A Yale Environment 360 article details one campaign’s success:

“In the Amazon, Greenpeace released… [a] report last June linking deforestation by cattle ranchers in the Amazon to major consumer products, including Gucci handbags and Nike shoes. The fallout was immediate: Brazil’s cattle industry — the largest in the world and a dominant force in Brazilian politics — was brought to a standstill virtually overnight. Brazilian officials raided the offices of the country’s cattle giants and suspended or revoked some of their loans. Several of the cattle companies’ biggest buyers publicly rebuked the firms and demanded greater accountability for their supply chains.”

“Wal-Mart, Nike, and Timberland — all identified in the report as buying leather products or meat that came from cattle raised on deforested Amazon land — immediately announced new sourcing policies requiring full traceability and transparency from their suppliers to ensure beef and leather products weren’t coming from former rainforest. Under pressure from their customers and the government — which threatened billions in fines — Brazilian cattle producers, processors, and traders fell into line, declaring moratoriums on deforestation. The hottest commodity in the Brazilian Amazon became credible supply-chain management, spawning a rush to develop certification systems and land registries for “responsible” ranches.”

Learn more at Yale Environment 360…

This move follows years of pressure by advocacy groups like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) Wal-Mart campaign, in which the Oblates are engaged.

Learn more…

The world is in urgent need of Catholics working to protect the environment, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today at the end of his homily for the closing Mass of his encounter with young people in Loreto.

Following Christ, the Holy Father affirmed, brings with it “the continual effort to make one’s own contribution to building a more just and solidary society, where all can enjoy the goods of the earth.”

“I know that many of you dedicate yourselves with generosity to bear witness to your own faith in various social ambits, volunteering, working to promote the common good, peace and justice in every community,” he said. “One of the areas in which work appears to be urgent is without a doubt that of protecting creation.

“To the new generations the future of the planet is entrusted, in which there are evident signs of a development that has not always known how to safeguard the delicate equilibriums of nature.

“Before it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions that reflect knowing how to re-create a strong alliance between man and the earth.

“A decisive ‘yes’ to the protection of creation is necessary and a firm commitment to reverse those tendencies that run the risk of bringing about situations of unstoppable degradation.”

Benedict XVI applauded an initiative from the Church in Italy to promote sensitivity to the issue of protecting creation. Sept. 1 has been established as a national day for promoting awareness of these matters.

“This year,” the Holy Father observed, “attention is focused above all on water, a most precious good that, if it is not shared in a fair and peaceful way, will unfortunately become a cause for significant tensions and bitter conflicts.”

LORETO, Italy, SEPT. 2, 2007 (Zenit.org)