Judge in Brazil orders slaughterhouses to pay for Amazon reforestation

abcnews.go.com:

A court in the Brazilian state of Rondonia has found two beef slaughterhouses guilty of buying cattle out of what is supposed to be a protected area in the Brazilian Amazon, which is illegal

BRASILIA, Brazil — A judge in the Brazilian state of Rondonia has found two beef slaughterhouses guilty of buying cattle from a protected area of former rainforest in the Amazon. The companies Distriboi and Frigon, along with three cattle ranchers, were ordered to pay compensation for causing environmental damage, according to the decision issued Wednesday. Cattle raising drives Amazon deforestation. The defendants may appeal.

It is the first decision in several dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in environmental damages from the slaughterhouses for allegedly trading in cattle raised illegally in a protected area known as Jaci-Parana, which was rainforest but is now mostly converted to pasture.

Four slaughterhouses are among the many parties charged, including JBS SA, which bills itself as the world’s largest protein producer. The court has not decided on the cases involving JBS.

Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.

The lawsuits are based on transfer documents first reported by the Associated Press that show cattle going directly from protected areas to slaughterhouses. The documents were filled out by the illegal ranchers themselves.

Part of the decision is a collective penalty of $453,000 against the five defendants, who