Aerial view of the deforested zone between Manaus and Manicoré, on June 6, 2022 – AFP
Eleven international, Brazilian and Colombian NGOs, which accuse the French supermarket chain Casino of indirectly participating in deforestation in the Amazon, refused, this Thursday (1st), a judicial mediation and hope that the case will be decided in the courts.
“The eleven organizations that filed a lawsuit against Casino rejected the mediation proposed” in June by a French judge, the coalition formed by environmental groups and indigenous federations said in a note.
“This matter must imperatively be the subject of public debate and a judicial sentence,” he added.
“The case cannot be resolved through a solution negotiated behind closed doors and, moreover, confidential,” the document stressed.
Among the organizations are Sherpa, Mighty Earth, Envol vert, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (Opiac).
All accuse Casino of failing to fulfill its mission of vigilance and respect for human rights and the environment throughout its supply chain.
Casino reported that it “takes note” of the complainants’ refusal to a negotiation to which it had declared itself “favorable” and reiterated, in a comment to AFP, “the compliance of its surveillance plan with respect to French legislation”.
The complaint is based on a report published in June by the Franco-Colombian NGO Envol vert.
This document links four farms involved in illegal deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado in Brazil to 52 products sold in the group’s “stores and butchers”.
“These farms alone represent 4,500 hectares of forests illegally cleared to make way for livestock. The same happened with protected indigenous lands”, highlights the report.
Casino has a total of more than 11,000 supermarkets. In Brazil, its subsidiary is the Pão de Açúcar group (GPA) and in Colombia, the Exito chain.
Since March 2017, French legislation obliges companies headquartered in France and employing more than 5,000 people or more than 10,000 worldwide to take effective measures to prevent human rights violations and damage to the environment.
When the complaint was filed in June, the French multinational assured that its subsidiaries are among “the most advanced companies in the sector in the fight against deforestation”.
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