Lack of transparency in livestock makes it difficult to combat deforestation

Meat packing companies and traders display no guarantees that they buy and sell meat that does not involve illegal deforestation. Banks and financial institutions similarly fail

At the end of 2022, Radar Verde released its first results: only 5% of the invited companies, meat packing companies and retailers participated in the initial edition, and none accepted the disclosure of their final classification. As a result, it can be understood that the companies from the livestock sector still cannot prove the disassociation of the meat they buy and sell from the deforestation in the Amazon – at any stage of the production. However, the lack of transparency is not only a privilege of this private group. Banks and financial institutions also have a long way to go if they want to better control the financing and investments in the sector.

Luciane Moessa, the executive director of the Sustainable Inclusive Solutions Association (SIS), spoke to Radar Verde and explained the results of the first Ranking of the Socioenvironmental Performance of Financial Institutions (RASA). They show, for example, that there are still many gaps in what each institution does in order to guarantee that money is not placed in ventures that benefit from illegal deforestation. Luciane states that only three among the ten banks evaluated in the first cycle provided additional information beyond what is already in the public domain. The data collection also discovered numerous flaws in the management of the socioenvironmental risks in general.