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An investigation by Mighty Earth, Repórter Brasil, and Ecostorm found that Tesco's UK meat products are linked to illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The report traces soy from the Santa Ana farm in Mato Grosso, which used illegal fires to clear 400 hectares of forest in 2022, through Cargill's logistics network to UK suppliers Avara and Pilgrim's UK. The authors argue that Cargill's monitoring systems are flawed, allowing 'grain laundering' where illegal soy is mixed with legal crops. Despite public pledges to be deforestation-free by 2025, Tesco continues to source heavily from Cargill, which has a 2030 target. The report also criticizes proposed UK due diligence legislation for failing to cover 'legal' deforestation, potentially making the UK a leakage market for soy that does not meet EU standards.

The report provides a comprehensive snapshot of the implementation of Brazil's Forest Code (Law no. 12,651/2012), focusing on the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Compliance Program (PRA). While registration in the CAR is largely consolidated, the analysis of this data remains a critical bottleneck, with only 2% of national registrations fully analyzed. The document identifies significant disparities between states, noting that a few, such as Acre, Mato Grosso, and Pará, have completed all implementation stages, while others like Pernambuco, Piauí, and Roraima have stagnated. Key challenges include institutional gaps, lack of technical resources for forest restoration, and the illegal use of CAR for land grabbing on public lands. To address these, the authors recommend a national implementation plan, strengthening the SICAR IT infrastructure, adopting dynamic analysis tools, and aligning the Forest Code with rural credit incentives and anti-deforestation policies.

The policy brief provides a detailed 'radiography' of the implementation of the Brazilian Forest Code, focusing on the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA). It identifies a significant gap between the initial registration of properties and the final stage of environmental regularization, noting that while registration is consolidated, the analysis of data remains a primary bottleneck. The authors highlight extreme heterogeneity among states, with a few leaders like Mato Grosso and Pará, and others remaining stagnant. The document outlines systemic challenges across individual, institutional, technical-economic, and legal dimensions and recommends a national implementation plan, strengthening of the SICAR system, and better integration with agricultural credit and anti-deforestation policies.

The policy brief examines the Constitutional Financing Funds (FCFs) in Brazil's North, Northeast, and Midwest regions. It finds that while FCFs are designed to support small producers and low-income areas, the criteria for 'priority' beneficiaries and geographies have become so broad that they encompass nearly all producers and most municipalities. This lack of strict targeting has led to a concentration of resources in higher-value contracts and a small number of municipalities, particularly in the Matopiba region. Despite this concentration, FCFs remain a critical source of credit for the most underdeveloped municipalities in the North and Northeast, where alternative financing is often unavailable.

The document serves as a legislative annex listing the legal framework governing the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) in Brazil. It details federal laws, such as Law No. 12,651/2012, and specific state-level regulations for 23 Brazilian states and the Federal District, covering topics such as native vegetation protection, legal reserve compensation, and environmental licensing.

The report examines rural credit in the Cerrado, noting that while the biome accounts for about one-third of Brazil's rural credit and agricultural production, financing is highly concentrated among large producers and public banks. It highlights a growing reliance on private funding sources like Agricultural Credit Notes (LCA) and a significant scarcity of credit for family farming through programs like PRONAF. The authors argue that improving credit access for smaller producers is essential for increasing productivity and reducing deforestation pressures.

The report examines rural credit in the Cerrado, noting that while the biome accounts for about one-third of Brazil's rural credit and agricultural production, financing is highly concentrated. Average contract values in the Cerrado are 181% higher than in other biomes, primarily benefiting large-scale soy and cattle producers. While there is a growing trend toward private funding sources like Agribusiness Credit Notes (LCA), public banks—specifically Banco do Brasil—continue to dominate distribution. The study highlights a significant gap in credit access for small and medium producers (Pronaf and Pronamp), arguing that improving this access is essential for increasing productivity and reducing deforestation pressures.

The document serves as a legislative annex, cataloging the federal laws, decrees, and normative instructions, as well as state-level regulations, that govern the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) in Brazil as of October 2021.

The report identifies 12 cases of fire in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes in August 2020, totaling 20,064 hectares of prior deforestation. It links these fires to the preparation of land for pasture or crop production and highlights that major traders like Bunge, Cargill, and JBS are connected to farms engaging in these practices.

