From Gilbués, Baixa Grande do Ribeiro, and Santa Filomena (PI) – In southern Piauí, Cosmos farm has seen recent deforestation in areas adjacent to parts of the property where land conflicts with traditional communities are occurring, while the other half of the farm, without environmental liabilities, is leased by SLC Agrícola, one of the Brazil’s largest producers of soy, corn, and cotton.
A supplier to agribusiness giants such as Bunge and Cargill, SLC adopted a zero deforestation policy in 2021, including for leased areas and authorized vegetation suppression. However, the company restricts its policy to lands under direct control.
For organizations monitoring commodity supply chains, the lessee cannot ignore the context of the entire property. “A company that does this ends up benefiting a deforester and even financing more deforestation in that area or elsewhere,” said João Gonçalves from the environmental organization Mighty Earth.
This investigation was conducted by Repórter Brasil, in partnership with O Joio e o Trigo e and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
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Awarded for sustainable practices, SLC Agrícola participates in COP30, the global climate conference in Belém, in Brazil. In a panel on regenerative agriculture, the company, listed on the B3 stock exchange, highlighted the implementation of recycling at some of its 27 farms spread across the Amazon and Cerrado regions.
A report from the MapBiomas platform, which monitors and generates deforestation alerts, on the leased property, located in Santa Filomena, identified deforestation of 3,700 hectares on the site between July 2024 and February of this year. The document indicates that part of the suppression may have occurred within the Legal Reserve of the farm, where, according to the law, native vegetation must be preserved. The lease of parts of Cosmos by SLC was announced in August 20