UK retailers stock charcoal linked to Paraguay deforestation, group says

By Iñigo Alexander and Daniela Desantis

MEXICO CITY/ASUNCION, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Major British retailers, including B&Q and Waitrose, are selling barbecue charcoal from trees cleared to create more farmland in Paraguay's Gran Chaco, according to an investigation published on Thursday by advocacy group Global Witness.

The report traces charcoal sold in UK supermarkets and hardware stores to the Paraguayan forestry company Taruma. Global Witness says Taruma is the largest international supplier of British barbecue brand Big K, whose products are sold across the country.

The subtropical dry forest of Gran Chaco, South America's second-largest forested region after the Amazon rainforest, stretches across Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. 

In response, a Waitrose spokesperson said all the charcoal it sells complies with standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent forest certification system.

B&Q did not respond to requests for comment.

Paraguay has been seeking closer trade ties with Europe through the EU-Mercosur agreement, at a time of growing scrutiny of the environmental impact of imports from the South American bloc that includes Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. 

Satellite analysis cited in the report found that Taruma sources its wood from ranches that since 2012 have cleared more than 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of forest. 

A second supplier, Paben SA, which worked with Big K until 2023, has cleared roughly 2,700 hectares of forest in the Paraguayan Chaco since 2021, the report said. 

Paben SA did not respond to requests for comment. In a written response to Reuters, Taruma denied wrongdoing. 

"Taruma does not clear forest and holds no clearing permits, so our operations do not add to deforestation or to its effects on the regional climate. Our sustainability team follows the research on Chaco land-use change closely," Chief Executive Rahmeen Farudi said. 

Researchers, including NASA scientists, have said Paraguay has one of the world's highest deforestation rates relative to forest cover, driven largely by farming and cattle ranching.  

Paraguay, a major grains and meat exporter, unveiled in July its first national forestry policy, acknowledging decades of state-driven deforestation for agriculture. The government pledged to move toward stricter environmental monitoring to meet EU trade standards. 

While Britain is no longer part of the EU, the sale of charcoal to the UK may hurt Paraguay's ambitions to sell other products to the EU under an eventual trade deal with Mercosur.

Paraguay's National Forestry Institute did not respond to requests for comment.

DEFORESTATION, LEGISLATION AND TRADE

Global Witness said that both Paraguay's permissive environmental laws and the UK's "flawed" environmental legislation allow deforestation-linked charcoal to reach the British market. 

Britain's 2021 Environment Act bans imports linked to illegal deforestation. It applies only to products sourced from illegally deforested land and does not cover charcoal products. This means Paraguayan goods produced on legally cleared land can still enter the UK.

Starting on December 30, the EU will have stricter rules banning all products linked to deforested land regardless of whether the clearing was legal.

The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, known as Defra, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Environmental groups and several EU governments, including France, Austria and Poland, have warned that extending Mercosur's agricultural exports to Europe could accelerate deforestation in ecosystems such as the Gran Chaco.

(Reporting by Iñigo Alexander in Mexico City and Daniela Desantis in Asuncion; Editing by Lucinda Elliott, David Gregorio, Rod Nickel)