“Back in the days when we used to swim in the river we were afraid of alligators. Now it is difficult to find even a small geko." Marcos Rogério Beltrão dos Santos is a Brazilian environmental activist. He lives in the state of Bahia, in the east of Brazil. When he meets with Earthsight researchers he is wearing a straw hat and a blue T-shirt on which the words "without Cerrado, without water, without life" stand out. The Cerrado is the biome that dominates the lands where he lives, and the slogan refers to the ecological devastation they are experiencing. He is the one who tells the anecdote related to geki and alligators. The local agricultural industry is to blame for the disappearance of the fauna, he explains.

Marcos dos Santos' story is part of Fashion Crimes, a lenghty report produced by the British NGO Earthsight, anticipated by Renewable Matter and other international media. The NGO investigated Brazilian cotton crops, specifically in western Bahia, and what they uncovered might have an impact on the fashion world. According to the researchers, millions of cotton-based garments sold worldwide by brands such as H&M and Zara are made from a raw material linked to deforestation, land grabbing, human rights violations and violence.

The Cerrado, the ecosystem at risk that no one talks about

The backdrop for the events recounted in the report is the Cerrado. It is one of South America's largest biomes, an ecoregion spanning nearly two million square kilometers between Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. It is a large tropical savanna, including barren grasslands and patches of vegetation. It is home to a third of Brazil's biodiversity, 5 percent of the world's species. Within it live armadillos, jaguars, anteaters, and ocelots. Its population is growing steadily: 76 million people in 2019, bigger than the Italian one.

Above all, it is one of the most threatened territories on the Planet. While the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has declined in the past year thanks to the policies of Brazilian and Bolivian presidents Lula and Petro, the Cerrado has seen a 43 percent increase compared to 2022. And, unlike the tropical forest in the northern states, the number one enemy is not soybeans but cotton.

A Cotton T-shirt Made of Deforestation and Pollution

Fashion Crimes reconstructs the route taken by more than a million tons of cotton. The researchers, the report says, reconstructed this journey through the study of court documents, the use of satellite surveys, and by posing as foreign investors to infiltrate crop owners. The first names that pop up are those of two known Brazilian agribusiness bigwigs: SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita. The former controls 44,000 hectares of cotton fields in Western Bahia alone ("more than 60,000 soccer fields," the report says) and is Brazil's leading producer. Grupo Horita is among the top six, owning 140,000 hectares in the region.

Agribusiness in Bahia withdraws 2 billion liters of water a day and spills 600 million liters of pesticides a year. The clearing of vegetation in the Cerrado, not attributable, of course, only to the two companies mentioned above alone, produces climate-changing emissions equal to those of 50 million cars in a year, Fashion Crimes reads.

However, SLC and Grupo Horita carry a heavy footprint, according to the study. "In 2014, Bahia's environmental agency found 25,153 hectares of illegal deforestation on Grupo Horita's farms in Estrondo, a mega estate in the municipality of Formosa do Rio Preto. In 2020, the same agency indicated that it could not find permits related to 11,700 hectares of deforestation carried out by the company between 2010 and 2018. IBAMA, the federal environmental control agency, fined Horita more than 20 times between 2010 and 2019." It is no better for SLC: "IBAMA has fined SLC more than $250,000 since 2008 in Bahia."

Land grabbing and violence against geraizeiros

In addition to sifting through court and administrative records, Earthsight tells of its own findings. Specifically, the NGO's investigators would prove through satellite images that a Horita plantation subjected to a production halt by the same IBAMA agency mentioned above has allegedly remained in operation, despite the authorities' orders, since 2017.

Along with environmental crimes, ownership and human rights issues arise. The Estrondo estate is home to communities of local farmers, known as geraizeiros. Their lands are public and therefore protected, Earthsight argues, yet they are subjected to illegitimate land grabs. "In the 1970s and 1980s, Estrondo owners illegally appropriated more than 400,000 hectares of public land covered by native Cerrado vegetation. More than half of this area was deforested. 10 years ago, geraizeiros began to suffer intimidation and harassment from armed men working for Estrondo's landlords and tenants."

From field to mall, certified Better Cotton

H&M and Inditex - the Spanish conglomerate that owns Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear and other brands - do not interact directly with SLC and Grupo Horita. The two Brazilian companies sell their cotton to Asian companies that make the finished product then resold to Western brands. Earthsight claims to have traced eight Asian companies that source Brazilian cotton produced by the two aforementioned companies in the Bahia region, and use it for products then sold as H&M and Zara.

It is precisely on this side of the supply chain that the issue of transparency focuses. The cotton used by these famous brands is almost entirely certified Better Cotton, a brand that globally promises to audit supply chains to clean them of abuse and environmental damage. "But the cotton we linked to land rights and environmental abuses in Bahia bore its label," the researchers write. The accusation, in short, is classic greenwashing: feigning positive environmental practices without fully implementing them.

The response of H&M and Inditex

Contacted by Renewable Matter, both H&M and Inditex promise to "take the accusations made by Earthsight very seriously." "Better Cotton launched a third-party investigation as soon as these findings were brought to its attention," H&M explains. "Our group was one of the first brands to switch to 100 percent organic, recycled or sustainably sourced cotton. However, this is not the end of the road and the report clearly highlights the need for all stakeholders to continue working to further improve standards and traceability systems, which we fully support. We are in close dialogue with Better Cotton to follow the outcome of the survey and the next steps that will be taken to strengthen and revise their standards."

Of the same tenor was Inditex's response, "We urge [Better Cotton] to share the result of their third-party investigation as soon as possible, and to take all necessary steps to ensure sustainable cotton certification that meets the highest standards."

On April 10, prior to the release of the Earthsight-targeted report, Reuters news agency broke a major story. Inditex reportedly wrote a letter dated April 8 to Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton, asking for an explanation for what the British nonprofit uncovered.

Earthsight concludes its report by pointing out what the certifying body should do to comply with its mandate: resolve conflicts of interest between controllers and controllers, verify that farms operate in agreement with local communities, and not grant its label to cotton grown on deforested land even before 2019. But there is also room for brands: "Until this happens," it says, "companies must move beyond using certification schemes to ensure that their goods are ethically sourced, and must institute their own policies and stricter controls”.

This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano

Cover image: Kishor, Unsplash