London: 
Some of Europe’s biggest car giants including BMW and Jaguar Land Rover use leather linked to deforestation in South America, threatening the most vulnerable tribes, environmental NGO Earthsight said Wednesday.
It claimed the automakers buy leather for vehicle interiors initially sourced from cattle ranching on illegally razed land in a part of Paraguay that is home to one of the world’s last tribes with no contact with the outside world.
The London-based organisation said the leather from the Paraguayan Gran Chaco, a region rich in biodiversity that is home to jaguars and giant anteaters, enters the auto industry supply chains via Italian tanneries.
The region’s forests are being destroyed faster than any others in the world, it noted.
“Our investigation highlights the urgent need for EU and UK legislation mandating car companies and other industries to conduct proper due diligence,” Earthsight said in a lengthy report titled “Grand Theft Chaco”.
However, it revealed that trade groups linked to the automotive industry have lobbied the European Union and German governments to water down or scrap proposed new laws to require companies to clean up their supply chains.
“If they are to avoid being branded hypocrites, the car giants must now come out in public support of meaningful regulations,” Earthsight added.
“If they don’t, it is essential European lawmakers stand firm against lobbying to the contrary.”
The NGO’s investigation identified cattle ranches that have illegally cleared forest inhabited by the Ayoreo Totobiegosode, said to be the only indigenous people living in voluntary isolation in the Americas outside the Amazon rainforest.
– Undercover visits – During undercover visits, it found Paraguayan tanneries which supply Italian counterparts bragging that they provide leather for a number of famous cars, including BMW models and the Range Rover Evoque.
BMW told the NGO that it had “no information” that its Latin American leather supply chains were “affected by the problems presented” but that it was “exploring options for extending traceability systems further”.
The firm, which owns the Mini and Rolls Royce brands, added that its “medium-term strategy” is to phase out leather from the region altogether.
Jaguar Land Rover said: “We take allegations of unlawful or unethical behaviour within our supply chain extremely seriously and have taken immediate action to investigate the points you have raised with the relevant suppliers.”
Earthsight noted that it was easiest to trace the leather being used by BMW because the German automaker had shown “more concern over the source of their leather than most of their competitors”.
But the NGO found no car firm was able to trace all of its leather back to ranches, which it said was essential if links to human rights and environmental abuses are to be avoided.
Alongside Paraguay, the auto industry is among the largest consumers of hides from Brazil, where cattle are the largest deforestation driver, it said.
Earthsight said the leather industry lags far behind other sectors, such as palm oil and cocoa, in the steps being taken to consider its handling of commodities.
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A group of Brazilian ranchers is bulldozing a UNESCO reserve inhabited by an indigenous Indian tribe with no prior contact with the outside world, an native rights group said Monday.
Survival International said the UNESCO bioreserve in Paraguay’s Chaco region is home to the only uncontacted indigenous tribe in South America outside of the Amazon — the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode.
“The Totobiegosode’s land is being destroyed as we speak,” said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International.
“Given that their land falls within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, we hope that UNESCO can play a part in stopping this destruction and pressing for the recognition of their land rights.”
The group says a Paraguayan government representative and two relatives of the tribe attempted to enter the region, but were barred by employees of the ranchers’ company, Yaguarete Pore S.A.
Survival International said the reserve was intended to protect both the Indian group but also species including the jaguar, “an irony given that a Spanish language translation of that word, yaguarete, is the name of the company bulldozing the reserve.”
Satellite photos show that thousands of hectares of the reserve have been destroyed, even though the company has had its license to operate there withdrawn by the Paraguayan government, Survival International said.
UNESCO biospheres are designated under the United Nation‘s agency’s “Man and Biosphere Program,” and are intended to promote conservation and sustainable development.
There are over 500 designated sites in over 100 countries, according to UNESCO. The Chaco region in Paraguay was designated in 2005.