From Prada to Zara, the big fashion brands are destroying the Amazon rainforest

A new study links some major international fashion brands, including Adidas and Prada, to deforestation in the Amazon

Fashion and deforestation in the Amazon: they might seem two concepts that are totally distant from each other and instead they are closely related. In fact, dozens of clothing brands, including world-famous brands such as Nike, Zara e Prada, are contributing to the destruction of the green lung of our planet. This is revealed by a new analysis conducted by Stand.earth, an international research organization that deals with the protection of the most vulnerable forests.

But what does it have to do with deforestation with the fashion world? As clarified in the report entitled “Nowhere to Hide”, some of the largest clothing companies buy leather - to make shoes, bags and other accessories - from manufacturers and tanneries that are ravaging the Amazon rainforest. In this region, trees are being cut down at an ever faster rate to make way for intensive farming, a situation that is endangering not only the environment but also the survival of indigenous tribes.

Together @standearth & @theslowfactory have released new research that reveals how the fashion industry is pushing the Amazon rainforest closer to the tipping point of irreversible ecosystem collapse. #SupplyChange https://t.co/kldIXFcYVx pic.twitter.com/5op6bk07WC

— Slow Factory (@theslowfactory) November 30, 2021

The big brands responsible for the destruction of the Amazon

To investigate the issue, Stand.earth reviewed thousands of customs data, bringing to light more or less indirect links between dozens of fashion companies and deforestation in the Amazon. And from the analyzes, numerous well-known brands did not come out at all "clean": among them Prada, H&M, Zara, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Nike, New Balance, Teva, UGG e Fendi. About 50 companies examined are, in fact, linked to JBS, the largest leather exporter in Brazil. And although the latter is committed to reaching the goal of "zero deforestation" by 2035, several surveys have documented that in reality this goal is still a long way off.

From Prada to Zara, the big fashion brands are destroying the Amazon rainforest

@Stand.earth

To leave with a bad taste in the mouth is the fact that most of the fads in question had announced the adoption of policies against deforestation. To give an example, LVMH started a partnership with Unesco earlier this year, but a very different reality emerges from the analysis conducted by Stand.earth.

"In the Amazon, vegetation is decreasing more and more, so these policies have not had any effect," highlighted one of the authors of the study. In the last year, the Amazon deforestation rate has increased by 22%, marking the record of the last 15 years.

Secondo l’International Council of Tanners (ICT), cirabout 65% of the leather used in the world is of bovine origin and demand is not decreasing at all, on the contrary it is increasing year by year. To meet the demand for wallets, bags and shoes, 430 million cattle will have to be slaughtered annually by 2025 (up from 290 million in 2016). And most of these animals are raised in Brazil, where the Amazon rainforest is disappearing visibly.

With these rhythms, in short, we will soon be forced to say goodbye to our green lung and the fashion sector is complicit in this destruction.

“The goal is to develop a clear plan for the fashion industry so as not to allow for loopholes,” said Jungwon Kim, vice president of Slow Factory, an NGO for climate justice who participated in the drafting of the report.

A further delay could lead to the collapse of the delicate Amazonian ecosystem.

“We just have to find other solutions that are not of animal or plastic origin” underlines Céline Semaan, founder of Slow Factory.

Fortunately, alternatives to animal skin exist, while the Amazon rainforest cannot be replaced.

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Sources: Stand.earth/The Guardian