French supermarket giant Casino 'put on notice' over illegal logging in Amazon
French, American and Colombian NGOs on Monday warned Casino that it has three months to comply with duty of vigilance laws regarding its supply chains in South America, where it is a leading supermarket retailer.
Lawyers for the coalition delivered the ultimatum in a letter of formal notice that was sent to Jean-Charles Naouri, the CEO of the Casino Guichard-Perrachon group.
The move follows a field investigation in June by the French NGO Envol Vert, which found that Casino’s suppliers “regularly purchased” beef from four farms involved in deforestation and land grabbing activities in the Amazon, as well as Brazil’s Cerrado savannah eco-region...
If the company does not act within the given deadline, the NGOs [...] said they would take the case to court and "seek compensation for the resulting damages"...
Casino has dismissed the allegations contained in the June report as “unfounded and completely unacceptable”. In a letter to Envol Vert, the retailer said that, on the contrary, it had been actively fighting deforestation linked to cattle breeding in Brazil and Colombia...
The NGOs are demanding that Casino establish risk-mapping and traceability throughout its supply chains, as well as introduce an alert system to protect the rights of Amazonian peoples, whose lands are reportedly also being appropriated for cattle grazing.
The multinational has until mid-December to respond.