Illegal leather - How the car industry is threatening the rainforest | DW Documentary
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Published 2024-05-03
"The forest is our home. And now it’s all being destroyed forever.” Wenatoa Parakanã stands outside her cabin in the dense rainforest of the Brazilian Amazonas and is close to tears. The young Parakanã woman has lived her whole life in the remote region of Apyterewa - about a day’s motorboat trip to the next small town.
But for several years now, life for Wenatoa has been changing beyond recognition. Strangers are coming to threaten her village, chop down the trees and turn her homeland into gigantic pasture lands for thousands of cattle. Over the last 20 years, an area of forest almost as large as Germany has been logged in the region - often illegally. Many researchers fear that the Amazonas has already reached its tipping point: It can no longer recover from the many fires and droughts. This could have devastating consequences for the global climate.
On a local level, only very few people dare to oppose the illegal destruction of the rainforest. After all, the animals’ meat and hides are a huge economic driver. Every year, the Brazilian tannery industry exports products valued at more than one billion Euros. These products are sold all over the world. And as the research for this film shows: some of them are also ending up in German luxury cars.
With intrepid journeys to the heart of the action, footage secretly filmed in abattoirs, interviews with insiders and the latest digital research techniques, the team retraces the production steps of this illegal leather right to its source. From the Brazilian rainforest, via shady middlemen to German car dealerships offering the latest models by BMW, Mercedes & Co. - complete with their luxurious leather interiors.
The film embarks on a journalistic quest for clues that turns into an economic crime thriller. After all, this isn’t an isolated case, it’s systematic environmental exploitation. Despite the many glossy brochures touting the carmakers’ sustainability credentials, these complex supply chains are often opaque - keeping their impact on people and the environment in the dark.
#documentary #dwdocumentary #leather #carindustry
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All Comments (21)
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Journalism is an important job. They report news and create awareness.Greeting to the brave journalists.
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Great journalism, an eye opener. Greetings from Finland :)
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Please focus in the northeast Indian states of India.Here in Assam,Manipur and in Nagaland we are loosing virgin forest to Coal mafia and Palm oil plantation as current Indian regime is hell bent in doing so called development by virtue of cutting and slashing pristine forest cover.
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An eye opener. Watching from Kenya.
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Thank you for your work, thank your for your journalism, this world needs it as much as ever! 🙏💯
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DW, Deutsche Welle, thank you for doing such a great job, you`re the best. Greetings.
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Lungs of this globe is been vanishing quickly, it's heart breaking,don't breathe.
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Isn't a lot of the rainforest being cleared for raising cattle for the huge beef industry? The world's largest beef export company (JBS??) is Brazilian. The hides for leather would be a secondary product I would think.
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It’s a damn shame that with the wrong people with power and greed can ruin everything for everyone! I would love to help fight against these corrupt people please let me know how to do my part 🙏
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Dear DW team thank you. But please don't ever go into someone's office like that. Anything could happen
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and the Germans and others buy it, no questions asked, because it is cheap.
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Compelling and informative. A challenging problem; how do we incentivize the protection of rainforest?
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This doc is a 100% miss. The more concerning issue surrounding leather is how its processed. 90% of leather is chromium tanned which uses many chemicals and dyes that frequently get dumped into rivers in these undeveloped countries. Leather can be "vegetable tanned", although it actually uses wood and bark, which is an entirely natural curing method that doesnt harm the environment whatsoever. The real issue here is how leather is processed. Thats the real environmental concern. Leather is a byproduct, its thrown out if not used. We should be making if in an environmentally friendly way.
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just this morning I had an in-depth bilateral exchange with the cashier at the gas station It was a monumental effort of goodwill and responsible business practice
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This is what Youtube needs to put in everyone feeds.
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The thing is. We didn't tell them to burn down the forest. It is their own greed.
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This doc so educative, it exhausted everything.
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i needed this today. the only thing i don't like is that i have to watch a german documentary in english because for some reason most of your documentaries are not uploaded on the german channel? lol
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The key here, lobbyists have convinced politicians, again and again. The population doesn't need to even know about it, no moral decisions are possible, capitalism, consumerism is at the wheel.
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The Brazil Government is a Disgrace for allowing this to happening.
