Stand up to Bunge and its destruction in the world’s largest and most threatened tropical savanna!

The Brazilian Cerrado -- known as the birthplace of waters -- is the world’s most biodiverse savannah. The region is home to Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and traditional peasant communities that have lived on the land for generations. This globally-significant biome is also to millions of unique, vibrant species. In fact, the Cerrado is a biodiversity hotspot containing 5% of ALL species on Earth.

Yet the Cerrado is under attack as greedy soy companies like Bunge decimate this rich ecosystem, destroying native vegetation and violently displacing communities for profit.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Comments

Dear Greg Heckman, Deborah Borg, Robert Caviello, Ruth Ann Wisener, Brendan Pastor, Michel Santos, Ben Vreeburg, and Alison Taylor,

Bunge’s business model, including its soy operations in the Brazilian Cerrado, contributes to some of the most alarming aspects of the climate crisis: deforestation, land grabbing, and increasing violence against communities and environmental human rights defenders. In the Brazilian state of Piauí, Bunge’s near-monopoly over soy inputs and production is tacitly incentivizing soy expansion predicated on environmental and human rights abuses. Bunge’s failure to prevent land grabbing, violations of Indigenous and other traditional communities’ rights, and human rights abuses are increasingly making the company a focus for investors, policymakers, and climate activists.

In October 2021, around 2000 hectares of natural forest were cleared on the Fazenda Kajubari in the Santa Filomena municipality of Piauí. The action was illegal as the farm’s land title had been placed under an Annulment Action published by the State Public Prosecutor’s office. Three other properties under the same ownership in Santa Filomena municipality reportedly deforested a further 3,678 hectares between June 2021 and January 2022. As the majority of soy from this region is proceeding at Bunge’s silo in Santa Filomena, your company is tied to this destruction. Yet, there is nothing in Bunge’s policies to prevent such ongoing destruction.

While Bunge has committed to removing deforestation from supply chains by 2025, there are growing fears that your company’s business model may seek to clear as much land as possible in the Cerrado between now and January 1, 2026. Investors, policymakers, and activists alike are aware of this disturbing possibility.

In order to meaningfully address the ongoing deforestation and human rights abuses linked to your company’s soy operations and supply chains, Bunge should:

• Cease all expansion of soy plantations, even where it is apparently legal, in the name of climate responsibility.

• Commit to the Cerrado Soy Manifesto and align operations with the 2020 deforestation cutoff date in accordance with the Accountability Framework Initiative, and act to immediately halt sourcing from lands that have been deforested since 2020.

• Immediately prioritize the identification of Indigenous, Quilombolas, and other rural communities affected by its soy supply chains, including where community land rights claims are still pending formal government recognition and titling processes.

• Avoid reliance on suppliers’ policies and audits to assess compliance with respect to land rights and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent and conduct your own independent due diligence and risk assessments around FPIC and publish the results.

• Do not source from soy suppliers who are operating on properties claimed or contested by Indigenous, Quilombola, and other rural communities in the absence of FPIC;

• Provide for and deliver effective remedy for communities, including compensation where soy suppliers have used community-claimed land in the absence of FPIC;

• Assure that the process of providing and delivering remedy ensures that communities or individuals are not put at risk of reprisals when freely enunciating the harms they have been subject to and their associated needs. Ensure full traceability to farm for all direct and indirect suppliers across all commodity and country supply chains and ensure this information is transparently and regularly published.

• Adopt, publish, and implement credible measures to monitor for, prevent, and provide remedy for land rights abuses in its global supply chains across all commodities traded, incorporating a zero-tolerance stance on illegal land acquisition and excluding all suppliers operating on land where the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of affected communities has not been obtained.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name}
{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Postcode}

First name

Last name

Email address

Zip Code

Phone number

Alerts about ways you can take action

Friends of the Earth Action Activists

By submitting this form, you are signing up to receive updates and alerts from Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Earth (Action), Inc. You may unsubscribe at any time.

By providing your mobile number and submitting this form, you are signing up to receive calls and voice mails from Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Earth (Action), Inc. You may unsubscribe at any time.