French supermarket chain accused of environmental violation and more news this week

French supermarket chain is accused of deforestation in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon

This week indigenous groups from the Colombian and Brazilian Amazon came together to sue Grupo Casino, a French distributor, in the court in Saint-Etienne, France. This international giant is accused of deforestation and human rights violations , this being the first time that a supermarket chain has been accused of this type of crime. It must be taken into account that, being under French law, it has been required since 2017 that companies in this country with more than 5,000 employees take effective measures to prevent violations against the environment and human rights.

According to the Climate Crime Analysis Center (CCCA), the Casino Group buys meat that comes from different slaughterhouses of JBS , a meat packing company responsible for more than 50,000 deforested hectares in Brazil . Likewise, the demand seeks to ensure that companies belonging to groups from other countries can be transparent with the origin of their meat products in order to identify which are those that are selling products that come from companies that promote deforestation.

In Latin America, the Casino Group has several supermarket chains. In Brazil there are the Pão de Açúcar Group, Extra, Pão de Açúcar, Extra Fácil, Assaí, Ponto Frio and Nova Casas Bahia . In Colombia, Grupo Éxito, Carulla, Surtimax and Cdiscount. In Uruguay you can find Devoto, Disco and Géant and in Argentina, Libertad . It should be noted that, in the list of Brazil and Colombia, the two supermarket chains that are sued are Grupo Éxito and Pão de Açúcar , from Colombia and Brazil respectively.

WWF removes panda from its logo for World Wildlife Day

For the first time, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) removed the well-known panda from its logo to commemorate World Wildlife Day that was celebrated on Wednesday, March 3. Also, under the hashtag #WorldWithoutNature other companies, NGOs, and even sports teams, followed in the footsteps of the WWF by removing animals from their logos, this in order to show the constant threat of losing wildlife around the world to cause of climate change, deforestation and other environmental factors.

Also read:This is how World Wildlife Day was celebrated

Among the brands that followed this campaign are Hootsuite, UNICEF, the World Economic Forum, Conservation International, the Earth Hour and The Nature Conservancy among others. Some English Premier League football teams also participated such as: Aston Villa FC, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, West Bromwich and Albion FC , as well as Birdlife, Brewdog, Earthshot Prize, PG Tips and Rowse Honey . This campaign was originally created by One Minute Briefs in celebration of World Wildlife Day last year.

UN calls to integrate environment and economy

This week the 52nd session of the UN Statistical Commission was held , organized by the Organization's Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, called attention to " including the ´real value´ of nature in economic policies and decisions ", that is why the Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting System was implemented, a new statistical framework that seeks to measure "economic prosperity and human well-being including contributions from nature."

This new system seeks to go beyond the typical measurement of gross domestic product (GDP) to include in national economic reports the value of natural resources, such as fauna, flora, forests, oceans and ecosystems in general .

Regarding the above, Elliott Harris, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist, stated that "We have treated nature as if it were free and without limits. Therefore, we have degraded and used it without being fully aware of what we did and how much we lost along the way ".