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By Jack Graham [[link removed]] | Climate change and nature correspondent, UK

The ‘upside-down forest’

This week, an explosive new report by the NGO Earthsight found that clothing factories supplying H&M and Zara are buying cotton linked to environmental destruction and land-grabbing in Brazil.

First reported by Context [[link removed]], the investigation calls into question the sustainability of cotton used by top global brands - even if it carries a label calling it sustainable.

Researchers traced thousands of shipment records between two cotton producers it said were linked to land-grabbing [[link removed]] and illegal deforestation to Asian factories that supply finished garments to brands including H&M and Zara.

Cotton is harvested on a farm in the Cerrado region in Bahia state, Brazil. June, 2023. Thomas Bauer/Earthsight/Handout via Thomson Reuters Foundation

The impact of beef and soy in the Amazon are well-established, but this report I covered with Andre Cabette Fabio focused on another biodiversity hotspot you may not have heard of: the Cerrado.

Brazil's Cerrado is a tropical savannah larger than Mexico, and often known as the "upside-down forest" [[link removed]] for its carbon-storing root systems reaching 15 metres (49 ft) deep into the ground. While efforts have been made to improve Amazon protections, deforestation alerts in the Cerrado jumped 44% [[link removed]] in 2023.

Brazil has set its sights on becoming the largest exporter of cotton in the world, and output has been booming in the Cerrado - more vulnerable than the Amazon due its proximity to trading routes and weaker environmental rules.

It's also a key source of water for much of South America, but the spread of thirsty crops is threatening the water supplies [[link removed]] of traditional communities and has driven them off grazing land they have used for generations, environmental researchers say.

Peasant farmer Adão Batista Gomes said his community used to freely graze their cattle amid the trees and rolling grassland, but that changed when farm employees first arrived in the 1980s.

"They told us the area belonged to the farm, that it was in the farm's map," he said. "Today it's all crops, everything was deforested."

A chart showing the area of land deforested in the Amazon states and the Cerrado between 2018 and 2023.

Cottoning on

So what can help solve these issues? Earthsight said ethical supply chain rules like the European Union's deforestation regulation need to be expanded and strengthened, and heavily criticised private sector efforts to reassure consumers, such as the Better Cotton used by H&M and Zara – both of which expressed concern over the NGO’s findings.

Others put more emphasis on stronger protections for nature and people on the ground in Brazil.

David Cleary, The Nature Conservancy's agriculture director, told me there are millions of hectares already cleared where agricultural productivity could be increased. The Cerrado has lost about half its natural vegetation to agriculture.

"There's an enormous amount of potential for different sorts of incentive schemes that can protect surviving vegetation in the Cerrado," he said.

As demand for cotton continues to grow worldwide, its pressures on nature are expected to do the same. Will the Cerrado pay the price for fast fashion?

See you next week,

Jack

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Don't forget women in new UN climate fund, policymakers urged [[link removed]]

The loss and damage fund's success hinges on women's participation and recognising their uneven climate burden, rights groups say

Panama's Indigenous leave home as sea levels rise [[link removed]]

The Guna people of Panama's sinking Gardi Sugdub island are planning to move to the mainland to escape rising sea levels

Read all of our coverage here [[link removed]] Discover more Nature [[link removed]] Climate Risks [[link removed]] Net Zero [[link removed]] Just Transition [[link removed]] Climate Justice [[link removed]] Green Cities [[link removed]] Thank you for reading!

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