A Brazilian state in the Amazon ignored the advice of its own environmental legal team and revoked a fine against JBS NV, the world’s largest meatpacker, that stemmed from the company’s purchase of cattle raised in one of the rainforest’s most-destroyed reserves.
The attorney general in the state of Rondônia ruled last month that the fine was inappropriate because JBS bought the cows before 2022 when legislation was amended to prohibit sourcing cattle from illegally deforested conservation areas, according to state administrative records seen by Bloomberg News.
The decision risks unraveling four years of work by state inspectors and prosecutors, who’ve fined and sued slaughterhouses for purchasing thousands of cattle from farms inside the Jaci-Paraná reserve. Created in 1996, Jaci-Paraná was intended for sustainable use by rubber tappers and Brazil nut collectors. Once blanketed by rainforest, it now has a grassland area roughly the size of Greater London, where more than 200,000 cattle graze.
“Holding supply-chain links accountable for illegal deforestation is essential to stopping destruction,” said Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection at Brazil’s federal environmental agency, known as Ibama, which also has fined meatpackers, in an interview, speaking generally about the subject.
In all, Rondônia’s Attorney General’s Office has filed about 50 lawsuits against beef processors, including industry giants JBS, MBRF Global Foods SA and Minerva SA, for allegedly acquiring thousands of cattle from ranches inside the reserve between 2017 and 2021. The legal challenges are seeking a combined $130 million to help restore some of the 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of rainforest cleared for pasture and also to strengthen environmental law enforcement, according to court papers.
In the recent JBS case, the company said it couldn’t be held responsible for the purchase of 55 cattle made in 2017 because it was five years before the local legislation was amended, among other factors.
JBS's arguments were initially rejected by Aparício Paixão Ribeiro Júnior, environmental director in Rondônia’s Attorney General’s Office. In an Aug. 7 filing, he agreed with the finding of his colleagues who filed the lawsuits stating that pre-2022 legislation still applied and that Brazilian law holds accountable not only those who cause environmental damage but also those who profit from it.
Three weeks later, however, a second opinion signed by his superior, Attorney General Thiago Alencar, said the opposite and sided with JBS. Before 2022, he wrote in a legal opinion that the legislation only penalized direct actions against vegetation, not indirect conduct such as buying livestock.
The environmental office then decided on Sept. 8 to annul a JBS fine totaling $388,000.
JBS said in a statement that the rancher who sold the company the 55 cattle from inside the reserve supplied false geographic coordinates and added that the company has since taken steps to block the rancher from selling to its plants. JBS still faces five lawsuits for allegedly buying cattle raised in Jaci-Paraná, where it’s also been fined 11 times, court records show.
Last month’s JBS decision highlights the challenge of enforcing penalties in the beef industry, which is the leading driver of deforestation.
Every fine filed by Rondônia that followed investigations from 2021 to 2023 uses a standard filing format, meaning the decision on JBS sets a precedent for releasing other companies from similar penalties, said state public prosecutor Pablo Viscardi, who’s the acting coordinator of the Prosecutor’s Office’s environmental section. Viscardi’s office operates independently from the State Attorney General.
“The ruling also weakens the lawsuits, since they’re all based on the infraction notices, although it’s not enough to dismiss them, as there are other arguments supporting it,” he said.
Rondônia’s State Public Prosecutor’s Office, an independent body that represents the public in legal cases, can’t appeal the administrative decision to annul JBS’s fine. However, it said it will continue to support the state’s attorney office in the ongoing lawsuits against slaughterhouses and ranchers.
MBRF Global Foods and Minerva declined to comment on the lawsuits but said they maintain rigorous cattle-tracking practices.
In total, 10 slaughterhouses have been fined and sued for acquiring cattle from Jaci-Paraná. The largest buyers, Distriboi and Frigorífico Irmãos Gonçalves (Frigon), have been found guilty in a lower court ruling. None of them returned requests for comment.
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