Brazil’s Pig Iron Industry Commits to Protecting the Amazonian Forests

Only yesterday, Greenpeace made it public news that Brazil's pig iron industry finally consented to take a more environmentally-friendly approach to the way in which it carries out its activities, meaning that wood charcoal coming from local forest will no longer be used to process this product.

Thus, all seven of the pig iron companies currently up and running in the state of Maranhão signed an agreement stating that, from this moment on, Amazonian forests will no longer be destroyed to supply their furnaces.

Apparently, their decision stems from the fact that, not long ago, Greenpeace published a report showing how this particular industry is solely responsible for massive deforestation operations and for considerable abuses directed at local communities.

Paulo Adario from Greenpeace Brazil explains how, “This agreement by the industry is an important step forward for the protection of the Amazon and its people.”

Furthermore, “Strict criteria for how the charcoal is sourced will help ensure a pig iron supply chain free of deforestation, slavery and fraud.”

With this new agreement in place, environmentalists and local Brazilian communities can hope that the Zero Deforestation Law they have been trying to implement in this part of the world for quite some time now will finally become a reality.

For those unaware, pig iron is primarily used in making cast iron and steel, which are later on used to manufacture cars, airplanes and various types of appliances.

Seeing how as much as 90% of the pig iron produced in Brazil is actually sold on the US market, it can be argued that the people buying it can also be held responsible for the massive deforestations which occurred in the Amazon over the years.

Thus, Greenpeace argues that, if several car manufacturers agreed to getting involved in this issue when asked, Brazil's pig iron industry might have given up on using wood charcoal obtained in this abusive manner quite some time ago.