Human Trafficking in BrazilFinal Assessment Report

Prepared by

July 2016

Table of Contents

This work was conducted by FSG on behalf of the Freedom Fund between May and July 2016, with generous financial support from Humanity United.

Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3

Context & Key Questions.............................................................................................................................4Background on slave labor in Brazil.........................................................................................................4

Defining slave labor.................................................................................................................................4

Freedom Fund’s role................................................................................................................................5

Hotspot strategy......................................................................................................................................5

What is collective impact and how does it differ from other collaborative approaches?........................6

What are the key questions that this research aims to answer?.............................................................7

What should be the scope and focus of a CI effort?....................................................................................8

Why the scope of a CI effort is important................................................................................................8

Slavery cycle............................................................................................................................................9

Industry focus........................................................................................................................................11

Geographic focus...................................................................................................................................14

Is slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon ready for CI?..................................................................................20Presence of local champions.................................................................................................................20

History of collaboration.........................................................................................................................21

Urgency for change...............................................................................................................................23

Available resources................................................................................................................................24

Overall readiness assessment................................................................................................................25

How would a CI effort be structured, and how would it function?............................................................26Actor mapping.......................................................................................................................................26

Organizational structure........................................................................................................................28

What are some possible interventions that the CI effort could pursue?...................................................33

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................42Next steps for Freedom Fund in pursuing a CI approach.......................................................................42

Short-term.........................................................................................................................................42

Longer-term.......................................................................................................................................43

Appendices................................................................................................................................................44Appendix A: Interviews Conducted.......................................................................................................44

Appendix B: Glossary and Acronyms List...............................................................................................45

Endnotes...................................................................................................................................................48

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Executive Summary

The Freedom Fund, an organization dedicated to combatting modern slavery, is exploring a “hotspot” approach in Brazil that aims to accelerate progress against slavery by finding synergies between and among anti-slavery and environmental organizations, as well as those focused on the needs of traditional and indigenous populations. Such an approach is particularly salient in the Brazilian Amazon, where environmental destruction goes hand-in-hand with slave labor. Collective impact, a highly structured and strategic collaborative approach that addresses complex social problems by galvanizing a wide range of actors across sectors, could help operationalize the hotspot strategy in Brazil. Collective impact aims to drive change at a systems level and is highly applicable to help improve local population and environmental outcomes (e.g., reduction in individual risk factors for entry into slavery, reduction in rate of deforestation) in the Brazilian Amazon, given the multiple yet closely intertwined issues involved.

The Freedom Fund has commissioned FSG to test the applicability of the CI approach to enhance their strategy in the Brazilian Amazon. In testing this approach, the Freedom Fund is keen to understand what a CI effort could look like, how it might function, and what it could accomplish. This report draws from extensive secondary research, interviews, and a field visit, and aims to answer four key questions. These questions and their high-level answers are summarized below.

What should be the scope and focus of a CI effort? A set of selection criteria and additional analysis by the FSG team determined that the best scope for a CI effort is the illegal logging / precious woods industry in Pará, focused on either São Felix do Xingu or the BR-163 corridor. Such an effort should also focus on the complete cycle of slavery in order to provide a comprehensive, systems-changing solution.

Is slave labor in Brazil ‘ready’ for CI? Readiness for CI is strong, based on the presence of local champions and a history of collaboration. There are some gaps in the sense of urgency for action and available financial resources, but these can be overcome through a combination of awareness-raising campaigns and funder events to increase momentum and understanding.

How could a potential CI effort be structured and how would it function? A CI effort would be governed by a steering committee, advised by a funder committee, and directed by a backbone entity. There would likely be two types of working groups: system-wide and sector-specific.

What are some potential interventions a CI effort could pursue? While it is up to the eventual steering committee to determine the overall strategy and activities of the effort, FSG has identified a number of initial ideas that the steering committee could consider, including potential interventions in community resilience, data, and policy and advocacy. There are also a number of Brazilian and global examples of such interventions currently underway.

The Freedom Fund has an incredible opportunity to drive lasting change on slave labor and environmental destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. Capitalizing on this opportunity will however require an investment of time, energy, and resources that may go beyond the Freedom Fund’s prior efforts and require complementary funding. The Freedom Fund will need to undertake a period of due diligence with key stakeholders on CI, potential interventions and sources of support, and make strategic choices on a number of outstanding questions before operationalizing a CI and hotspot strategy in Brazil.

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Context & Key Questions

Background on slave labor in Brazil

Slave labor has a long and violent history in Brazil, with the expansion of the Brazilian economy (largely dependent on extractive and agricultural industries) trapping many Brazilians, particularly those in rural areas, in a continuous cycle of poverty and exploitation.1 Although Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish legal slavery, it has since the early 1990s set a global example in its efforts to combat slave labor. Tools such as the “Dirty List” – which prevents companies found to have slave labor in their supply chains from accessing public financing – and developing a robust social welfare state, which reduces the individual risk factors associated with slavery, have been internationally acclaimed and resulted in a decrease in slave labor in Brazil.

More recently, however, Brazil’s political and economic instability, under-resourcing of enforcement and prevention measures, combined with specific efforts to weaken the country’s anti-slave labor regime by landed elites and “bad actors” (e.g., companies on the Dirty List), has seen this once shining global example backslide. Since 2013, according to the Global Slavery Index, which estimates a country’s level of slave labor based off a series of risk and political factors, Brazil has seen an upswing in the incidence of slave labor, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon, from 155,000 slaves in 2013 to 161,000 slaves in 2015.2 The look and feel of slave labor has also begun to change as Brazil’s agricultural and extractive frontier has begun to shift into even more rural and remote areas.

Defining slave labor

The Brazilian definition of modern slave labor falls into four general categories:

1) Forced labor: Having to work while subject to threats and acts of physical violence

2) Degrading conditions: Being lodged in substandard housing without access to appropriate protective equipment and / or lacking decent food or water

3) Exhausting work hours: Being subject to workdays that threaten physical integrity

4) Debt bondage: Being tied to labor intermediaries and / or landowners by falsified and illegal debts for transportation, food, lodging, and work equipment

While many have come to visualize slave labor as conditions analogous to chattel slavery, i the international community, including the International Labor Organization (ILO), has long pushed for an expanded definition. As one anti-slavery advocate in Brazil put it: “Chains or not, the human suffering is equally undeniable.”3 It is also important to note that Brazil’s definition of slave labor is intricately tied to the mechanisms of operating slave labor in a Brazilian context. For example, the original definition for degrading conditions was developed from systematic observations by anti-slavery advocates, inspectors, and rescue teams.4

iChattel slavery is typically defined as slavery where labor is forcefully held, typically in bondage (e.g., chains). Modern slavery also has conditions of forced labor, but those conditions are typically non-bondage; for example, a slave may be threatened with murder if he chooses to leave a work camp.

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Freedom Fund’s role

The Freedom Fund (FF) is a philanthropic initiative dedicated to combatting modern slavery across the globe. It currently has investments in Central Nepal, Ethiopia, Northern India, South-Eastern Nepal, Southern India, and Thailand. To carry out its mission, the fund:

1) Works on the frontlines: Partners with local organizations to directly combat slavery and utilizes a hotspot model that clusters systems, sectors, and / or organizations towards common purpose

2) Drives systemic change: Tackles underlying systems that allow slavery to persist and engages governments, private sector actors, media, social movements, and other drivers of change

3) Strengthens the global anti-slavery infrastructure: Empowers the anti-slavery movement, providing the platforms, tools, and knowledge for organizations to connect and work together more effectively

4) Raises new capital: Brings new funding and innovative investors into the anti-slavery space and mobilizes capital needed to work on the frontlines, drive systemic change, and strengthen anti-slavery infrastructure globally

The fund’s investment approach also includes a few other important criteria: connecting with community-based organizations, developing a structure for both short term and long term wins, and transferring lessons learned across its portfolio.

The Freedom Fund intends to carry out its mission in Brazil in a similar way. ii After an initial period of research and due diligence, including a site visit, the fund’s board approved investment in Brazil, contingent on the ability of the fund to fundraise two years of funding (~$2 million). This, inevitably, will require developing a focused strategy and approach in Brazil to be tested with potential partner funders.

The remainder of this report addresses and provides recommendations for this strategy.

Hotspot strategyAs discussed above, the Freedom Fund utilizes a “hotspot” model that leverages the resources of different systems, sectors, and organizations towards a common goal. In the Brazilian Amazon, which has the highest incidence of slave labor in Brazil, there is a strong overlap among slave labor and environmental organizations, as well as those focused on meeting the needs of traditional and

ii There will be some differences in approach.

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indigenous groups (hereafter “vulnerable populations groups”) , both in terms of where they work and the types of issues and interventions they focus on. It is the same economic activities that are causing devastation and exploitation that the three types of organizations are trying to prevent. Unfortunately, these respective systems are often siloed — what collaboration exists is rarely systemic or long-term in nature. By contrast, the hotspot model would use an enhanced and strategic collaborative approach to leverage the strengths of each system to simultaneously reduce slave labor and illegal deforestation / precious woods logging in the Amazon. For example, slave labor organizations (and related government actors) often have difficulty predicting the expansion of the agricultural frontier, which makes it difficult to allocate resources for prevention and rescue efforts. Some environmental organizations have very robust mapping technologies that trace the expansion of the frontier in real time; very rarely, however, do anti-slave labor and environmental organizations work with shared purpose or regularly share data with one another.

What is collective impact and how does it differ from other collaborative approaches?

Recent experience has revealed that traditional philanthropic approaches – in which individual organizations compete for funding and tend to be isolated in their activities from the interventions of the public and private sectors – are not well-equipped to solve complex social problems like modern slavery. FSG’s John Kania, Mark Kramer, and Patty Russell provide additional insight on complexity in their 2014 SSIR article entitled ‘Strategic Philanthropy for a Complex World.’5

The collective impact (CI) approach differs from traditional philanthropic approaches in several ways. It stems from an understanding that the majority of social problems – and their solutions – arise from the interaction of many organizations within a larger system. Central to the approach is cross-sector alignment with the government, non-profit, philanthropic, and corporate sectors. Rather than competing with one another for funding or recognition, participating organizations actively coordinate their actions and share lessons learned. They work towards the same jointly-defined goal(s) and track the same measures of progress. Yet moving from a traditional to a collective impact approach requires a number of mindset shifts: moving from purely technical or top-down strategies to more adaptive, community-driven solutions; focusing not just on evidence, but also on relationships; valuing context expertise in addition to content expertise; and moving from a mindset of taking organizational credit to thinking of credit as a shared currency.

A well-functioning and sustainable CI initiative involves five key elements:

1. Common agenda: Participants share a vision for change that includes a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving the problem through agreed-upon actions.

2. Shared measurement systems: All participating organizations agree on the ways success will be measured and reported, with a short list of common indicators identified and used for continuous learning and improvement.

3. Mutually reinforcing activities: A diverse set of stakeholders, typically across sectors, coordinates a set of differentiated activities through a mutually reinforcing plan of action.

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4. Continuous communication: All players engage in frequent and structured open communication to build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create common motivation and shared ownership.

5. Backbone support: An independent, funded staff dedicated to the initiative provides ongoing support by guiding the strategy, supporting mutually-reinforcing activities, establishing shared measurement practices, advancing policy, and mobilizing resources.

CI is effective at solving complex social problems because it delivers on three critical factors: amplifying impact, increasing efficient use of resources, and driving alignment. CI amplifies impact by channeling the energy of multiple stakeholders towards solving a problem over the long-term and at a systemic level. CI increases the efficient use of resources by attracting a wider set of public and private sources of funding and leveraging the “1%” (the budget for backbone support) to improve the impact of the 99% (the remainder of the budget, directed towards activities and learning on the ground). Further, CI drives alignment by reducing duplication of services, increasing coordination, and embedding momentum for sustained social change within the community, facilitating continued progress without direct effort.

What are the key questions that this research aims to answer?

