Overview
- Human Rights Watch’s 86-page report details five cases in which cattle from illegal ranches in Terra Nossa and the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous territory were moved through intermediaries before being sold to JBS slaughterhouses.
- JBS lacks a system to track indirect suppliers and cannot guarantee compliance, though it says it will require direct suppliers to disclose their own suppliers starting January 1, 2026.
- Brazil’s group-based animal transit permits hinder origin checks; Pará plans individual cattle traceability by the end of 2026 while the federal government targets 2032.
- Pará’s agency Adepará historically authorized cattle movements without environmental screening, and officials now say they will generally stop issuing permits into protected forests.
- HRW cites severe harms and forest loss, noting Terra Nossa’s conversion to 45.3 percent pasture by 2023 and Cachoeira Seca’s record deforestation in 2024, and flags EU market exposure with recent beef and leather trade links as enforcement of the EU deforestation law may be postponed by a year.