Dozens of European food retailers on Wednesday threatened Brazil with a boycott of agricultural products should it pass a land reform bill which they argue would worsen deforestation.

An open letter coordinated by Retail Soy Group and sent to Brazil's National Congress included the signatures of UK supermarkets Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco, German peers Aldi and Lidl as well as Co-op Switzerland.

Retail Soy Group had already written to Brazilian politicians last year over similar land reform proposals that were subsequently withdrawn, amended and resubmitted.

The new letter said there had been extremely high levels of forest fires and deforestation in Brazil over the past year, but the targets to reduce them and enforcement budgets were "increasingly inadequate".

"It is therefore extremely concerning to see that the same measure we responded to last year is being put forward again as the legislative proposal with potentially even greater threats to the Amazon than before," the letter said.

Deforestation in Brazil has surged under President Jair Bolsonaro, who has slashed funding for environmental programs since he took office in 2019 and is pushing to open protected lands to mining and agribusiness.

In the 12 months to August 2020, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased 9.5 percent, destroying an area larger than Jamaica, according to government data.

At a US-hosted climate summit last month, Bolsonaro recommitted his country to a previous goal of stopping illegal deforestation by 2030.

But the European food retailers said in their letter that the latest measures ran "counter to the narrative and rhetoric" from Brazil at the summit.

And should the law be passed, the signatories "will have no choice but to reconsider... support and use of the Brazilian agricultural commodity supply chain".

Brazil court suspends probe against indigenous leader
Sao Paulo (AFP) May 6, 2021 - A Brazilian court Wednesday ordered the Federal Police to suspend a probe into Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous leader accused of "slandering" President Jair Bolsonaro for criticizing his mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis.

The legal complaint against the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB) and its leader Guajajara -- accusing it of "a campaign of slander and defamation" -- was brought by FUNAI, the government's indigenous affairs office.

"It is important to note the clear mention" in FUNAI's official letter of the alleged slander "suggests that the main purpose of this entire situation is to silence" critics of the federal government, read the ruling by federal judge Frederico de Barros Viana.

Guajajara, 47, earlier said that she had been summoned by the Federal Police "in connection with an investigation into the Maraca series." The series, available on the APIB website, is part of a pro-indigenous people campaign supported by some 200 celebrities.

Guajajara comes from Arariboia indigenous land in northeastern Maranhao, and rose to prominence as a defender of native rights.

"Victory for the original peoples!" the APIB said in a statement, adding that the probe was an attempt to "criminalize the indigenous movement."

The APIB has accused the government of a "genocide" of native peoples during the pandemic, which it estimates has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 native people.

Bolsonaro has come under mounting criticism for his handling of the pandemic after repeatedly minimizing it and mocking efforts to contain it.

Other Bolsonaro critics have been interrogated by police in recent months, part of what one newspaper called an "intimidation campaign" by the government.

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Brazilian Amazon released more carbon than it stored in 2010s
Exeter UK (SPX) May 01, 2021
The Brazilian Amazon rainforest released more carbon than it stored over the last decade - with degradation a bigger cause than deforestation - according to new research. More than 60% of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil, and the new study used satellite monitoring to measure carbon storage from 2010-2019. The study found that degradation (parts of the forest being damaged but not destroyed) accounted for three times more carbon loss than deforestation. The research team - including ... read more