Given the promise of the CI approach to tackle complex social problems, the Freedom Fund has commissioned FSG to assess the applicability and viability of the approach to the issue of slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon. Drawing from extensive desk research, stakeholder and expert interviews, and a week-long field visit, this report aims to answer four key questions:

1. What should be the scope and focus of a CI effort?

Most successful examples of CI efforts – both in the U.S. and internationally – are centered on a specific location or region. They also tend to focus on one particular sub-challenge of a broader social problem or system: for example, early childhood education (as part of the broader education system), diabetes interventions (within the realm of non-communicable diseases and the broader healthcare system), or juvenile justice (within the broader criminal justice system). Therefore, the first questions that must be addressed are around scope and focus: Where within the Brazilian Amazon should a CI effort be focused? On what stage of the slave labor “cycle” (entry, tenure, and/or exit/re-entry) should CI interventions be directed? And which industry with incidences of slave labor should be targeted?

2. Is slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon ready for CI?

CI is not the most appropriate approach for all social problems or settings. Imposing CI in a context that is not ready for or does not require it can result in wasted effort, frustrated stakeholders, and dashed hopes for community members. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the degree to which the constellation of actors and forces involved in combatting slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon is “ready” for CI. Among the CI readiness elements in the Brazilian Amazon, where are there gaps, and what can be done to address those gaps? Or, if the gaps in readiness to take a CI approach to address slave labor are too wide to bridge at in Brazil at present, what alternative approaches could be more suitable? Are there enough local champions on board? Do anti-slave labor and environmental organizations in Brazil have a history

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of collaboration? Why hasn’t collaboration been more robust in the past? Finally, how can (and should) the CI approach be adapted to work in a rural and remote area like the Amazon?

3. How could a potential CI effort be structured and how would it function?

As mentioned above, successful CI efforts feature certain common organizational elements. Yet each CI effort is unique and needs to be tailored to its specific context and set of actors. If CI is determined to be an appropriate approach to address slave labor and related issues in the Brazilian Amazon, then the next question is what this specific CI effort should look like. Which Brazilian and / or international actors would be involved and what roles would they play? Who would serve on the steering committee, funder advisory board, and working groups? And how would continuous communication (either virtual or in-person), data sharing, and impact measurement work?

4. What are some possible interventions that a CI effort could pursue?

A key tenet of the CI approach and philosophy is that the common agenda and prioritized set of strategies and activities should be determined by those participating in and potentially benefiting from the CI effort, not in a top-down fashion by funders or other outside actors. At the same time, it could be useful to develop the broad outlines of an intervention strategy and possible activities in order to attract funding, win over skeptical participants, and define an initial set of intervention-specific working groups. This report will draw upon FSG’s research findings to suggest possible interventions that a CI effort could coordinate and implement.

The remainder of this report is organized around the four questions above. A concluding section presents next steps for both further strategy development by the Freedom Fund and its partners, and for making the case for investment to international and Brazilian funders. An appendix contains a list of interviews conducted to inform this report, additional information on the CI approach, and more detailed findings from the research and field visit to Brazil.

What should be the scope and focus of a CI effort?

Why the scope of a CI effort is important

As mentioned above, a CI effort is typically centered on a few dimensions: issue area (often with a level of specificity about a specific sub-issue area), geography, and key intervention points. Slave labor — both where it occurs and what interventions can be used to deter it — covers a wide range of geographies, population groups, organizations, and industries in Brazil. Given the time and resource constraints of organizations and funders, it is critical to narrow the scope of a CI effort to one that will optimize impact and where organizations and funders are interested in engaging, or are already engaged. Without the support of key stakeholders or issue area leaders, it will be difficult for a CI effort, no matter how carefully scoped, to be successful.

To illustrate this point: Brazil’s Legal Amazon Region includes the world’s largest intact tropical rainforest and measures about 5 million square kilometers, though the intact portion of the Amazon, given the continued rate and level of deforestation, continues to shrink.6 The region hosts many

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extractive and export-oriented industries that have been associated with slave labor, including agriculture, cattle ranching, and logging. It is also home to hundreds of indigenous groups and dozens of organization types — from community education non-profits to faith-based intelligence networks that report slave labor cases to the government. Therefore, in recommending a scope for a CI effort, this report will balance various factors, including the multi-system approach of the hotspot strategy, the complexity of slave labor (e.g., its rural and remote nature in Brazil), and the interest and presence of key stakeholder organizations.

Slavery cycle

Slave labor, in general, occurs in three stages: entry, tenure, and exit/re-entry. Each stage is accompanied by a specific set of conditions (e.g., limited availability of lucrative employment opportunities, which incentivizes entry into slave labor despite the human cost) and potential intervention points. Further detail on each stage follows.

Figure 1 – Cycle of slave labor

Entry: This stage or geographic location is often defined as the ‘source’ of slave labor. However, it is important to note that in many cases, particularly where these is overlap between vulnerable populations and the presence of slave-based industry, the source and destination of labor may be one and the same. In general, ‘source’ geographies are defined by a surplus of labor, long-term unemployment, and a vulnerable labor force. The source geography is also often associated with the lack of a strong government presence, which is seen by the existence of weak public goods (e.g., schools, healthcare, and income protection). There are also other factors, including weak land rights protections for traditional and indigenous communities and underdeveloped agricultural and income

generation supports from both government and non-government organizations that have increased the risk of those from the source geography entering into slavery. Anti-poverty, community education, and economic development efforts typically exist at this stage and have been successful in some cases in reducing the rate of slave labor, but there is a powerful countercurrent that works against such efforts; entry into slavery is not voluntary, and it often occurs in situations of asymmetric information. Gatos (traffickers) work with criminal networks and industry groups to recruit slave labor, often under false pretenses; promising jobs and opportunity to those who lack a formal education and job skills, they often successfully lure potential entrants into the next stage of slave labor. Gatos often employ members of the communities to recruit within their respective communities and provide a false sense of credibility. Gatos also provide newly enslaved workers with tractors and chainsaws, which then serve as a mechanism for control through debt bondage. In many communities, it is also important to note that criminal networks have co-opted towns to engage in slave labor; given the lack of alternative

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opportunities, many community and business leaders may see the ‘economic opportunities’ offered by criminal networks as a viable—and perhaps only—economic option.

Tenure: This stage is often defined as the ‘destination’ of slave labor but – as outlined previously – this stage can also occur in the same geographical areas as entry. In general, the market in the destination geography is defined by a labor shortage (particularly of employees willing to work in conditions analogous to slave labor or in conditions of forced labor), low-margin and extractive industries, and limited government oversight, often coupled with incidences of corruption and collusion. There are a limited number of organizations who work on regulation, enforcement, and rescue at this stage, including inspectors, mobile inspection units, and the federal military police. This is also the stage with the greatest overlap between anti-slave labor and environmental issues, as this is the stage in which slave labor is actually used and in which environmental destruction actually occurs.

Exit / re-entry: This stage is defined by the ‘return’ of slave laborers to their source geographies, and the threat of re-entry of ‘returned’ slave laborers back into the slave labor cycle. Return of labor can occur after slave rescue missions conducted by the federal police, through escapes, industry downturns, or release. It is important to note that return of labor almost never occurs voluntarily — there needs to be external pressure for this stage to occur. Even in cases of “release,” slave owners have typically worked the individuals in question for months in exhausting and degrading conditions to the point that those enslaved typically have little physical strength or energy left. Yet because returned slave laborers typically return to the same market conditions they previously experienced (e.g., lack of economic opportunity in the source geography) re-entry is a likely outcome. Current estimates of re-entry vary between 10 and 40 percent;7 further, the physical and psychological damage imposed by slave labor condition often exacerbate risk factors associated with entry into slave labor. Organizations that could operate at this stage include anti-poverty, community education, health, jobs training, advocacy, and prosecutorial groups, but their presence is limited, especially in rural and remote areas. It is important to note that there are typically two categories of exit which are strongly correlated with the industry in which slave labor occurs: 1) In labor-intensive industries like cattle ranching and construction, work comes to an end, and the worker goes back to their source destination or looks for another job, which may or may not be slave labor; rescues happen to cause exit, but they are very rare; 2) In frontier areas of the Amazon for industries like logging and precious woods, there is typically a pattern of co-optation that leads to enslavement; rescues, given the remoteness of where these industries operate, are extremely rare, and workers, without rescue, alternative opportunities, or a way to break free from co-optation, often remain in slave labor conditions indefinitely.

Each stage of slave labor poses its own unique opportunities and challenges. A CI effort, instead of focusing on interventions or organizations within a single stage, has the ability to affect the overall slave labor system. It is important to recognize that a positive intervention in a single stage is still likely to help reduce the incidence of slave labor overall; for example, improving economic conditions in the geographical source of labor will reduce the number entering into the tenure stage. More broadly, however, a systems play has the potential to impact all three stages in the slave labor cycle; for example, by pressuring industry groups to clean up their supply chains, the demand for slave labor (and therefore the likelihood of entry into slave labor) will decrease.

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Industry focus

While each stage of slave labor can be addressed by a CI effort, a focus industry will help optimize the effort based on the resource, time, and other constraints discussed above. Many industries are associated with slave labor in Brazil, but these industries touch on a wide range of issues, geographies, and actors. Regardless of the industry of selection, however, there will be spillover benefits to the anti-slave labor system overall; for example, anti-slave labor efforts across industries could benefit from improved data collection and dissemination among stakeholders.

Criteria-based approach

A criteria-based approach was used to determine a focus industry by providing an independent and standardized method to compare between slave labor utilizing industries. Prioritized criteria were chosen based on a list of guiding questions developed from FSG’s lived experience supporting CI efforts, research on best practices from other geographies, and insights into the Brazilian context based on secondary research into the nation’s political and economic climate and local stakeholder interviews.

Which criteria most closely link to galvanizing multi-stakeholder and multi-layered (i.e., local, national, and international) interest?

Which criteria, from what is known about factors create changes with an industry, link most closely to potential for impact?

Which criteria provide the most accurate reading of how an industry links to and engages with slave labor issues?

Based on those questions, five prioritized criteria were selected:

Potential for strategic and enhanced collaboration to tackle slave labor in particular industry : Multi-system collaboration that is strategic and intentional is necessary to combat slave labor —no single actor or system has been able to tackle the issue alone in any case study reviewed. This criterion also tests whether there could be specific steps key stakeholder organizations could take — i.e., a strategy — around which collaboration could realistically emerge.

Perceived implications for the environment and vulnerable populations: As resources are scarce and because groups serving vulnerable populations and addressing environmental challenges often have overlapping interests with slave labor issues, it is imperative to select an industry that has strong links with interests beyond slave labor.

Perceived ability to attract additional funding: In order for any effort to be sustainable and well-resourced, both domestic and international funders must be interested in the industry of choice. Funders may be interested for a wide range of reasons — from an interest in addressing environmental degradation challenges to an interest in the supply chain of a particular product — but it will be important to consider how to make the case effectively.

Ability to trace supply chain of industry products upstream to downstream: To successfully pressure an industry and push for policy change, its supply chain from source to end consumer must be traceable. Traceability helps to link incidences of slave labor (upstream) to levers of change (e.g., corporate reform via consumer pressure) that occur downstream.

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Observed incidence of slave labor: There must be proof that slave labor exists in a particular industry, and these proof points must be gathered through reliable methods. While some stakeholders rely on individual perception or research to gauge the incidence of slave labor in a particular industry, the amalgamation of multiple data points, readings, and experiences does not always paint a timely or accurate picture. For example, one organization recalled a 2010 report on the incidence of slave labor in the charcoal industry and consequently suggested that charcoal should be an industry of focus; however, such an intervention would have more limited impact potential given that the international collapse in demand for steel has already driven many Brazilian charcoal firms out of business. Other stakeholders rely on officially collected and measured data to gauge the incidence of slave labor in a particular industry. While this strategy may appear sound at the surface level, there are some issues with the nature and reliability of data related to slave labor. Data is only collected when inspection teams successfully rescue slaves, and this data is skewed towards particular industries based on their visibility and accessibility. Mobile inspection teams rely on ‘whistles’ that alert them to incidences of slave labor from community-based organizations, consequently, inspection teams target more visible operations in areas where community-based organizations already have a presence. They also prioritize rescue work in areas where they are likely to be able to access and find those in slavery – which has tended to significantly reduce the work done against slavery in logging operations. Therefore, the true incidence of slave labor is not captured, as certain industries are likely to have far greater oversight than others.

