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Multinational firms indirectly buy soy from illegally

leased

tribal lands

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Expansion of commercial farming on Indigenous lands causes

division and conflict

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Indigenous leaders and federal police highlight economic

pressures and legal challenges

By Ana Mano

PASSO FUNDO, Brazil, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Farm

cooperatives in Brazil that supply some of the world's biggest

multinational agricultural firms are buying soybeans grown

illegally on Indigenous reservations in the country, according

to tribal leaders and court records, despite the companies'

public pledges to respect the land rights and resources of

Indigenous peoples.

The expansion of commercial farming onto Indigenous lands,

which make up about 13% of Brazil's territory, has stirred

division and violent conflicts in scores of communities,

according to the federal police, the Catholic Church's

Indigenous Missionary Council and the Brazilian government

agency overseeing Indigenous affairs, FUNAI.

Brazil's constitution set aside lands for the exclusive use

of Indigenous communities while a 1973 law outlaws renting these

lands or forming partnerships to grow commercial crops.

But the restrictions are not codified in the country's penal

code, which makes enforcement difficult, federal police say. And

while it is legal for tribal members to grow soybeans

themselves, few of them have access to the funds needed to go

into commercial-scale farming.

Since 2013, the area devoted to soy cultivation across the

14 Indigenous reservations in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio

Grande do Sul has grown to nearly 28,000 hectares (70,000

acres), a 23% increase over the decade, according to previously

unreported satellite data provided to Reuters by MapBiomas, a

nonprofit land-use research group.

"The people in charge, the chiefs, are making a lot of money

while the rest of the community is dying of hunger," said

Aldronei Rodrigues, federal police regional superintendent in

Rio Grande do Sul.

For many members of Brazil's Indigenous communities, leasing

lands remains one of their best economic options, according to

FUNAI. The agency said in a statement to Reuters that government

policies do not provide sufficient access to credit or technical

support to help tribal members go into commercial farming on

their own.

With jobs scarce on the reservations, many people migrate to

find work as seasonal laborers or in meatpacking plants for

relatively low pay, local residents said.

"The search for better living conditions gave rise to

different illicit activities, leasing and

cultivation of genetically modified crops[on their lands],

notably in the south of the country," FUNAI said.

Brazil is the world's biggest producer and exporter of

soybeans, which are used in animal feed, biofuels and processed

food. Industry trade data shows two-thirds of Brazil's harvest

ultimately ends up in global markets.

In Rio Grande do Sul, which has a population of 10.8

million, almost all of the harvest is sold to farming

co-operatives including Cotrijal Cooperativa Agropecuaria e

Industrial (Cotrijal) and Cooperativa Triticola Sarandi

(Cotrisal), the two biggest in the state, according to two grain

brokers.

Reuters spoke to four Indigenous leaders, including the

chiefs of the Serrinha and Nonoai reservations, two of the most

involved in soy cultivation in the north of Rio Grande do Sul

state, who said the commercial crops raised on their lands were

sold to Cotrisal and other farming co-operatives.

Three more Indigenous community members in Rio Grande do

Sul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Reuters

Cotrisal was a major buyer of soy raised by

non-Indigenous farmers on leased tribal land.

"We always do this kind of thing - the leasing - against our

will because we can't let Indians go hungry," said Jose Oreste

do Nascimento, who has led the Nonoai community of about

3,600 people for more than four decades.

About one-third of the 20,000-hectare reservation is given

over to soy cultivation, the satellite images showed, almost

five times larger than the soy area in 1985, when

MapBiomas records began.

Marciano Inacio Claudino, chief of the Serrinha territory,

also told Reuters that Cotrisal regularly buys soybeans from

non-indigenous farmers leasing on his tribal land. Serrinha's

territory is 12,000 hectares, and, according to satellite data,

grows soybeans on some 6,000 hectares.

"Cotrisal is the main one," he said.

Helvio Debona, a senior Cotrisal executive, and Enio

Schroeder, Cotrijal's vice-president, told Reuters in interviews

in April, when Rio Grande do Sul farmers were reaping their 2024

soy, that they sell to large trading companies including ADM

, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and COFCO.

'SOYBEANS DON'T COME WITH A BRAND'

When asked about possible sourcing of soy grown illegally on

Indigenous land, Cotrisal's Debona said that it is impossible to

trace the origin of 100% of its grain purchases.

"We can't guarantee," he said in an interview. "Soybeans

don't come with a brand."

