John,

Every time we sit down to savour our morning cup of coffee there’s something sinister happening that corporate giants are working overtime to make sure doesn’t make the headlines: the lush forests of Brazil are being razed to bring us our coffee beans.

Shocking new mapping from Coffee Watch reveals that over the past two decades, Brazil’s coffee heartland lost more than 11 million hectares of forest – an area the size of the entire country of Honduras.

The new report painstakingly traced the Brazilian supply chain, but now the watchdog is quickly ramping up to finish the research to identify the multinational coffee brands at fault.

That’s where Ekō can step in. If we can quickly raise enough, we’ll rush Coffee Watch the funds needed to finish the research and expose the rich Global North coffee companies profiting off of this destruction, then campaign to hold them accountable, and protect all our forests and wild places.

Can you chip in to help?

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One thing is clear: our global coffee addiction is killing our planet. Coffee is the sixth largest driver of deforestation in the world – and Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter, producing a third of ALL coffee consumed worldwide! 

The tens of millions of bags of coffee produced in Brazil each year have wiped out millions of hectares of forest once home to jaguars and other precious wildlife, but the impact doesn’t end there because when forests are destroyed, rainfall patterns shift. If we kill the forests, we kill the rains, and then crops die. Including coffee. Landmark droughts already slashed recent coffee yields and contributed to 40% price rises for coffee – with modeling indicating that up to two-thirds of Brazil’s suitable Arabica area could be lost by 2050.

In Brazil’s top coffee‐producing region, eight out of the last ten years have seen severe rainfall deficits – causing droughts that harm not only coffee but also other plants and crops, destroying livelihoods and communities in addition to biodiversity. 

Coffee Watch’s report just exposed just how dire the situation has become – and now, if we can raise enough, we can fund the critical next phase of this investigation – linking deforestation on the ground to the big-brand coffee companies that are in our homes and coffee shops every day. 

Our funds will allow them to map supply routes using satellite imagery and on‐the-ground interviews to build the case. Then once we’ve exposed the worst offenders, we’ll launch a global brand accountability campaign to name and shame major coffee companies and push for real change in their sourcing and transparency– mobilizing consumers worldwide to force them to respond, change the coffee industry, and save forests.

The reality is this: as long as the big companies can hide behind opaque supply chains, the destruction will continue. With this new data we can expose the truth and force accountability, but first we need to help take this research to the next level – can you help us fight for Brazil's forests and wild places everywhere? 

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Your donation will help power Ekō and our campaigns worldwide fighting for people and the planet.