Industry selection

As mentioned above, there are many industries in Brazil that have been associated with slave labor: cattle ranching, construction, charcoal, coffee, deforestation, mining, sugar cane, precious woods / illegal logging, soy, textiles, and fruits / nuts.

Yet after scoring each industry against the selected criteria, many industries were disqualified. For example, while slave labor is traceable and observed in the supply chain of textile manufacturers, there are weak connections to environmental degradation issues (most of which are associated with the Amazon in Brazil, while textile production is a largely urban industry). Ultimately, two industries were identified based on the selection criteria: precious woods / illegal logging and cattle ranching. Precious woods / illegal logging was chosen after additional analysis for three reasons:

1) The hotspot strategy requires multi-sector collaboration, for which there is significantly higher potential in precious woods / illegal logging versus cattle ranching. Cattle ranching occurs after the process of deforestation; that is, after precious (and other) woods are cleared from an specific geographic area, which means that environmental organizations tend to be less interested in the cattle ranching industry. Moreover, as illegal logging often infringes on indigenous lands, it has a greater connection with vulnerable populations than cattle ranching.

2) The ability to attract additional funding is higher for precious woods because of its links to environmental issues. While many social issues in Brazil have seen donor exit as the country has grown economically, environmental funding, particularly in the Amazon, has remained resilient.

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3) Slave labor often follows the production frontier — therefore, the frontier of slave labor often shifts as valuable resources are depleted in one area and found or targeted in another area. For example, the state of Pará in Brazil has increasingly become the production frontier for natural resources, but this was not the case a decade ago. There was convincing evidence from stakeholder interviews and other research that precious woods / illegal logging is often a signal for the expansion of a production frontier; that is, that precious woods / illegal logging is a harbinger of greater extraction to come, including deforestation and cattle ranching. Moreover, the incidence of slave labor in this industry not only seems to be rising but also is often ‘invisible’ in officially collected data even though it has been described by some stakeholders as one of the most intense industries in its connection to and utilization of slave labor.8

Industry overview: Precious woods / illegal logging

The precious woods industry is driven by international consumer demand for high-value woods, including ipe. Extraction of precious woods typically happens in very remote and rural parts of the Amazon (with few, if any, formal roads), and it is often the first of other extraction activities. At present, the precious woods / illegal logging industry, particularly its frontier, is focused in the Brazilian state of Pará. The precious woods supply chain can be broken down into the following categories:

Small-scale loggers: These small logging teams, financed by buyers downstream, often rely on cheap, forced, and /or slave labor to work deep within the Amazon. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these teams operating in the Amazon. It is difficult to trace the movements of these teams; while raids by mobile inspection teams are effective (if they can reach the point of slave labor deep in the rainforest before the loggers change location), the remoteness and limited reach of inspection teams limits the interventions that can occur in terms of rescue at the ‘tenure’ stage.

Sawmills: These are local Pará firms who are also financed by buyers downstream. There are fewer of these players—in the dozens instead of the hundreds or thousands. Sawmills, however, are mobile in nature and often part of a political and inspection infrastructure that protects them from regulation or enforcement. By the time the wood arrives at sawmills from logging teams, it has already been ‘legalized’ through illegally issued permits or through legally issued permits that allowed for harvesting in a different area from where the logging actually occurred.

Buyers / exporters: There are 2-3 firms based in Belém (the capital of Pará) that procure finished or near-finished timber from sawmills. These firms are politically powerful (they often collude with local officials), and they often fund upstream activities. Given their small number, however, the wood that they procure is fairly traceable as are the customers (e.g., multinational corporations) they eventually sell wood to. These firms have generally benefitted from a process of permit laundering — where inspectors issue illegal or legal permits that give illegally harvested wood a formal paper trail that gives firms plausible deniability.

Multinational corporations (MNCs): These corporations include home improvement stores and civil construction firms that are mostly based in North America and Europe. Some organizations, including Greenpeace, have traced illegally logged wood from the Brazilian Amazon to MNCs.9

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Traceability efforts, however, will need to continue in scope and reach in two important ways. First, wood will need to be traced from foreign import-export businesses to the consumer facing firms that they sell to. For example, while Wood Brokerage International is a large US-based buyer of illegal precious woods, there is not much information available about the consumer facing firms they then sell wood to. Second, a traceability analysis will need to be conducted in the particular catchment area where the CI effort is based (the latest analysis by Greenpeace does not touch on any of this report’s shortlisted geographic areas, detailed below). Like buyers / exporters, companies often have plausible deniability about the source of the wood they purchase; they also, without external pressure, have little incentive to change their procurement processes.

Consumers: Consumers, as stated above, drive the growing demand for precious woods from the Amazon. The wood is used for outdoor decks, in-home flooring, and for other household improvement activities. Consumer awareness, especially in terms of the link between precious woods and slave labor, is weak; however, consumers, when educated, have proven to be effective catalysts for change in other industries that utilize slave labor.

Geographic focus

The recommended focus on the illegal logging and precious woods industry has several implications for the geographic focus of the CI effort. This section will discuss the choice of location(s) for the CI effort’s activities and interventions. For a discussion of the location of the CI effort’s hub, i.e., where the partners would convene on a regular basis, please see the section on “How would a CI effort bestructured, and how would it function?” later in the report.

Initial focus on rural Pará

The first step in determining geographic focus was to narrow down the scope to a state within Brazil. Based on the Freedom Fund’s field visit in September of 2014, two Amazonian states were initially prioritized: Pará and Maranhão. The Freedom Fund’s initial hypothesis was that Maranhão served as a key “exporter” of slave labor, and that Pará served as a key “importer.” Given the above recommendation for a focus on illegal logging and precious wood, FSG also recommends that the scope be narrowed to Pará state, for two reasons:

1. Pará contains many of the most significant frontiers of deforestation and is home to much of the illegal harvesting of precious wood.10 The vast majority of Pará’s timber harvesting – up to 90% by some accounts – is the result of illegal deforestation, and 100% of the labor used in these illegal logging operations works under degrading conditions analogous to slavery.11

2. Pará ranks above Maranhão in terms of the number of companies on the Dirty List and in terms of the number of reported cases of slavery.12 Further, while Maranhão is a net exporter of slave labor, many of the slaves found in Pará are originally from Pará and are internal migrants rather than immigrants from other state.13

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See the below figure for a visual depiction of the initial narrowing down of the geographic scope of a CI effort focused on illegal logging and precious wood.

Figure 2 - Initial narrowing of the geographic focus for a CI effort

Selection criteria for focus within Pará

Five criteria and additional analysis was used to inform the choice of location(s) for the CI effort in Pará:

Concentration of illegal logging and precious wood harvesting activity Level of incidence of slave labor, both observed and perceived by anti-slavery experts Rate of environmental destruction, as measured and perceived by environmental experts Focus areas of key anti-slavery and environmental actors that could serve as partners in a CI

effort (e.g., Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), Imazon, IPAM, PMV, etc.) iii

Level of accessibility and safety for partners to be involved in the CI effort

Areas of focus of key actors to involve in CI effort

One of the key Interviews from FSG’s field visit revealed that while anti-slavery and environmental actors have activities throughout Pará, their activities often concentrated in a relatively small set of areas in the state. The below map illustrates where these areas are located within the state.

iii Appendix B provides brief descriptions of each organization, including the full non-acronym name. It is important to note, however, that many organizations use their acronym name, even in official documents. For example, PMV very rarely refers to itself as the Green Municipalities Program.

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Figure 3 – Potential geographic areas of focus for a CI effort

The following is a description of each of the potential areas of focus for a CI effort.

Belém: As the capital of Pará, Belém serves as the base for many of the relevant NGOs working in the region, including Imazon, PMV, IPAM, and the Centro de Defesa Emaus. According to Mauricio Torres, one of the leading experts on slave labor in SW Pará, several of the Brazilian purchasers / exporters of timber are based in Belém. There are also some reports of slavery around the Belém area, but for the most part this is not an area where slave labor occurs, and it does not appear in the top 10 municipalities in terms of deforestation or slave labor in Brazil. Not recommended as a primary focus area for intervention.

Altamira: Altamira lies along the Xingu River and is one of the cities closest to the Belo Monte dam project, which, if completed, would be the third-largest dam in the world in terms of installed capacity. Construction of the dam has resulted in an influx of short-term construction workers – Altamira’s population increased fourfold over a brief period of time14 – and resulted in reports of slave-like conditions in forest clearing activities.15 Altamira is also the site of at least two sawmills that sell timber – often illegally cut – to Brazilian exporters. 16 The municipality has a CPT office, is the home base and focus area of Juan Roblas (Instituto Socioamental – ISA) and Cassio Pereira (IPAM), and the site of some of the Green Municipalities Program’s (PMV’s) work

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with municipalities. It is also home to Xingu Vivo, an NGO focused on environmental issues along the Transamazônica highway that has become well-known since the murder of American anti-deforestation activist Sister Dorothy Strang in 2005.17 However, Altamira is not now considered on the frontlines for slave labor. Not recommended as a primary focus area.

Marabá: Marabá is one of CPT’s main centers of operation. It contains two labor courts, including one – the 2a Vara do Trabalho de Marabá – whose judge has been one of the chief funders of the RAICE network (further details below). The Ministry of Labor’s mobile anti-slavery inspection team has a physical office and fleet of vehicles in Marabá, and the municipality also contains 17 universities which could be useful for involving academics in research and data collection.18 The Marabá municipality is ranked number two in terms of cases of slave labor in Brazil, with 86 incidents and 575 freed workers from 2003-2014. It is ranked fourth in terms of land area deforested: 8,449 km2, or 55.7% of its land area. However, according to Xavier Plassat, most of the deforestation in Marabá has already taken place and it is a less active logging frontier when compared to some other locations.

It is worth noting that the Carajas mountain range in the western part of Marabá, is home to one of Brazil’s largest iron mining operations. Vale, the company operating the mine, was forced to pay a fine of R$804 million for over 2,000 worker accidents and 12 worker deaths, a strong indicator of precarious working conditions.19 Given that Marabá has an airport and is centrally located within Pará, it could be accessible for other CI participant organizations. Yet unfortunately, there has been much violence in Marabá around land conflicts; labor and environmental inspectors – especially those who live there – often find that they cannot travel to the field without armed escorts.20 As much of the deforestation of the area has already occurred, it is not recommended as a primary focus area

São Felix do Xingu: São Felix do Xingu ranks at the top of all Brazilian municipalities in terms of both deforested area and incidents of slavery. Over 20% of the municipality’s land area, or 17,534 km2, has been deforested – the equivalent of 11 times the area of the city of São Paulo. In addition, there have been 129 incidents of slave labor and 882 workers liberated from 2003-2014.21 CPT has an office in São Felix do Xingu, and IIEB focuses many of its activities there. According to Henyo Barretto of IIEB, CPT’s representative in São Felix, Cosme Xavante, is among those CPT leaders that are very open to collaboration with other groups. Juan Doblas from ISA also cited São Felix as a promising site for a CI effort, alongside Marabá. São Felix could be explored as a focus area, but it would be important to confirm whether cases of slave labor and deforestation are continuing in the area.

