JBS will likely fail to meet its flagship commitment to eliminate deforestation from its Amazon supply chain by the end of 2025, according to a new investigation by The Guardian, Repórter Brasil, and Unearthed, the investigative journalism unit of Greenpeace UK. The findings are based on dozens of interviews with ranchers within JBS’s extensive Amazon supply chain, as well as a current JBS employee. In the report, interviewees described a system “riddled with loopholes,” with most stating that achieving a fully traceable, deforestation-free supply chain by the end of this year is impossible to reach.

JBS did not reach a satisfactory level in the first unified audit cycle of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, in which procedures for verifying compliance with the agreement between meatpackers and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) were standardized across all companies. According to the MPF, the meatpacker recorded a 6.17% non-compliance rate in its cattle purchases in Pará, exceeding the 5% maximum allowed during that phase of the agreement. In Rondônia, the non-compliance rate reached 12%.

In November 2022, JBS announced that it was bringing forward its deforestation-related targets, aiming to completely eliminate deforestation from its supply chain in the Amazon by 2025—including among indirect suppliers. However, this announcement came after the company faced criticism in 2021 for setting even more distant targets. It's worth recalling that JBS already had a commitment to zero deforestation in the Amazon, which should have been achieved by 2011.

A study by Global Witness revealed that flawed audits conducted by the Norwegian company DNV GL between 2016 and 2019 hid JBS’s true exposure to deforestation in the Amazon. According to the investigation, JBS continued purchasing cattle from 144 farms in Pará with previously identified irregularities, in violation of its agreement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF). The study indicates that DNV GL later ceased auditing the company and claimed that limitations in the audit methodologies may have accounted for the discrepancies between the Global Witness findings and the audit results.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) found that JBS had a 32% non-compliance rate in the audit carried out in the state of Pará. This was the company’s worst performance in evaluations of the implementation of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct — an agreement between JBS, other meatpackers, and the MPF aimed at curbing deforestation in the Amazon region.

JBS agreed to pay R$5 million (approximately US$ 910,000 at that time) to a fund managed by the Pará Environment Secretariat after the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) found unsatisfactory results in audits of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct. The MPF noted that the company’s performance was inadequate in two rounds of audits conducted under the agreement, although JBS contested the audit methodology. As part of the settlement, the company also committed to auditing 100% of its cattle purchases in Pará and to opening two “green offices” in the state.