Sportswear giants impose strict controls on Brazilian leather suppliers
Nike has told its suppliers of leather in
The announcement has come in the wake of a controversial report that non-governmental organisation Greenpeace published last month, with claims that the leather industry was partly to blame for illegal deforestation of the rainforests in Amazon regions of Brazil.
Nike will require suppliers of Brazilian leather to certify, in writing, that they are supplying leather for Nike products from cattle raised outside of the Amazon Biome, defined as the Amazon rainforest and its related ecosystem. The company has said it will review suppliers' progress on this on a quarterly basis between now and the deadline.
The US-based brand went on to say that if, after July 1, 2010, suppliers are unable to provide "credible assurances" that leather for Nike products is from cattle raised outside of the Amazon Biome, Nike will consider increasing the exclusion area to include all of the so-called Amazon Legal, the whole of the nine Brazilian states that contain portions of the Amazon. If this controversial, punitive measure were to come into effect, it would cause serious harm to the businesses of livestock farmers who settled this part of the country in the 1970s and 1980s and who raise their herds on legally cleared land.
It has been reported that adidas will also impose stringent sourcing controls.