BR-163 corridor: The BR-163 is a federal highway that extends 3,467 kilometers from São Miguel do Oeste in Santa Catarina to Santarém, Pará. The “BR-163 corridor” referred to here is mainly the northernmost section that connects Itaituba and Santarém, as well as a stretch in Southern Pará between Castelo dos Sonhos and Novo Progresso. According to the researcher Mauricio Torres, who is based in Santarém, and ISA’s Juan Doblas, this corridor is where the most significant frontier for initial forest degradation (preceding full deforestation) and illegal precious wood collection in Pará is located, and where much of the local community resistance

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to deforestation occurs. “The logging access provided by the BR-163 highway is like what logging access in Marabá was 30-40 years ago,” he said.22 There are many area of protected land along this corridor – indigenous reserves, permanent protection areas, and legal reserves. However, because these areas are among the last “sanctuaries” of precious wood, they are of prime interest to illegal loggers.23 According to Repórter Brasil, there are also plans to build dams in the area and there has been an increase in immigration to the region. As mentioned above, mega-projects such as dams often involve deforestation to clear the land for construction and tend to spur an influx of short-term labor that can be drawn to work in slavery-like conditions. 24 In terms of key stakeholders, ISA focuses its work and has people on the ground along this corridor. CPT is active in the area as well, with offices in both Itaituba and Santarém, and a programmatic area focused on the Tapajós regions directly west of the BR-163. While the portion of the corridor closest to the highways is relatively accessible, most of the illegal logging is occurring deep in the forest in remote, difficult-to-reach areas. Further, given the abundance of illegal “mafia”-controlled logging territory in the area, safety for outsiders remains a significant concern. Recommended as a primary focus area, contingent on further insights on the ability to sustainably engage with local communities in the area.

Safety

Ever since local Amazonian communities began resisting land-grabbing and deforestation in the 1970s and 80s, ranchers and speculators have employed violence as a means of quelling such resistance. Two of the highest profile examples of this violence were the murders of the labor rights activist Chico Mendes in 1988 and of environmental activist Sister Dorothy Strang in 2005. But the violence has not waned over time: just this past June, military policeman João Luiz de Maria Pereira was killed in an ambush while dismantling an illegal logging encampment in Novo Progresso, a city in Pará along the BR-163 corridor.25 Consequently, those who take part in the fight against slavery and deforestation and aim to address violations of indigenous and land rights in remote Amazon regions often work under the threat of violence or even death. These threats severely limit their activities, and few risk lodging official complaints, except through CPT (which is often not located in the places where complaints need to be generated). Government actors also rarely intervene because they require heavily armed military police escorts in order to do so.

With this setting in mind, it is important to consider safety when selecting an area of focus for the CI effort. Given that there are international and national organizations who do not have an on-the-ground presence in the target intervention area, the CI effort will need to assess how these organizations can monitor and safely engage with (physically or otherwise) community-based organizations and other activities happening on the ground. Initial interviews indicate that substantial on-the-ground work is feasible, provided that it focuses on community engagement, rather than direct confrontation with illegal loggers, and that outside organizations visit less frequently and for short periods of time. However, further conversations with stakeholders with firsthand knowledge of these regions will be necessary to gauge the advisability of a CI effort being centered there.

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Recommended locations for CI effort

Applying the selection criteria outlined above to these location options, two locations stood out: São Felix do Xingu and the BR-163 corridor. Fig. 4 summarizes how each location map against the criteria:

Figure 4 – Rating of potential locations by key selection criteria

São Felix do Xingu and the BR-163 Corridor both exhibit high incidences of illegal logging, rates of environmental destruction, and observed and perceived incidences of slave labor. The BR-163 corridor has a significant number of community-based organizations (CBOs) that a CI effort could work with; CPT and Mauricio Torres are currently analyzing which of these CBOs would be best to engage, given that many are coopted by the illegal logging mafia and lack the requisite credibility. Each location has drawbacks that should be considered, however: São Felix do Xingu hosts few relevant actors aside from CPT and IIEB. The BR-163 Corridor is perhaps the state’s most important frontier for illegal logging and precious wood harvesting, but it is the least accessible and least safe.

Both locations would make suitable areas of focus for a CI effort, and the Freedom Fund could express a strong preference for one over the other when working to recruit partners and donors and to launch the CI effort. The decision of where to focus should however rest with the core partners that will ultimately comprise the steering committee for the CI effort. They are the ones who will be determining the CI effort’s common agenda, the strategic direction, the precise constellation of actors involved, and the set of mutually-reinforcing activities that will be implemented. To achieve maximum impact, the chosen location should contain the right mix of actors already on the ground and be accessible to those additional partners who will form part of the effort.

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Is slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon ready for CI?

Before designing and launching a CI effort, it is crucial to assess the degree to which the constellation of actors and forces involved in combatting slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon is “ready” for CI. There are at least four preconditions to CI that should ideally be in place in order for a CI effort to gain traction and launch smoothly. This section will address each of these in turn and provide an overall assessment of CI readiness for slave labor in the illegal logging / precious wood industry in the state of Pará.

Presence of local champions

To be successful, a CI effort requires a number of influential champions who can provide local leadership and help galvanize other actors / organizations to join the effort More specifically, in the case of slave labor in illegal logging in Brazil, an “influential champion” would be someone who can command respect of a broader set of stakeholders (both within and outside their sector), is able to bring stakeholders to the table and keep them there during the common agenda process, and is willing and able to champion the strategy with the broader community of actors and within the geographic area of focus. Given that the CI effort is likely to focus on the reduction of slave labor in the logging industry – with the prevention of deforestation as an important but secondary goal – the influential champions would likely come from the anti-slavery world but would ideally have some credibility with environmental actors as well. While the above list of traits may seem like a high bar, interviews revealed that there are indeed several potential champions that could be involved in a CI effort. Some examples include:

Xavier Plassat: Xavier is the coordinator of CPT’s anti-slavery program and a prominent and well-respected leader in the anti-slavery movement in the Brazilian Amazon.

Mauricio Torres: Mauricio is a researcher based in Santarém and affiliated with the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA). He has many years of experience researching labor, land, and indigenous rights in the BR-163 Corridor and is widely respected for his deep expertise.

André Roston: André is the head of the Inspection Division for the Eradication of Slave Labor at the Ministry of Labor. He coordinates the ministry’s mobile inspection teams that respond to reports of slave labor and stage raids to liberate workers and hold perpetrators to account.

Christiane Nogueira: Christiane is the Vice-Coordinator of CONATRAE, the Federal Labor Public Prosecutor’s (MPT’s) coordinating body on the eradication of slavery. Based in Brasilia, she is a labor prosecutor who is focused on bringing to justice (via civil actions, not criminal) the perpetrators of labor rights violations, particularly related to slave labor.

Mércia Silva: Mércia is the Executive Coordinator of Instituto InPACTO and has persuaded dozens of large corporations in Brazil to become signatories to the National Pact for the Eradication of Slavery and to affirm their commitment to eliminating slave labor in their own supply chains and in their respective industries.

Rogenir Costa: Rogenir is the Brazilian Program Manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), based in Brasilia, which actively funds several anti-slavery initiatives and is engaged in legislative advocacy around slavery issues.

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The above list represents a sampling of potential influential champions in the anti-slavery space in Brazil – there are likely others that would emerge were a CI effort to launch in earnest. There are also organizations that might emerge to play a key champion role for the effort – such as Repórter Brasil, ISA, IPAM, or PMV. One would not need to select only one of these individuals or organizations to single-handedly lead a CI effort; rather, multiple champions can enhance a CI effort’s viability by simultaneously recruiting a wide array of partners across sectors and spurring them to joint action.

The mere existence of influential champions does not satisfy this first “local champions” precondition for CI readiness. As stated above, those champions that do exist need to be convinced that a CI approach can result in a step-change in progress in the fight against slavery; and they must be willing to invest a significant amount of their time and credibility to launching and steering a new CI effort. Where there are gaps in influential champions – in academia, or at the grassroots community level, for example – those champions would need to be recruited and supported.

History of collaboration

Ideally, a CI effort builds upon existing partnerships or collaborative efforts that exist within a particular sector or community. Not every partner in the CI effort needs to know or have worked with each other, but it is important that majority of the CI effort members are open to the idea of a high-level, structured collaboration; one of the indicators of this openness is past experience with collaboration.

Nearly every organization interviewed expressed an interest in and recognized the need for more structured and strategic collaboration, given the complexity of slave labor-environment-land right dynamics in the region. In addition, the majority of stakeholders stated that they had a strong history of collaboration with other organizations in their field. The only organization that exhibited some hesitancy about collaboration was CPT: as alluded to earlier, certain parts of CPT, which is an unusually decentralized and heterogeneous organization, are suspicious of the compromises inherent in collaboration with or taking funding from government agencies, international funders, or other NGOs.

Interviewees also shared many barriers to collaboration. Some of these are financial or logistical: for example, some actors lack a dependable set of resources to support the infrastructure required for sustained collaboration, others highlighted that the huge geographic distances between partners – even within the state of Pará – render travel and communication difficult. Other barriers are related to differences among anti-slavery and environmental organizations: collectively, these organizations are incentivized by donors to specialize and focus on their own areas of scope, rather than to seek out overlaps and opportunities for synergy in their work.

Despite these barriers, there are several examples of collaboration among actors in the Brazilian Amazon anti-slavery and environmental preservation space. Some of the most promising include:

RAICE – The Rede de Ação Integrada Pará o Combate à Escrividão (Network of Integrated Action to Combat Slavery) is a partnership started in 2014 between CPT and CDVDH/CB in Açailândia focused on understanding and reducing the vulnerability of migrant workers to recruitment into slave labor. It has been funded by a judge at a labor court in Marabá.

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CONATRAE – The Confederação Nacional de Erradicação do Trabalho Escravo (National Confederation of the Eradication of Slave Labor) is a cross-sector collaboration led by the federal Human Rights Secretariat. It consists of representatives from several relevant ministries, the judiciary and labor public prosecutor’s office, the labor inspectors’ union, CPT, Repórter Brasil, CRS, Instituto Ethos, and many others. Collaborators meet regularly, both in-person in Brasilia (and providing resources for NGOs to travel there and attend) – and by teleconference. Christiane Nogueira even suggested that CONATRAE could serve as potential backbone support for a CI effort. However, interviews revealed a perception of CONATRAE as more of a forum for development of national government policy, sharing of ideas rather than an ideal entity for the implementation of anti-slavery interventions.

CPT / Repórter Brasil / ISA partnership: These three organizations have a very tight working relationship – with many of their activities funded by CRS – that involves the sharing of data and coordination of activities. CPT, for example, shares the statistics it gathers on incidents of slavery with Repórter Brasil, which in turn publishes pieces to raise public awareness. ISA also shares its satellite mapping of deforested areas with CPT and Repórter Brasil in order to support the search for and reporting of labor violations. However, this partnership is more one of informal day-to-day communication, rather than a structured partnership with co-defined objectives and regular convenings.

CPT / Ministry of Labor / Labor Public Prosecutor partnership: these three organizations help one another in liberating slaves and bringing perpetrators of slave labor to justice. CPT shares individual reports of slavery with the Ministry of Labor’s mobile inspection teams, who in turn organize raids on ranching properties and logging encampments. The Labor Public Prosecutor follows up by bringing civil cases against the property owners or illegal loggers.

The Green Municipalities Program (Programa Munícipios Verdes - PMV) fosters collaboration at the municipality level by creating pacts among rural producers, social and environmental organizations, and local and state governments, to help fight deforestation in Pará. Partners sign voluntary pacts to work together and adhere to a set of seven goals for the municipality, to be monitored by PMV. Upon receipt of certification as a ‘Green Municipality,’ partners receive a number of competitive advantages, including priority access to credit, tax incentives and rural technical assistance from the federal government. While PMV has a number of carrots in its arsenal, it also has a number of powerful sticks. If partner municipalities approach a high-deforestation rate, they are placed on the Black List, a list of low-performing municipalities with respect to environmental management. Not only does The Black List serve as a way to place public pressure on municipalities and their leaders to enact reforms but it also results in the municipality receiving less state tax revenue. Moreover, the municipalities on The Black List face export restrictions, which can result in businesses leaving a municipality (and therefore a loss in tax revenue).

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Collectively, these examples illustrate a history of collaboration, both between relevant actors in this space and at the community level. However, with few exceptions, much of the collaboration consists of funder-grantee relationships, bilateral partnerships or one-off collaborations that operate for a fixed duration. Many are dependent on precarious sources of funding. And aside from ISA, there is very little collaboration among anti-slavery and environmental organizations, mainly due to the barriers described above.

