[Action] Deforestation: Greenpeace repainted the hull of a soybean cargo from Brazil

Off the port of Saint-Nazaire, at 11:45 am this morning, Greenpeace France activists organized a reception committee at Cargo Cabrillo from the Cerrado region in Brazil.The objective of this action: to denounce once again the inaction of the French government on the subject of imported deforestation.

The activists went to meet the ship at sea and wrote the message "Stop Deforestation" to painting on the hull of the boat.

Crédit photo : © Simon Lambert / GreenpeacePhotos et vidéo disponibles ici au fur et à mesure de la journéeLe cargo a quitté le port de Salvador, dans l’État de Bahia le 24 mai et transporte 60 000 tonnes de tourteaux de soja en provenance du Cerrado destinés à nourrir nos animaux d’élevage.Cette nouvelle action fait suite au blocage d’un entrepôt de soja dans le port de Saint-Nazaire lundi dernier par les activistes de Greenpeace. Elle intervient alors que de nouveaux chiffres catastrophiques ont été publiés la même semaine par l’Institut national de recherche spatiale (INPE) du Brésil : les incendies en Amazonie et au Cerrado ont battu des records jamais vus depuis 14 ans. L’institut de surveillance dénombrait près de 4 000 foyers d’incendies sur le seul mois de mai pour ces deux écosystèmes.Plusieurs mois avant le pic annuel des incendies, ce record inquiétant laisse présager le pire pour la saison estivale qui sera cette année encore frappée par des incendies criminels qui détruisent les écosystèmes forestiers.

“Cargos filled with soy like the Cabrillo, France welcomes between 60 and 70 each year.It’s a considerable volume!We can no longer continue to look elsewhere and to let our ports in our ports full of soybeans, when we know that this culture is one of the major causes of the deforestation and destruction of ecosystems in South America,Cécile Leuba alert, Forests campaign in Greenpeace France.Despite the beautiful speeches of President Emmanuel Macron and his government in favor of tropical forests, it is 3.5 million tonnes of soybeans each year that we import to feed our breeding animals.And meanwhile, deforestation and fires in the Amazon and Cerrado beat alarming records.There is an urgency to act!The French government must take over the problem without waiting and take truly binding measures to ensure that France no longer helps to destroy these precious ecosystems via its imports ".

A national strategy to combat imported deforestation (SNDI) was adopted in 2018 by the French government.More than two years after its adoption, the observation is clear: its implementation is a failure because the government refuses to take legally binding measures and prefers to bet, despite the lessons learned in recent years, on the voucher of companies.

Greenpeace France requests:

• Regarding the national strategy for combating imported deforestation (SNDI): Greenpeace France asks the government to urgently take restrictive measures to implement its commitments and guarantee that soybeans imported in France is not connected to deforestation.• Regarding the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement: Greenpeace asks France to definitively reject the free trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries.According to scientific expertise mandated by the government, the entry into force of this agreement would significantly increase deforestation in the Mercosur countries - up to 25% per year for 6 years.