cotton farmers, distributing to large fashion houses like H&M and Zara have been accused of manufacturing dirty cotton, on an ecosystem that is a "critical" supplier of clean water. What’s more, the Cerrado sequesters carbon, which involves storing carbon in the soil to act as a buffer against climate change.

A report by Earthsight, a London based non-profit organisation states: "Corporations and consumers in Europe and North America are driving destruction in a new way. Not by what they eat – but what they wear."

Production of commodities, including cotton, for global consumption has dramatically changed the Cerrado landscape.

"Since 1985, Bahia [a state in Brazil] alone has lost nearly a quarter of its original nine million hectares of Cerrado. The climate impact has been enormous: clearing Cerrado vegetation for agricultural production generates as much carbon per year as the annual emissions of 50 million cars," Rafael Pieroni, the team lead for Latin America at Earthsight, tells TRT World.

The agribusiness footprint is described as scarring the area while billions of litres of fresh water are diverted to cotton fields yearly.

Earthsight, known for investigating and exposing environmental, crime, injustice and the links to global consumption alleges that most cotton comes from the "most notorious estates in Brazil" and is supplied by Asian clothing manufacturers supplying the globe's top two fashion retailers. It has led to prominent Western clothes and homeware giants H&M and Zara being linked to dirty cotton amid large-scale deforestation, land grabbing, violence, and corruption.

Safeguarding or sacrificing?

"In the western portion of the Bahia, one of the states located within the biome, there are traditional communities that have inhabited the Cerrado for generations. However, the ecosystem and these communities are under pressure from plantation encroachment, unsustainable water extraction and pesticide contamination," Pieroni tells TRT World.

Once an area around half the size of Europe, since the 1950s, agricultural production, largely soy and beef, has contributed to what critics describe as its "plunder".

Hundreds of species face extinction and habitat loss across the Cerrado’s vast plateaus and valleys. Some have even labelled it a "sacrificial zone" amid perceived ineffective and insufficient public policies to safeguard it.

Estimates suggest that by 2030, the Cerrado, which spans 23 percent of Brazil, will have lost tens of millions of acres of native vegetation, which is fundamental to safeguarding nature and combating the climate crisis.

The land use conversion in the Cerrado alters the climatic conditions in swathes of the Amazon. A notable quantity of water that reaches the Cerrado is carried in air currents that transport water vapour across Amazonia, swathes of Brazil, and neighbouring countries.

Reports point to the expanding agribusiness in Brazil's states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia, calling it the "last agricultural frontier in the country."

Earthsight says it spent a year using satellite imagery, court rulings, shipment records and going undercover at worldwide trade shows, leading to a report tracing over 800,000 tonnes of "tainted cotton" in April.

Western consumerism

The nonprofit says it investigated 816,000 tonnes of cotton from estates to eight Asian firms. Over a year, they produced nearly 250 million pieces of finished clothing and homeware for global stores. It includes H&M, Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear and describes the goods as the best-selling items worth hundreds of millions of Euros and sold across the US, Germany, the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Poland, Ireland, and Italy.

After allegations surfaced, H&M's sustainability manager admitted its failure to the Swedish media.

Earthsight's director, Sam Lawson, has publicly denounced the perceived talk of good practice, social responsibility and schemes by the firms.

The traced cotton is allegedly certified sustainable by Better Cotton, the globe's biggest certification scheme. Shipping records allege the suppliers to H&M and Zara source cotton from two of Brazil's largest producers: SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita.

Land and Power

"Horita and SLC are just two examples of large producers in western Bahia who have accumulated land, wealth and political power thanks in part to the boom in Brazilian commodities exports over recent decades," explains Pieroni.

He alleges the Horita brothers arrived in the region in the 1980s after acquiring 1,200ha of farmland. Today, the group owns at least 140,000ha of land spread over six regional municipalities and has reportedly become among the wealthiest families in Brazil.

The investigation also points to some of Brazil's richest families that own large-scale farms and mass-produce cotton, and have faced lengthy records of court injunctions, corruption rulings, and millions of dollars in fines for clearing around 100,000 hectares of the Cerrado's wilderness.

One of the company's owners, Walter Horita, was allegedly involved in a corruption scandal, exposing the widespread sale of court rulings related to land disputes in Bahia while the investigation was ongoing.

"SLC belongs to the Logemann family, with assets worth more than US$1.4 billion, owning properties not only in Bahia but also in five other Brazilian states, all part of the Cerrado," Pieroni says.

On one of the immense mega-farms, Estrondo, where Horita is the main landowner, the area has seen violent disputes against traditional communities for decades.

In 2018, Bahia's attorney general ruled Estrondo was one of the largest land grabs in the history of Brazil, while shortly after, two members of the community were shot by security guards following intimidation and harassment.

"Our report reveals that some agribusinesses are linked to land grabbing and violence against community members. Land has been taken from them for the production of commodities—including cotton—to cater to global markets. We therefore believe that wealthy consumer markets, including the EU, the UK, and the US, must act," says Pieroni.

Calls for reforms

On April 24, the European Parliament approved the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), aimed at creating a "legal liability" for companies related to environmental and human rights abuses in their supply chain that reportedly drives it closer to being formally adopted by the EU.

The nonprofit says a new EU Deforestation Regulation pushing companies to trace some raw materials back to production to ensure they are free of deforestation and legal - critically overlooks cotton.

It says the same "blind spot" affects areas of the West, including the US and UK. At the same time, Brazil's PPCerrado bid to clamp down on deforestation in the Cerrado fails to address deforestation amid unstable policies. It calls for a halt to "all large-scale deforestation."

The Better Cotton System suffers from a "deep conflict of interests," notably in Brazil, says Earthsight. The Brazilian Cotton Growers Association, Abrapa, exists to safeguard and promote the sector's interests, insisting it is in charge of the country's certification programme.

"Abrapa works closely with local associations, including Bahia's producers' association Abapa. Both Abapa and Abrapa's presidents are cotton growers. Luiz Carlos Bergamaschi and a member of the Horita family, alongside other large cotton producers, are part of Abrapa's councils. The cotton producers are effectively certifying themselves," it alleges.

When contacted, Abrapa referred TRT World to its statement, expressing deep concern and condemning any malpractice undermining environmental conservation, violating human rights, or harming local communities.

Responsible fashion

Pieroni explains that the nonprofit is not pushing to stop companies from importing from Brazil but expects them to act "responsibly," which includes implementing full traceability, addressing environmental destruction, and addressing human rights violations when they are found in supply chains.

"These companies must make sure that production is not only deforestation-free but also legal, in accordance with the producing country's environmental, land and human rights laws," he says.

Companies should not rely on certification schemes, Pieroni says, insisting the world's largest cotton certification scheme, Better Cotton, failed to detect alleged illegalities committed by SLC and Horita.

"Because the fashion industry fails to monitor and ensure sustainability and legality in their cotton supply chains, we believe it should be the responsibility of governments in rich consumer markets to regulate them."