There are two implications of this collaborative context for the formation of a CI effort. First, the barriers to deeper collaboration – especially between environmental and anti-slavery organizations – will need to be overcome through injections of funding, investment in building infrastructure to support a collaborative effort, and outside facilitation. Second, the core set of organizations will need to be convinced that an investment of their time, energy, and resources in a CI-level collaborative effort will be worth it for the enhanced impact on slave labor and the environment that it makes possible.

Urgency for change

A shared sense of priority and immediate need for action around an issue provides fuel for launching a CI effort by galvanizing actors and sustaining momentum beyond the early stages of the effort. When it comes to slave labor in illegal logging and precious woods extraction, the level of urgency varies depending on the sector and type of actor. The table below summarizes these varying levels of urgency:

Figure 5 - Sense of urgency around slave labor by sector and actor type

Sector Actor type Urgency Rationale

NGOsAnti-slavery NGOs High Fighting slavery is their primary missionEnvironmental NGOs Low Slave labor is seen as tangential to their primary

mission of environmental protection

Government

Federal – executive Low / high Low among the new government of Michel Temer and political appointees; high among key champions within certain ministries (e.g., Ministry of Labor’s mobile inspection teams, Labor Public Prosecutor)

Federal – legislative Low “Rural caucus” that represents large agribusiness has gained significant power and is working to weaken anti-slavery laws

Federal – judiciary High Has shown a commitment to anti-slavery through its reauthorization of the Dirty List and rulings against perpetrators of slave labor

State (Pará) Low There are no known state government commitments to fight slavery, despite Pará’s having among the highest incidences in Brazil. The Labor department in Pará does however have some responsibility for the issue.

Municipal Low Municipal governments are often complicit with local illegal loggers and perpetrators of slave labor, though PMV has made headway among select municipalities

Private sector Brazilian companies (lumber exporters and construction)

Low Lumber exporters are complicit in the illegal logging and permit laundering process; construction companies care mostly about the price and steady supply of wood and have actively fought to block the Dirty List

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Sector Actor type Urgency RationaleMNCs (lumber importers and retailers)

Low Do not care much about the origin of their wood so long as it has the veneer of legitimacy (e.g., clean permits or FSC certification)

Funders

Human rights-focused funders

High Preventing labor and human rights violations is core to their mission, though there are few of these funders

Environmental funders Low Care primarily about climate change and deforestation and see slave labor as tangential to their mission

Brazilian domestic funders

Shy away from supporting controversial causes or giving to areas that do not yield tax benefits

Consumers

Brazilian consumers Low Care more about the price and availability of wood than its origins

International consumers (e.g., US, Europe)

Low Are often ignorant of the extent to which wood imported from Brazil is tainted with slave labor, though potential exists with increased awareness

Looking at the above landscape, one might come to the conclusion that a CI effort has little hope given the overall mixed or low sense of urgency. However, a mixed sense of urgency does not necessarily preclude the successful formation of a CI effort. Rather, it implies that one of the first tasks of the founders of any CI effort, both before and surrounding its launch, will be to bolster this sense of urgency. Through well-targeted awareness-raising, many actors’ sense of urgency can be increased. Some ideas for elements worth highlighting to individual stakeholders include:

The potential to galvanize additional resources: The “hotspot” strategy has the potential to attract more funding and attention (by bringing a human rights angle to their work) and accelerate progress towards their goals (by joining forces with the anti-slavery movement)

The ability to address potential revenue risks: By working to identify instances of slave labor in their supply chains, MNCs can proactively address the revenue risks – stemming from consumer pressure – of continued inaction

The ability to maximize resource impact: The “hotspot” strategy offers funders the opportunity to enhance the impact of their giving by working to address the closely intertwined issues of slave labor, environmental degradation and land rights, and their implications for vulnerable communities

Increasing overall awareness of these issues: Through effective use of media campaigns, a CI effort should capture the hearts and minds of consumers by effectively demonstrating how much of the wood they currently purchase is tainted by slave labor and will also help to personalize the problem through individual victims’ stories

Available resources

While one of primary tasks of a CI effort will be to continually make the case to donors, governments, and corporations for continued funding, there needs to exist a certain base level of commitment from funders (i.e., adequate resources to support ~2 years of collaboration) in order to get the CI effort off

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the ground. In addition, initial funders need to have a certain degree of patience, given the long time horizon for impact inherent in CI efforts.

The funding landscape for anti-slavery efforts is a challenging one, for several reasons. Brazil’s rapid economic development in the 2000s triggered a large-scale exodus of bilateral funding as international organizations began to label the country “middle income.” With the recent political turmoil and change of government, there has been a systematic reduction of public funding for social programs, which includes those oriented towards reducing poor communities’ vulnerability and towards the policing of labor abuses. There are few incentives for domestic private donations – that is, giving by individuals, corporate foundations, or family foundations – because tax deductions are only permitted for giving to a narrow range of relatively non-controversial topics (e.g., education, sports, and culture). Further, the financial crisis has triggered belt-tightening across the board, from Brazilian companies who might have channeled some of their profits to social causes to Brazilian consumers who might have paid a premium for products that are responsibly-sourced. NGOs themselves are reluctant to invest in long-term collaborative infrastructure in the face of reductions in funding that threaten their core programming.

If there is a bright spot in this seemingly bleak landscape, it is the support and continued presence of international environmental donors in the Brazilian Amazon. Interviews indicated that not only has funding for environmental issues in Brazil proved resilient in the face of donor exit in other areas, but that funding has increased in some areas, particularly around climate change mitigation and adaptation. If the case for the “hotspot” strategy can be made to international environmental donors, they can serve as a promising source of funding for a new CI effort. A potential venue for making this case would be a funder convening (to be held in Brazil and / or the United States). In any such convening, the proponents of a CI effort will need to clearly demonstrate the advantage of the CI approach and the need for alliance with anti-slavery efforts over existing environmentally-focused programming as a means to maximize impact.

Overall readiness assessment

It is not possible to give a definitive “yes” or “no” to the question of whether the illegal logging/precious wood industry in the state of Pará is ready for CI. To do so would represent a false sense of precision, as there is no way to objectively pinpoint the position of individual actors or geographies on the readiness spectrum or to assign weightings to each precondition.

At the same time, it is possible to create a high-level view of the issue’s readiness for CI. Fig. 6 shows an assessment of where the illegal logging / precious wood industry in Pará lies for each readiness criterion.

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Figure 6 - CI readiness preconditions and ratings

How would a CI effort be structured, and how would it function?

Actor mapping

An actor map is a visual depiction of the key organizations and / or individuals that make up a system and its sub-systems. Actor mapping is related to, but fundamentally distinct from, traditional stakeholder analysis (“a process of systematically gathering and analyzing qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account when developing and/or implementing a policy or program”).26 Stakeholder analysis seeks to assess individuals’ or groups’ ability to influence specific projects, policies, or outcomes. The goal of these analyses is typically to produce a prioritized list of key individuals or groups to target as part of an action plan. By contrast, actor mapping explores the relationships and connections among actors, as well as their relationships to a given issue, project, or intended outcome. The purpose of actor mapping is to identify opportunities to improve overall performance by, for example, strengthening weak connections or filling gaps in the system of actors seeking to affect a given issue, project, or intended outcome, including those directly affected by the system as well as those whose actions influence the system.

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Figure 7 – Initial actor map of key organizations and sectors that affect slave labor in Brazil

The current actor map (Figure 7) provides a visual depiction of the different organization types and highlights key organizations that affect the slave labor system. Where possible, the actor map is specific to precious woods / illegal logging (e.g., MNCs that procure wood). It is important to note that the actor map will be refined over time—as organizations begin to engage each other and as new relationships (positive and negative) develop. The current iteration provided above is meant to serve as an early stage depiction of the organization types and individual organizations that are engaged on the slave labor issue. The actor map also lends itself to different types of analyses, including visualizing the relationships (positive and negative) among actors, highlighting existing gaps in the slave labor system, and depicting the proximity of an organization to the population most affected by slave labor — the potential slave.

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The current actor map, when used as a tool for research and analysis, revealed the following insights:

1) While examples of one-off, short-term partnerships exist among organizations, including those that are cross-sectoral, very few are long-term and multi-sectoral. There are no collaborative examples identified through research that links more than three organization types together.

2) While anti-slavery and environmental organizations, particularly those with a regional or national presence, are well known, there is a clear gap when it comes to knowledge of community based organizations and indigenous actors; this is especially true for organizations that operate at local level (or only in particular communities). At present, knowledge of these organization types comes from a layer above — that is, from regional or national anti-slave labor or environmental organizations that engage at the local level. Organizations like CPT, IEB, and ISA interface with community-based organizations on particular projects, but the level of engagement varies. Academic researchers like Mauricio Torres could serve as an important bridge to community-based organizations and leaders. Other organizations who regularly touch and engage with local communities, like the Ford Foundation, which has a robust portfolio in the Brazilian Amazon and FASE, which focuses on indigenous groups, could provide leverage to the CI effort in building out a stronger network of community-based organizations and leaders.

3) Most organizations who affect slave labor outcomes are not interfacing with vulnerable populations every day. Many anti-slavery organizations, for example, produce reports and run advocacy campaigns that address slave labor issues, but they rely on stakeholders closer to the ground (e.g., CPT, IEB, Mauricio Torres) for up-to-date information and community feedback. This bridge between many key stakeholder organizations and communities will need to be further developed.

Organizational structure

In order to effectively and strategically organize and shepherd collaboration amongst a wide array of actors, sectors, and systems, CI efforts use well-defined organizational structures and responsibilities.

Components of organizational structure

Each component of the draft organizational structure in Fig. 8 below carries certain ownership of activities and decision-making powers.

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Figure 8 – Draft organizational structure for a CI effort focused on precious woods / illegal logging

Steering committee: The steering committee is a group comprised of cross-sector partners representative of the relevant ecosystem that provides strategic direction (and holds decision-making authority) for the collective impact initiative and champions its work within the broader ecosystem.

The broad responsibilities of the steering committee are as follows:

Guidance, Vision, and Oversight Develop the Common Agenda for change (problem statement, goal(s), and guiding principles) Use data to inform strategy development and learning Track progress of work using agreed-upon indicators at the initiative and working group levels Make connections among working groups to ensure coordination and efficiency Interact with the backbone entity on strategy, community engagement, and shared

measurement

Leadership Champion of the collective impact effort in the broader community/ target ecosystem

Process Participate in-person (or via telecommunication if in-person participation is not feasible) in

regularly scheduled meetings (every 4-6 weeks) Review pre-read materials prior to meetings and come prepared for engaged discussion, active

listening, and respectful dialogue

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While the early stages of a CI process would work to develop an effective steering committee (which could include balancing the representation of the steering committee across sectors, demographic groups, and issue areas), FSG’s initial research and analysis has identified a few organizations and individuals that could be potential steering committee members. Drawing from the analysis above, those individuals and/or organizations include: Xavier Plassat (CPT), Mauricio Torres (professor at UFOPA), IMAZON, Carlos Barros (Repórter Brasil), Luiz Machado (ILO), Rogenir Costa (CRS), IPAM, ISA, PMV, Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy, Mércia Silva (Instituto InPACTO), Christiane Nogueria (MPT), and André Roston (MTE). While FF has connections with each of the organizations named, there is no clear visibility in terms of who would represent that a respective organization on a CI effort.

The Freedom Fund: As both a subject matter expert and as a funder, the Freedom Fund can play a unique role in providing guidance to both the steering committee and FAC. Depending on how the CI effort develops, the Freedom Fund may play an active role in either the steering committee or as the backbone organization, as tentatively illustrated in Fig. 8 above. In both cases, the Freedom Fund would invest in hiring local staff in Brazil, although their required competencies may differ. The Freedom Fund is also likely to play an active role in coordinating and liaising with the Funder Advisory Committee (FAC) described below, although this could potentially be achieved without investing in local presence. As any future investment ask will be intricately connected with the Freedom Fund’s role, the fund’s placement in the organizational chart requires additional analysis and stakeholder engagement.

