Are major fashion brands contributing to deforestation in the Amazon?

New research into the industry’s complex global supply chains has revealed that a number of well-known companies could be indirectly spurring the rainforest’s destruction.

Post-Cop26, it’s no surprise that fashion – notorious for its substantial environmental impact – has been in the limelight.

Yet while it’s undoubtedly progressive that the industry is no longer able to conceal the level at which it’s contributing to the climate crisis, news of its persistent malpractice is quickly becoming enough to deter me from ever buying clothes again.

Just last week, I was outraged to discover that Chile’s Atacama Desert is currently inundated with thousands of tonnes of unsold garments from around the world, so you’ll understand my sheer disheartenment this morning when reading that major brands could be playing a key role the Amazon’s destruction.

This is according to new research into fashion’s complex global supply chains, which has shown that a number of well-known companies (including Zara, Nike, Prada, LVMH, and Adidas) are indirectly spurring the rainforest’s deforestation due to their connections with the production of leather.

The study, conducted by NGO Stand.earth, found more than 50 brands to have ties with JBS, Brazil’s principal leather exporter and one renowned for its damaging carbon footprint.

‘The findings are surprising, in part because a number of the brands surveyed have recently announced policies to untangle themselves from actors along the supply chain that contribute to deforestation,’ says Greg Higgs, one of the researchers involved in the report.

‘With a third of companies surveyed having some kind of policy in place, you’d expect that would have an impact on deforestation, but the rate of deforestation is increasing, so the policies have no material effect.’

Although a direct link between the felling of trees and these retailers has not been demonstrated so far, what is clear is that as long as consumer demand for wallets, handbags, and shoes is being met, products will continue to go from cattle, to slaughterhouse, to tannery, to manufacturer.