The document introduces a high-spatial-resolution life cycle assessment approach to quantify greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural supply chains. Applying this method to Brazilian soy exports between 2010 and 2015, the authors found significant variability in carbon footprints based on sourcing areas and destinations. The highest emissions were linked to soy from Pará and the MATOPIBA states due to natural vegetation loss, with exports to the European Union showing the highest carbon footprint per ton. Total GHG emissions for Brazilian soy exports in this period were estimated at 223.46 million tons, with China as the largest importer.

The report provides a detailed 'radiography' of how Brazilian states are implementing the 2012 Forest Code. It identifies the analysis and validation of the CAR as the primary bottleneck and notes that while some states like Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, and Pará have made significant progress, others remain severely delayed in regulating and operationalizing the PRA. The document also highlights the role of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB) in developing technological tools to scale these processes.

The report provides a comprehensive 'radiography' of how Brazilian states are implementing the Forest Code. It identifies a significant gap between the high rates of CAR registration and the slow progress of CAR validation and PRA implementation. While some states in the North and Center-West regions are advanced, the Northeast region lags behind. The document highlights systemic barriers, including a lack of technical resources, poor quality of self-declared data, and a heavy dependence on the federal government's SICAR system. It also examines state-specific rules for restoring Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) and Legal Reserves (RL), noting wide variations in restoration deadlines and methodologies.

The paper finds that agricultural expansion in the Matopiba region, driven by soy cultivation, significantly increased GDP per capita and improved access to durable goods and electricity in municipalities within the Cerrado biome. While agricultural and services GDP grew, there were no significant effects on manufacturing GDP, local population, or educational outcomes.

The report argues that Brazil's insecure land rights lead to significant rural conflicts, deforestation, and economic inefficiencies. It highlights a systemic failure in land governance characterized by institutional complexity, unreliable registries, and the absence of an integrated database for public and private lands. These issues are exacerbated by the 'social function of property' requirement, which can incentivize land clearing to prove productivity and legitimize illegal land grabbing (grilagem).

The report argues that Brazil lags globally in property rights protection, leading to severe consequences including land-related violence, deforestation, and inefficient land use. It highlights a systemic failure in land governance characterized by institutional complexity, unreliable registration systems, and the absence of an integrated database for public and private lands. The document specifically notes that insecurity encourages deforestation as a means to prove land productivity to avoid expropriation and suppresses the land rental market due to legal and social distrust.

The document examines the surge of agricultural production in Brazil's MATOPIBA region, noting that expansion is heavily concentrated in the Cerrado biome. Between 1995 and 2012, Cerrado municipalities saw a 140% greater increase in agricultural production value than non-Cerrado areas, driven by cropland expansion and a shift from rice to soy. This boom led to an 11% higher increase in GDP per capita in Cerrado municipalities between 1999 and 2012, with gains in agricultural and services GDP, as well as improved access to electricity and durable consumer goods. However, the expansion did not significantly impact manufacturing GDP, population size, migration, or access to water and sewage.

The executive summary details how agricultural expansion in the MATOPIBA region, particularly within the Cerrado biome, has driven economic growth through increased grain production and higher per capita GDP, while having limited impact on social infrastructure and human capital.

The document argues that current development and climate policies in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru often conflict, particularly where biofuel and hydropower expansion undermine forest conservation and water security. It advocates for a 'security agenda' based on the water-energy-food nexus to better manage resource trade-offs and improve coordination between national and subnational governments.

The paper finds that agricultural expansion in Matopiba is concentrated in the Cerrado biome, driven by technological innovations in soil management and soy varieties. This expansion led to significant increases in GDP per capita, particularly through direct agricultural growth and indirect spillovers into the services sector. While it improved access to durable consumer goods and electricity, it had no significant impact on migration or human capital investments.

The fact sheet highlights the systemic instability of rural property rights in Brazil, noting that the country ranks 76th out of 129 countries in property rights security. It links this uncertainty to increased deforestation, as clearing forest is used to prove land productivity to avoid expropriation. The document also connects land disputes to violence, citing 770 land-related homicides between 1994 and 2015 and Brazil's position as a global leader in murders of environmental and land rights activists. Institutional failures contributing to the problem include a lack of georeferencing before 2004, poor integration between the 11 federal agencies managing property rights, and the prevalence of 'grilagem' (land grabbing), with suspected grilagem affecting 23% of the state of Pará.