Funder Advisory Committee (FAC): This committee helps to address the need for funding by creating an advisory network of interested funders to help support the effort, offering multiple forms of potential engagement over time, as highlighted below:

The opportunity to serve on the funder advisory committee, sharing insights based on prior funding experiences related to the challenges of slave labor, environmental degradation, and land rights, with other interested funders

The potential to coordinate investment with other funders on the common agenda priorities identified by the steering committee

The ability to co-invest with other funders in sustaining the collective impact infrastructure necessary to support the effort, for example by funding actors (e.g., the Freedom Fund) to provide backbone support and/or manage creation and/or coordination of a shared measurement and data system

The option to participate in a pooled fund, whereby funders would donate some amount of capital to support collective impact activities prioritized by the steering committee and/or CI working groups, with funding allocated based on a consensus-driven decision-making process

The committee would meet once every three months to discuss the latest work of the CI effort and funding strategies and activities going forward. Initial research has already identified potential funders who have links to the hotspot strategy, those who have expertise in navigating the Brazilian funder climate, and/or experts on slave labor who could join the FAC. These include:

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IDIS: An expert in the Brazilian and Latin American funding landscape that has a strong portfolio of funders as clients

Instituto C&A: A funder of anti-slavery efforts in the textile industry that could both offer advice to a precious woods-focused effort and potentially provide funding for system-wide activities

The Ford Foundation: A funder of community-based organizations, particularly on land and indigenous rights issues, that could engage both as an advisor and a participant in a pooled fund if there was a clear link between anti-slave labor efforts and its community rights portfolio

Skoll: A funder of entrepreneurial organizations driving large-scale social change, including Imazon, Skoll has some expertise on issues of both collaboration and the Brazilian context; while it might not invest in a pooled fund, it could continue to be an investor in organizations that are involved in a CI effort

Avina: A Latin American funder that has deep expertise in Brazil and an interest in funding collaborative approaches to solving environmental and social problems

Humanity United

While CI-related decision-making (and final authority) would rest with the steering committee, the FAC can provide a wide range of support to the CI effort. Freedom Fund would likely play an active role in coordinating the efforts of the FAC

Working groups: Working groups for this effort would likely fall into two categories, industry-specific and system-wide, although these are grouped together in Fig. 8 for the sake of simplicity. Each of these types of working groups is described in further detail below. Working groups are typically led by a chair or co-chairs from a relevant organization who would also sit on the steering committee. Working group chairs / co-chairs would also work closely with the backbone organization to share their insights on the interventions needed and inform the progress of the effort.

Industry-specific working groups: These working groups will focus on intervention categories that directly link to precious woods and illegal logging. The working groups will meet at the same pace as the steering committee, but this could change depending on the particular activities that are taken up by each respective group. The composition of the working groups could also change over time, depending on the type of activity that is being undertaken. Unlike the steering committee or the FAC, the sector-specific working groups are flexible—as issues change, so can the topic or subject of interest for the working group. Perhaps most importantly, these working groups will be decided upon by the CI effort itself. Stakeholders and member organizations can use this report – particularly intervention categories outlined later in the report – as a starting point for discussion, but the actual development of the working groups and their categories is not intended to be a top-down or outsider-driven process.

System-wide working groups: These working groups will focus on intervention categories that could benefit the anti-slave labor system overall. At present, we envision working groups that would tentatively focus on three areas: knowledge sharing, policy / advocacy, and data. To illustrate this point, here are examples of the types of industry-transcendent activities that these groups could engage in:

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Data: This group would be focused on collating, analyzing, and disseminating a range of relevant data related to this effort and, over time, would be responsible for maintaining a shared measurement system and fostering shared learning and reflection among coalition members. This should also be one of the first working groups launched, in order to increase the quantity and quality of available data and effectively inform the common agenda development process.

Knowledge sharing: A group of organizations that are not directly engaged in precious woods / illegal logging but have experience working to reduce slave labor in other industries could provide strategic advice, resources, and technical expertise to this CI effort; for example, Walmart, which has done extensive work on cleaning up its beef sourcing supply chain, could share its learnings with the broader CI effort

Policy / advocacy: A range of policy and advocacy options, like political advocacy, consumer education, and media campaigns, can affect a number of industries associated with slave labor—not just precious woods and illegal logging. Given that many anti-slave labor mechanisms instituted by the government are now under threat of being weakened (e.g., The Dirty List, the four-pronged definition of slave labor), it is important that the precious woods / illegal logging CI effort work in coordination with existing efforts (in order to avoid duplication) and connect itself to the broader cause of improving anti-slave labor infrastructure.

Like the sector-specific working groups, the system-wide working groups will meet at the same pace as the steering committee, but this could change over time; the composition of the each group could also change as activities change.

Backbone: A backbone entity plays a number of roles in a collective impact effort, including guiding vision and strategy, facilitating steering committee and other working group meetings, establish shared measurement practices, cultivating community engagement and ownership, advancing policy, and mobilizing funding. In the case of precious woods / illegal logging, the backbone will need to prioritize a few of its key roles, especially as the effort launches:

The backbone acts as the support behind the effort, making sure that activities are completed on time, that all steering committee members are well taken care of and that everyone feels like the effort is moving forward at a good pace

The backbone plays a “servant leader” role, ensuring that the effort is successful but not taking credit for any of the work; this credit is shared among the different member organizations

o This role includes regularly communicating with all CI effort members about achievements to date, where the process is currently and what the next steps are

The backbone manages the development of the common agenda, including managing content creation for meetings, shepherding specific actors to the table, and engaging with a wider array of non-CI effort members

A backbone can come from any sector or organization type. While there are some natural backbones who come to mind for this CI effort (e.g., CPT), extensive analysis must be done to understand an organization’s willingness and capacity to take on a backbone role. A backbone must be seen as a

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trustworthy and credible actor, and should have some experience in cross-sectoral engagement and facilitation, which often proves more important than having any particular subject matter expertise.

Location: The CI effort, while centered in a particular part of Pará, does not necessarily have to call that its meeting ground. Given the logistical difficulties of meeting in relatively remote and rural areas in the Amazon and the potential makeup of the CI effort, there are a few options:

1) Meet in the actual area of intervention: While this would benefit frontline organizations, it would make it difficult for other organizations to regularly travel and meet because of cost and time considerations.

2) Meet in a more accessible part of Pará: A central city (with an accessible airport) like Belém would provide for an easier commute for regional or national organizations. However, frontline organizations would see an increase in their costs versus option 1.

3) Meet in Brasilia: Almost all key stakeholders at the national level have a presence in Brasilia. However, this option would significantly increase the costs for frontline organizations and also increase costs for stakeholders who are not based in Brasilia (e.g., IDIS).

Given that the makeup of the CI effort is yet to be determined, the location of the effort should be revisited when there is greater visibility on the membership. This CI effort, given its unique composition (a mix of local, national, and international actors), should be flexible in its choice of location. It could also explore options to meet virtually or conduct longer in-person meetings on a less frequent basis.

What are some possible interventions that the CI effort could pursue?

As referenced previously, a key principle of the CI approach and philosophy is that the common agenda and set of strategies and activities should be defined by the CI effort members themselves, not in a top-down fashion by funders or other outside actors. This can be frustrating for funders accustomed to more traditional, linear approaches in which an effort’s theory of change, strategy, and interventions are all planned from the outset. Yet this tenet of a locally-generated and emergent strategy is crucial to ensure that the CI steering committee and other local stakeholders are empowered to create change, and that the choice of strategic interventions to tackle a specific, complex issue are based on an accurate understanding of the local context while also being adaptive to change on the ground.

That being said, it can still be useful to develop the broad outlines of an intervention strategy and possible activities in order to attract funding, win over skeptical participants, and define an initial set of intervention-specific working groups. This section will present some of the categories of intervention and activities that the CI steering committee and working groups might want to consider during the next phase in launching a CI effort.

Promising intervention points in the illegal logging supply chain

There are a number of intervention points that could serve as entry points for a precious woods / illegal logging CI effort. In order to understand the sector-specific interventions that could occur, high potential interventions were mapped against the precious woods / illegal logging supply chain (Figure 9).

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Figure 9 – Potential intervention points across the precious woods supply chain

The sector-specific intervention categories are as follows:

1) Community activities prior to entry: Communities have the power to resist ‘bad’ industry actors. There are a few bright spots in the Brazilian Amazon of communities banding together to resist the entry of industries and firms that actively recruit and utilize slave labor. 27 Communities that have successfully resisted ‘bad’ actors have undergone local education campaigns, often led by local union leaders, Catholic priests, and school teachers; these have proven effective in warning individuals about the false promises made by gatos and others who recruit on behalf of criminal networks. Those communities have also received external but limited support to help them acquire technology (e.g., navigational sets, laptops) that can help alert authorities and other external stakeholders if ‘bad’ actors start to encroach on community land. Community interventions can also mitigate macro and micro risk factors (e.g., lack of economic opportunity, family pressure to earn income by any means) that contribute to the entry stage of slave labor.

2) Where permit laundering occurs: As alluded to elsewhere in this report, the vast system of illegal logging is upheld by an elaborate scheme of ‘legalization.’ In the first stage, timber companies (buyers / exporters) gain permissions to log legal land from a representative of the Sisfloraiv system. This permission, often referred to as a ‘note’, provides a firm with the right to harvest wood. However, many firms do not harvest in the area that the note is issued in / for; instead, the firms use the ‘legal’ note as cover to harvest in protected areas and then label the illegal harvested wood as ‘legal.’ The note offers cover from scrutiny, and it is the mechanism by which illegal wood is ‘converted’ into legal wood for export. Pushing for change in the note system could lead to dramatic changes in the harvesting of illegal wood as, without a legal note, many international buyers (especially those that are ultimately consumer-facing) would be hesitant to purchase wood from the Amazon. As discussed previously, there are traceability efforts underway that could be leveraged for this CI effort and promising technologies, like DNA testing timber, that could verify the location listed in ‘official’ paperwork.28

3) Downstream pressure: Because the buyers / exporters are known (both in terms of firm identity but also in terms of where they operate), there is potential to apply pressure to the firms and municipalities that are engaged in and profit from the precious woods and illegal logging

iv Sisflora is a system that tracks timber extraction in the Amazon. It is often referred to as a “chain of custody” system.

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industry. Pressure can be placed on both governments and firms using both positive and negative incentives – i.e., a ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ approach.

4) Upstream pressure: MNCs are particularly sensitive to consumer and export government pressure. If illegal logs can be traced from the Amazon to the end consumer, MNCs — and their key stakeholders — will react with enhanced regulation and enforcement. In other documented cases of industry change, consumers and export governments have used a combination of ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ to catalyze MNCs into action.

Intervention categories and examples

Based on the supply chain analysis above, Figs. 10 and 11 provide some examples of intervention categories and activities that the steering committee and working groups may want to consider. In these figures, ‘upstream’ interventions refer to those activities that would occur before products are in transit to a domestic or export market, while ‘downstream’ interventions are those that would occur while products are in transit or after they have arrived at a domestic or export market. It is also worth noting that these interventions have not been thoroughly tested with local stakeholders; they are based upon examples from Brazil and elsewhere, as well as on secondary research and interviewee suggestions. Freedom Fund would want to iterate upon and test these potential approaches with local stakeholders, potentially in advance of the common agenda development process.

Figure 10 – At a glance: CI intervention categories with illustrative activities

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Figure 11 – Deep dive: CI intervention categories and activities

Category Sub-category Activities Examples

1. Community resilience

Community trainings

Teacher trainings – training elementary and high school teachers in vulnerable communities to incorporate slavery awareness and defense of human rights into their curricula

Repórter Brasil’s “Slavery No Way” program has worked with municipal education secretariats in Pará and Maranhão to train ~60 educators, who in turn have trained teachers on slave labor and reached ~35,000 students.29

Community leader trainings – equipping local leaders with tools and know-how to advocate for their human and land rights; helping communities surface their values and experiences of collective actions, with an emphasis on unity and survival.

IEB runs community leadership trainings in villages throughout the Amazon (although exact geographies should be confirmed), focused on empowering community leaders to defend their human and land rights30

Awareness campaigns

Local information dissemination and media campaigns – increasing community awareness of and resilience to recruitment into slave labor through banners, posters, flyers, radio announcements, etc.

