The Unintended Human Cost of Global Conservation: Modern Slavery in Brazil’s Arc of Deforestation

This pilot study investigates how legally binding agreements aimed at reducing deforestation in Brazil's cattle ranching sector may inadvertently increase human trafficking and labor exploitation.

Each year, as many as 5,000 square miles of native Amazon rainforest are cleared and largely converted to agricultural and cattle ranching land, particularly in a zone known as the “Arc of Deforestation, ” pushing the ecosystem toward a critical tipping point. The process of illegal deforestation for forest-to-agriculture land conversion relies heavily on exploitative labor. In response,  Brazil’s Federal Prosecution Office has promoted legally binding agreements (TACs) that incentivize slaughterhouses to source cattle from producers who are not using slave labor or deforested land, in exchange for export certification in compliance with Brazilian law and international regulations.

For TACs to be effective, the threat of audits must be significant enough that the benefits of compliance, such as export permits and higher prices, exceed the costs of adhering to labor and land use standards. While recent studies suggest TACs have indeed been broadly successful in reducing deforestation, no studies have yet examined the impact of TACs on labor trafficking.

This pilot study aims to assess the possible unintended negative consequences of TACs on trafficking. Specifically, we will (1) measure the extent to which reductions in deforestation activity related to TACs drive changes in labor trafficking activity, and (2) we will explore whether an anti-trafficking supply chain tool we are developing can be adapted to effectively mitigate these unintended consequences by raising the perceived threat of trafficking compliance. 

Location:  States of Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, and Tocantins, Brazil

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