Cotrisal did not respond to emailed requests for further

comment. Cotrijal said it had not bought grains from farmers

leasing lands in Serrinha and that it does not operate in the

area.

Over the years, global agricultural companies have made

assurances about respecting land rights and human rights,

highlighting their attention to Indigenous communities in annual

sustainability statements.

ADM made no mention of Indigenous rights or land disputes in

its most recent corporate sustainability report last year. In a

human rights report in 2022, the company noted the pervasiveness

of land disputes in South America and said that it is not

directly implicated in any land disputes. The 2022 report did

not discuss cultivation on Indigenous reserves.

In an email to Reuters, ADM said it had investigated the

news agency's findings and found no evidence that the soy it

purchased had been raised on lands leased on the Nonoai and

Serrinha reservations.

"We do not source any grains from Indigenous territories in

the Rio Grande do Sul region," Jackie Anderson, an ADM

spokesperson, said.

However, buying from large farmer cooperatives in southern

Brazil can obscure the origin of grains, according to six

lawsuits filed between 2008 and 2022 by federal prosecutors on

behalf of the tribes. At least two of the cases are ongoing.

Bunge, Cargill, COFCO and Louis Dreyfus did not respond to

requests for comment and referred questions to the national

soy industry group Abiove.

"Cotrijal and Cotrisal declared to us they don't buy grains

produced on the reservations of Nonoai and Serrinha," Abiove

said in an email.

Abiove said its members are pushing the cooperatives to

ensure their supply chains conform with laws and contractual

obligations against buying grains from protected territories.

Andre Nassar, president of Abiove, said in a separate

statement that traders can "stop all purchases" from a

cooperative if it becomes clear that it is sourcing soy from

reservations.

Nassar said traders can also ask cooperatives for assurances

that the soybeans were raised by members of the Indigenous

community - and not leased to third parties.

Abiove did not respond to Reuters' questions on whether its

members ever turned down a purchase from Cotrisal or Cotrijal,

and did not provide further evidence of its efforts to remove

grain from indigenous lands from its supply chain.

'A NEFARIOUS PRACTICE'

Reuters reviewed court records including a November 2018

Cotrisal invoice for herbicide purchases against future delivery

of grains issued to a farmer being sued by federal prosecutors

for leasing land to plant soy in Serrinha.

Court rulings in 2017 and 2018, reviewed by the news agency,

ordered the seizure of tons of soy grown on Indigenous lands

from silos operated by Cotrisal, Cotrijal and other

cooperatives.

Cotrisal and Cotrijal did not respond to requests for

comment on the seizures.

In a July 2022 decision ordering measures to stop the

practice, Federal Judge Diogo Edele Pimentel said private

leasing of lands in the Nonoai territory was a major source of

division.

"It is a nefarious practice of private appropriation of a

public good, completely disfiguring its collective nature and

deepening inequality in these communities," he wrote.

Nascimento, the Nonoai chief, as well as his son and a

former FUNAI official, were fined a total of around 4.5 million

reais (nearly $800,000) for embezzling profits from the illegal

leases, according to a July 2019 ruling seen by Reuters.

Nascimento said an appeal is pending, and that "all is back

to normal," with non-Indigenous farmers delivering their

harvests to the same coops, including Cotrisal.

"The soy is sold on the local market. There are farm

cooperatives all around the Indigenous territories. There is

Cotrisal... and other large cooperatives which buy any quantity

of soy, corn, everything," he said.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the lawsuit

remains active.

In 2021, 11 members of the Serrinha community filed a civil

lawsuit in the federal court of Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul,

accusing their chief Claudino of controlling the territory's soy

trade to enrich his family.

The 2021 lawsuit reviewed by Reuters said Claudino has

crushed dissent with "violence, oppression and human rights

violations."

In a telephone interview, Claudino said his opponents spread

lies about his leadership and that most of the community

supports him. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Claudino remains under investigation - but has not been

charged - in connection with a double homicide in Serrinha in

2021, which police and local community members link to land and

power disputes fueled by the soy trade. He denies involvement in

the killings.

At least 30 families who objected publicly to Claudino's

involvement in the soy trade have left the reservation since

October 2021. Several had their homes looted and ransacked,

according to three of the victims and a 2022 report by the

federal human rights commission, which connected the violence to

the land leases.

Claudino said only a dozen families left the reservation in

recent years, some of whom have returned.

"Some are back already. I allowed it. But I'm not going to

let people come here and make trouble for me again," he said.