CDVDH/CB and CPT’s “Open Your Eyes So You Don’t Become a Slave” program includes the dissemination of posters and other media campaigns – and outreach via unions, churches and community groups

Arts and culture programs – raising awareness of slavery by engaging community members in slavery-themed arts and culture activities

CDVDH/CB runs slavery/resilience-themed dance, theater, and Capoeira programs for youth in vulnerable communities in Maranhão.31

Slavery reporting hotline – creating and publicizing a phone number or website where people can report cases of slave labor.v

The Ministry of Labor has a slavery reporting hotline (“Disque 100”) and website aimed at awareness-raising.32

Development of alternative economic activities

Smallholder agriculture technical assistance – provide technical assistance to vulnerable populations to help them develop alternative sources of income through improved yields

IPAM runs technical assistance programs for smallholder farmers and harvesters in Pará, funded by the Ford and Moore Foundations.33

v Note that one limitation of this strategy is that websites often do not reach those populations that are most likely to be victims of slavery, who often lack internet access; and hotlines are unlikely to be used without the presence of a trusted agency that can put pressure on authorities to respond.

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Category Sub-category Activities Examples

Legal assistance

Legal assistance for reporting of slave labor – providing help navigating the legal system and protection to victims of slavery who want to report labor abuses and arrange official rescues.

CDVDH/CB and CPT, through their “Open Your Eyes So You Don’t Become a Slave” program, provide legal assistance and follow-up to workers who want to report cases of slave labor34

Legal assistance for defense of land rights – providing help navigating the legal system for those who wish to reclaim land they have been cheated out of or do not hold a formal title to; alliances with geo-mapping NGOs to alert community groups to incursions, so they can then arrange verification on the ground and trigger action

IPAM provides assistance to populations in Western Pará who are landless or who live in danger of losing their land.35

Legal assistance and trainings for defense of indigenous rights

CPT provides assistance and trainings for indigenous populations to help them defend their land against illegal loggers and land speculators36

2. Inspection/ Enforcement

Pressure on and support for SEMA that certifies logging inspectors

Human and financial capital to inspect inspectors – i.e., develop an independent team that would periodically inspect inspectors, both randomly and based on suspicion of corruption

A general anti-corruption measure used in other contexts

Salary increases to discourage corruption – provided across the board, along with targeted pay increases to inspectors

A general anti-corruption measure used in other contexts (but more analysis would be need to be done to see if inspectors are underpaid)

A lifetime inspector ban for those caught in / benefiting from corruption

A general anti-corruption measure used in other contexts

Use emerging technologies to test whether incoming wood can be traced to its original source

DNA tracing (tracing wood to its original location) could be a viable technology to use at specific check points

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Category Sub-category Activities ExamplesCompanies draft policies and institute systems to remove ‘bad’ actors from their supply chains – technical and resource support that works with companies to draft policies

Walmart Brazil has developed corporate guidance and formulas to screen any at-risk suppliers from its procurement chain37

Technical assistance to support network for enforcement authorities

Mobile geographical mapping for community-based organizations to alert authorities

Communities of resilience have successfully used technology to trace the movement of firms illegally encroaching on land38

Basic communication tools (e.g., laptops) to whistle when observing slave labor to proper authorities

Frontline organizations have used satellite phones to remain in contact with community leaders who organize and whistle from the ground39

Build rural networks of communities that communicate with each other (and report directly up to mobile inspection teams)

An enhanced collaboration strategy

3. Upstream pressure

Pressure on municipal governments

Carrots: state tax incentives, awards, or rankings to reward municipalities that prevent Dirty List companies from operating in their territory

PMV works with municipalities throughout Pará to bring them into compliance with deforestation guidelines so that they can access state tax incentives and move up in municipal rankings.40

Sticks: Dirty List for municipalities with tax/financing consequences, rankings to shame municipalities that are complicit with or permit Dirty List companies to operate in their territoryvi

Repórter Brasil helps to publicize the Ministry of Labor’s Dirty List (and published their own “transparency list” when the Dirty List was temporarily suspended), and publishes rankings of municipalities by incidence of slavery.

Pressure on Brazilian timber exporters & construction companies

Carrots: highlight increased revenue potential if companies eliminate slave labor from their supply chains and share this with the media and consumers

N/A (no known examples)

vi Note that a drawback of “shaming” non-compliant municipalities is that they could be discouraged from cooperating with anti-slavery efforts; positive reinforcement such as applauding those municipalities that find and deal with cases of slavery could be more effective.

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Category Sub-category Activities ExamplesStick 1: Dirty List that prevents listed companies from accessing public financing, zero-tolerance audits, “naming and shaming”

Repórter Brasil publicizes the Ministry of Labor’s Dirty List and contributes to “naming and shaming” guilty companies in the media

Stick 2: Ban on exports of a particular rare or precious species of wood (e.g. ipe)

Brazil banned virtually all mahogany exports in 2001 after finding that most of the timber had been unlawfully harvested from public and Indian land41

4. Downstream pressure

International pressure on the federal government to better enforce anti-slavery policies

Importing country product monitoring – markets that import wood from Brazil could monitor it for slave labor and ban it until the Brazilian government can prove it is slavery-free

The EU incorporated slave labor into its import monitoring process, which was effective in spurring the Thai government to take action on slavery in their seafood industry42

ILO sanctions – the ILO can impose sanctions on the federal government for not adequately preventing labor abusesvii

The ILO imposed “moral sanctions” on the Brazilian government in 2014 due to their having an insufficient ratio of labor inspectors per worker in Brazil.43

Inter-American Court of Human Rights prosecution – the IACHR can prosecute federal governments for failing to adequately protect human rights

In the 2016 Brasil Verde case, the IACHR held a hearing in Brasilia to determine whether or not the Brazilian government had sufficiently defended the labor rights of victims of slavery on the Brasil Verde ranch in the late 1990s.

Pressure on MNCs (timber importers/retailers

Consumer awareness-raising campaigns – raise awareness of slavery-tainted products for consumers of those products

Greenpeace and ISA have both published a series of reports on slavery and illegal deforestation in the timber and precious woods supply chains in Brazil. ISA reports are in Portuguese and aimed at Brazilian audiences; Greenpeace reports are in English and aimed at international audiences.

vii Note that ILO sanctions are not real sanctions – they are only able to force the government to answer questions about their non-compliance with the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention that Brazil is a signatory to.

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Category Sub-category Activities Examples

Investigative journalism and media exposés – collaborative investigate journalism aimed at exposing companies whose supply chains are tainted with slave labor

Repórter Brasil has a team of investigative journalists that expose labor violations and publish news articles on them; the Guardian published a series of well-timed stories exposing slavery in the seafood industry and naming well-known supermarket chains that sell these seafood products; the New York Times and Associated Press picked up the story soon afterwards to bring it to US audiences.44

Boycotts – organize boycotts of companies whose supply chains are tainted with slave labor or illegal deforestation

n/a

5. Data

Develop centralized data base that stores, updates, and delivers information to key stakeholders

Reach consensus on data methodology and KPIs –cross-sectoral actors should agree on which data to collect and bridge the current variance in data collection methods that exist

Shared measurement outcomes in the textile industry by invested corporations led to actionable targets45

Improve real time data delay by streamlining request for information from MTE

Mentioned by stakeholders involved in rescue missions46

Work with MTE, primary holder of official data, to improve government database and data collection methods

ILO previously designed a database for MTE in 2006, but it needs to be improved and updated47

Sign MOUs to reduce burdens currently involved in accessing data from ‘partner’ organizations

A general best practice for data sharing among organization types

Develop research agenda

Hire a dedicated analyst for slave labor data ILO-funded central database housed by MTE was weakened by lack of technical experts to run and update system48

to improve understanding of traceability in selected industries

Fund proactive research arm

Mentioned by stakeholders as a missing ‘weapon’ in building the slave labor fact base, which means the case that can be made to media, consumers, MNCs, and government agents49

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Category Sub-category Activities Examples

6. Policy / advocacy

Pressure government across a range of policy issues

Continued support for The Dirty List, current definition of slavery

Long-term advocacy by Repórter Brazil, MTE, and MPT led to return of The Dirty List, after its temporary removal by the Brazilian Supreme Court

Advocate for a broader set of tools for public prosecutor, including ability to more easily bring criminal charges

Requested by MPT because civil tools do not go far enough50

Hold leadership liable (not just companies) Requested by MPT because there is rarely accountability at the top of the chain51

Raise consumer awareness Visible, celebrity-led, multiplatform ad campaign Celebrity social media campaign to bring

awareness to slave labor issues52

Build consumer (and therefore citizen) coalitions

Raise slave labor as a political and voting issue, replicating a similar movement to place deforestation as a consumer and citizen issue by Greenpeace53

Develop consumer-facing certifications for ‘clean’ companies

Best practice from industries or movements that have seen change as a result of consumer pressure (e.g., fair trade certification)

The above examples are meant merely as a starting point to spur thinking for the CI effort’s steering committee and working groups. The interventions suggested above could help illustrate to other potential funders the array of mutually-reinforcing actions that a CI effort could undertake to simultaneously accelerate progress in the fight against slave labor and illegal logging. Many of these interventions could also be discussed and prioritized by the CI effort as sector-specific and sector-specific working groups are developed and begin to identify specific activities to be implemented on the ground.

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ConclusionThe potential for a CI approach to accelerate progress on slavery and deforestation is impressive and exciting. There has been significant progress in narrowing the potential scope of such an effort; the hotspot approach has also been further refined from FF’s site visit in 2014 and board review in 2015.

This report indicates that:

The ideal scope for a CI effort is a focus on illegal logging/precious woods in Pará state, with a specific geographic focus on either São Felix do Xingu or the BR-163 corridor

Readiness for CI is strong in terms of local champions and history of collaboration. There are some gaps in sense of urgency and available resources, but these can be overcome with the help of awareness-raising campaigns and funder convenings

A CI effort would be governed by a cross-sector steering committee with stakeholder organizations operating primarily at the local and national levels. System-wide working groups would be centered on three topics (knowledge sharing, policy and advocacy, and data) with a number of sector-specific working groups (potentially focused on the previously mentioned intervention categories). The overall initiative would ideally be supported by a backbone organization and a funder advisory committee.

While it is up to the steering committee to determine the overall strategy of the effort, there is a broad suggested theory of change, an array of starter ideas that the steering committee could consider, within potential activities and accompanying proof points outlined for six different intervention categories. There are also numerous Brazilian and global examples of these types of interventions currently underway.

