One Year After the “Fire Day” in the Amazon - Santa Rosa Farm

Located in the municipality of Altamira in the State of Pará, Fazenda Santa Rosa has a total of 1,462 ha under embargo across two different areas with the farm. The embargo was put in place in 2015. Between 24 July and 13 August 2019, the farm had record fire hot spots in its interior. DETER system shows that between August and September 2019, 259 hectares burnt, while 17 hectares were cleared within one of the embargoed areas in August 2019. Cattle grazed in Fazenda Santa Rosa may have fed into the supply chain of JBS’s slaughterhouse Santana do Araguaia in the state of Pará, in the Amazon biome, as it supplied animals for fattening to other farms supplying the slaughterhouse.

Fires in the Amazon in August 2019 were the worst since 2010. The days of 10 and 11 August 2019 – the so-called ‘Day of Fire’ saw a massive coordinated wave of fires in forest and nearby land in Pará State in the Amazon, along the BR-163 highway. This resulted in the increase of hot spots by 300% overnight on 10 August around the main city in the region, Novo Progresso. Almost half of fires hotspots registered on those two days fell within the registered boundaries of cattle ranches, many of which already had a track record of environmental crimes. One year on, just a handful of the cattle ranchers associated with the illegal burnings have been charged. Fazenda Santa Rosa has not been prosecuted for its environmental crimes and continues to operate.