Earthsight: Better Cotton Community Engagement Report Summary and Action Plan Update

In April 2024, Better Cotton was the focus of a report, published by the environmental non-profit, Earthsight, which highlighted issues in the cotton industry of Brazil’s Matopiba region.

Better Cotton commissioned an independent consultant¹ to investigate potential non-compliances on selected farms². We subsequently published our statement and summary of findings, which did not detect any breach of the Better Cotton Standard on the licensed farms in question.

In June 2024, Better Cotton was notified that Earthsight would release a “second output”. This specific content was not shared with Better Cotton. Instead, Earthsight contacted us prior to its release for clarity on various points which we have detailed in this document.

In August 2024, Better Cotton received the Community Engagement Report from Imaflora, the independent consultant it had hired to conduct this study. In this document we summarise their findings and how they will inform our action plan.

To reiterate, we welcome scrutiny from civil society organisations. Reports like Earthsight’s help identify instances where improvements can be made. We once again extend an invite to Earthsight to engage with us to learn more about our standard system and the approach we take at field level.

Our mission is to help cotton communities survive and thrive while protecting and restoring the environment, thereby delivering progressive, measurable improvements at field level. Our model focuses on impact, scale and industry uptake to enable all cotton farmers to transition to more sustainable production.

We recognise that challenges exist in many of the countries in which we operate. It is only with action and perseverance in the most challenging circumstances for cotton farming that transformative change at scale can be made, and we are proud of the progress we have helped deliver globally with our dedicated network of partners and members.

In the spirit of transparency, the document below contains further details on our action plan, clarifications and follow-up explanations to our previously issued statement, as well as information about elements of the Better Cotton Standard System.

1. Peterson was commissioned to conduct an investigation that would assess potential non-compliances against the Better Cotton and ABR standards, while exploring broader issues pervasive within Brazil’s cotton sector and their scope for impact on Better Cotton licensed farms.
2. There are currently 33 farms licensed by Better Cotton for these two groups, but of these, only three were licensed by Better Cotton during the timeframes in question.

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