Next steps for Freedom Fund in pursuing a CI approach

Short-term

Work to answer outstanding questions to inform FF’s overall strategy, including:o Due diligence on FY15 and FY16 slave labor incidence data by municipalities in Paráo Research on the history of collaboration among environmental organizationso Clarifying the number of actors at each level of the precious woods supply chaio Identifying the range of community-based organizations working in target geographies

Re-engage with key stakeholder organizations to test and refine overall strategic focus and to make an initial selection of a target geography from among the shortlisted options

Develop a funding ask that clearly stipulates the role FF would play in a CI effort

Solicit input from FF board members, advisors, and experts on the refined strategic focus and the potential role for FF would play in a CI effort in Brazil

Convene potentially interested funders in Brazil (e.g. in São Paulo or Brasilia) and /or the US (e.g., in SF, NY or DC) to gauge interest in supporting FF and a CI approach in Brazil

Determine the exact mix of vulnerable populations in the geographic area(s) of interest and craft a case study / individual story that effectively illustrates this vulnerability

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Longer-term

Actively recruit local champions to commit to the CI effort

Working with local champions to increase the sense of urgency among environmental NGOs, environmental funders, private sector companies, and consumers

Finalizing a list of steering committee members and other supporting members of the coalition (e.g., members of the funder advisory committee) and securing commitment from them

Holding a series of initial steering committee meetings to determine common agenda, strategy, working groups, and mutually-reinforcing activities

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Appendices

Appendix A: Interviews Conducted

Organization Interviewee name(s) Date(s) TypeInternational and national-level NGOsCatholic Relief Services (CRS) Rogenir Costa 16 May, 30 June SkypeThe Nature Conservancy Helcio de Souza 7 June In-personRepórter Brasil Carlos Barros, Natalia Suzuki 17 May, 10 June Skype, In-personAmazon-based NGOs and actorsCDVDH/CB–Açailandia Fabricia Carvalho 17 May SkypeCentro de Defesa Emaus Celina Hamoy 8 June In-personComissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) Xavier Plassat 20 May, 7 June, 11

JulySkype, in-person

Federal University of Santarém Mauricio Torres 8 June In-personIMAZON Andreia Pinto 9 June In-personIPAM Carlos Pereira 5 June SkypeInstituto Internacional de Eduação Brasileira (IEB)

Henyo Barretto, Maria Jose Gontijo

11 June In-person

Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) Juan Doblas 12 May, 6 June Skype, in-personGovernment agenciesInternational Labor Organization (ILO) Luis Machado 7 June In-personLabor Public Prosecutor (MPT) Christiane Nogueira 6 June In-personMinistry of Labor (MTE) Andre Roston 6 June In-personPMV (Green Municipalities Program, State of Pará)

Juliana Marruas 9 June In-person

Private sector (companies, corporate foundations, and private sector associations)Coca-Cola Brasil Pedro Massa,

Luis Andre Soares5 July Phone

Instituto C&A Nina Best, FernandaNogueira, Marques Casara

10 June, 30 June In-person, Skype

Instituto InPACTO Mercia Silva 31 May, 10 June In-personFundersAvina Foundation Ofelia Ferreira, Paula Ellinger,

Juliana Strobel6 June, 15 June In-person,

SkypeFord Foundation Aurelio Vianna 24 June PhoneFreedom Fund Dan Vexler, Ginny Baumann 12 July PhoneHumanity United Ame Saqiv, Mia Newman 15 June PhoneHumanity United/Vérité Dan Viederman 19 May PhoneInstituto Pará o Desenvolvimento de Investimento Social (IDIS)

Andrea, Paula, Raquel 10 June, 30 June In-person

Inter-American Foundation David Fleischer 20 June PhoneSkoll Foundation Eric Cooperstrom 20 June PhoneUSAID Brazil Christine Pendzich, Alex Alves,

Ana Paula Mendes21 June Phone

OtherPrivate attorney, scholar Leonardo Barbosa 11 July Skype

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Appendix B: Glossary and Acronyms List

Acronym Name (Portuguese)

Name(English) Description

BNDES Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento

National Bank of Development

Brazil’s official development bank, which is the source of subsidized loans for the majority of Brazilian business investments, including for agribusiness

BR-163 n/a n/a A federal highway that extends 3,467 kilometers from São Miguel do Oeste in Santa Catarina to Santarém, Pará

CBO n/a Community-based organization

A public or private nonprofit (including a church or religious entity) working at a local level that is representative of a community or a significant segment of a community

CDVDH/CB

Centro para a Defesa da Vida e dos Direitos Humanos/Carmen Bascarán

Center for the Defense of Life and Human Rights/Carmen Bascarán

A non-profit, historically funded by Spanish donors, based in Açailândia, Maranhão, that runs the “Open Your Eyes So You Don’t Become a Slave” with CPT and organized slavery/resilience-themed dance, theater, and Capoeira programs for youth in vulnerable communities

CI n/a Collective Impact An approach developed by FSG that consists of a commitment of a group of cross-sector actors to a common agenda for solving a complex social problem

CONATRAE

Confederação Nacional da Eradicação do Trabalho Escravo

National Confederation of the Eradication of Slave Labor

A cross-sector collaboration headed by the Secretariat of Social Development, with participation from a wide array of government agencies, unions, and NGOs, focused on eradicating slavery in Brazil

CPT Commissão Pastoral da Terra

Pastoral Land Commission

An NGO affiliated with the Catholic Church, founded in 1975 to defend land, labor, indigenous, and human rights among rural populations in the Amazon.

CRS n/a Catholic Relief Services

An international humanitarian agency of the Catholic church, based in the US and with an annual budget of ~$700 million. In Brazil, CRS primarily funds CPT, Repórter Brasil, and IIEB.

FAC Funder Advisory Committee

A committee that forms part of a CI effort and addresses the need for funding by creating an advisory network of interested funders

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Acronym Name (Portuguese)

Name(English) Description

FASE Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional

Federation of Organizations for Social and Educational Assistance

An NGO based in Rio de Janeiro and founded in 1961, focused on organized labor and local community development.

FF n/a Freedom Fund A philanthropic initiative based in the UK, designed to bring strategic and financial resources to the fight against modern slavery.

FSG n/a n/a (originally stood for Foundation Strategy Group)

A mission-driven consulting firm for leaders in search of large-scale, lasting social change. Providing a combination of customized services, ideas, and learning communities, FSG helps foundations, businesses, nonprofits, and governments around the world accelerate progress.

IBAMA Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis

Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources

A semi-autonomous government agency, linked to the Environment Ministry, focused on environmental conservation and regulation of natural resources.

IDIS Instituto do Desenvolvimento de Investimento Social

Institute for the Development of Social Investment

A consulting firm based in São Paulo that helps Brazilian companies, foundations, and private individuals forge partnerships and develop social programs.

IEB Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasileira

International Institute of Brazilian Education

A non-profit headquartered in Brasilia focused on training community leaders and organizations on natural resource and land management and other sustainability themes

ILO n/a International Labor Organization

A United Nations agency headquartered in Geneva that deals with labor issues, particularly international labor standards, social protection, and universal work opportunities.

IPAM Amazônia

Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia

Environmental Research Institute of the Amazon

A scientific NGO focused on a sustainable development of the Amazon that also generates economic prosperity and advances social justice

ISA Instituto Socioambiental

Socioenvironmental Institute

An NGO founded in 1994 focused on providing comprehensive solutions to social and environmental problems and defending human rights

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Acronym Name (Portuguese)

Name(English)

Description

MNC n/a Multinational Corporation

A large public or private company that operates in multiple countries outside of the country in which it is headquartered

MPT Ministério Público do Trabalho

Labor Public Prosecutor

A body of independent public prosecutors at the federal level (separate from the three branches of government) in charge of supervising and enforcing labor laws.

MTE Ministério do Trabalho e Previdência Social

Ministry of Labor and Social Security

A cabinet-level federal ministry focused on labor, employment, and social security. It houses the mobile inspection teams that investigate reports of slave labor

NGO n/a Non-governmental organization

A not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations

PMV Programa Municipios Verdes

Green Municipalities Program

A program led by the state of Pará, in partnership with IBAMA, the state Environmental Secretariat, and the Public Prosecutor that is focused on working with the state’s municipalities to fight deforestation and promote sustainable rural development

RAICE Rede de Ação Integrada Pará o Combate à Escrividão

Network of Integrated Action for the Combatting of Slavery

A partnership started in 2014 between CPT and CDVDH/CB Açailândia focused on understanding and reducing the vulnerability of migrant workers to recruitment into slave labor

SEMA Secretaria de Estado do Meio Ambiente

State Secretariat of the Environment

A state-level agency affiliated with the Federal Ministry of the Environment charged with setting and enforcing environmental policy in a state. SEMA is also responsible for certifying environmental inspectors

TNC n/a The Nature Conservancy

An international environmental NGO, founded in 1961 and operating in 69 countries, focused on environmental conservation

UFOPA Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará

Federal University of Western Pará

A public university, part of the federal university system, that is based in Santarém, Pará

WG n/a Working group A group of stakeholders that forms part of a CI effort that is focused on a particular issue area or intervention and

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receives guidance from and reports to the CI steering committee

Endnotes

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1 Kevin Bales. Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. 2016.2 Walk Free3 Reuters article4 Interview with Leonardo Barbosa, 11 July 2016.5 Kania, John, Mark Kramer, and Patty Russell. “Strategic Philanthropy for a Complex World.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2014.6 Soares, Victor. “Brazil Protects the Amazon” World Bank. 9 October 2013.7 Kevin Bales. Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World. 2016.8 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.9 “The Amazon’s Silent Crisis: Night Terrors.” Greenpeace, October 2014. Available online here.10 Instituto Socioambental, Rotas do Saque: Violações e ameaças à integridade territorial da Terra do Meio (PA), 2015.11 Interviews with Juan Doblas, Instituto Socioambiental, 12 May and 6 June, 2016.12 Comissão Pastoral da Terra, Trabalho Escravo no Brasil: Recuo dos Números, Aumento das Preocupações, May 2016.13 Interview with Xavier Plassat, 20 May, 2016.14 Interview with Celina Hamoy, Centro de Defesa Emaus, 8 June 2016.15 Interview with Carlos Juliano Barros and Natália Suzuki, Repórter Brasil, 10 June 2016.16 Interview with Juan Doblas, ISA, 6 June 2016.17 Interview with Celina Hamoy, Centro de Defesa Emaus, 8 June 2016.18 “Faculdades in Marabá – PA,” Faculdades Já, Available URL: http://faculdadesja.com.br/faculdades/principais-cidades/maraba-pa , accessed 7 July 2016.19 Repórter Brasil, Amazônia: Trabalho Escravo + Dinâmicas Correlatas, 2015, p. 5.20 Interview with André Roston, Ministry of Labor, 6 June 2016.21 Repórter Brasil, Amazônia: Trabalho Escravo + Dinâmicas Correlatas, 2015, p. 5.22 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.23 Interview with Aurelio Vianna, Ford Foundation, 24 June 2016.24 Interview with Carlos Juliano Barros and Natália Suzuki, Repórter Brasil, 10 June 2016.25 André Borges, “Em emboscada, madeireiros matam policial que atuava com Ibama no Pará,” O Estado de São Paulo, 18 June 2016.26 Stakeholder Analysis Guidelines. (undated) Kammi Schmeer. Available online here.27 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.28 Will Henley, “Tracking timber: could new technology help clean up the supply chain?” The Guardian, 14 August 2015, available URL: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/tracking-timber-new-technology-supply-chain, accessed on 13 July 2016. 29 Interview with Carlos Barros and Natália Suzuki, Repórter Brasil, 17 May 2016.30 Interview with Rogenir Costa, CRS, 16 May 2016.31 Interview with Fabrícia Carvalho, CDVDH/CB, 17 May 2016.32 Ministry of Labor, “Trabalho em Situação Análogo à Escravidão,” available URL: http://mtps.gov.br/trabalhoescravonao/, accessed 9 July 2016. 33 Interview with Cassio Pereira, IPAM, 27 May 2016.34 Interview with Fabrícia Carvalho, CDVDH/CB, 17 May 2016.35 Interview with Cassio Pereira, IPAM, 27 May 2016.36 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.37 Interview with Mercia Silva, Instituto InPACTO, 10 June 2016.38 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.39 Interview with Mauricio Torres, 8 June 2016.

40 Interview with Juliana Marruas, PMV, 9 June 2016.41 Jonathan Karp and Miriam Jordan, “U.S. Ports Detain Brazilian Mahogany In Response to Brazil's Ban on Exports,” Wall Street Journal, 29 March 2002, available URL: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1017355903982827280, accessed on 13 July 2016.42 Interview with Ame Sagiv and Mia Newman, Humanity United, 16 June 2016.43 Stefano Wrobleski, “Número de fiscais do trabalho despenca e MPT aciona Justiça Pará garantir contratações,” 27 June 2014, availlable URL: http://reporterbrasil.org.br/2014/06/numero-de-fiscais-do-trabalho-despenca-e-mpt-aciona-justica-Pará-garantir-contratacoes/, accessed 9 July 2016. 44 Interview with Ame Sagiv and Mia Newman, Humanity United, 16 June 2016.45 Interview with Nina Best, Instituto C&A, 10 June 2016.46 Interview with Xavier Plassat, CPT, 9 June 2016.47 Interview with Luiz Machado, ILO, 7 June 2016. 48 Ibid.49 Interview with Carlos Barros and Natália Suzuki, Repórter Brasil, 17 May 2016.50 Interview with Christiane Nogueira, MPT, 7 June 2016.51 Ibid.52 Interview with Ofelia Ferreira, Avina, 6 June 2016.53 Ibid.