AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 30 April 2026 – Greenpeace Netherlands has taken step one in the direction of authorized motion in opposition to meat big JBS, demanding disclosure of knowledge on its local weather, nature and human rights impacts as a way to problem in court docket its enterprise insurance policies, together with its deliberate US$6 billion world growth, of which just about half is for Nigeria.
Simply hours later, Greenpeace Netherlands activists shut down JBS’ first shareholder assembly within the Netherlands since relocating to the nation final yr. Activists from throughout Europe disrupted the assembly on the Sheraton Lodge at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, putting in a banner bearing the slogan ‘JBS: Hold Your Bloody Enterprise Out of Africa’, which rained faux blood over the doorway to the lodge.
Contained in the lodge, a 10m x 15m banner that includes JBS’ majority shareholders, Brazilian billionaires Joesley and Wesley Batista, was unveiled within the 8-story lodge atrium. Activists then entered the convention room the place the assembly was going down, resulting in the suspension of the assembly.
Elizabeth Atieno, Meals Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, mentioned: “The expansion of JBS’ meat empire has been hand-in-glove with environmental destruction, colossal emissions, human rights scandals, corruption, and an absence of transparency. Now it plans to export this enterprise mannequin to different sub-Saharan Africa international locations. In addition to locking-in spiralling emissions for many years to return, JBS’ growth in Nigeria threatens to trigger irreversible environmental harm and displace smallholder farmers to line the pockets of rich worldwide elites.
“Nigerians know effectively from the legacy of corporations like Shell the damaging influence wrought by unchecked company energy. This authorized intervention affirms that firms have obligations to transparency and human rights regardless the place they function on this planet. The time of extractive industries working with impunity on this continent is over. We should cease this new wave of destruction earlier than it begins.”
In a authorized letter delivered to the Amsterdam headquarters of JBS mum or dad firm JBS N.V. this morning, Greenpeace Netherlands’ legal professionals set out a number of alleged breaches by JBS of Dutch legislation stemming from the in depth emissions and lengthy historical past of environmental harm and human rights abuses linked to its enterprise. JBS’ growth plans threat additional exacerbating these harms, it argues, elevating critical issues that growth might be inconsistent with the corporate’s local weather and biodiversity obligations and signify a continued breach of Dutch obligation of care, which requires corporations to behave in step with worldwide human rights legislation. [1]
Underneath new laws that enables entry to information held by Dutch corporations for the aim of bringing litigation, the letter calls for that JBS disclose inside three weeks assessments it holds regarding the local weather, nature and human rights impacts of its historic operations and its deliberate growth. Ought to the corporate fail to conform, Greenpeace Netherlands is entitled to hunt the required data within the type of paperwork and from senior JBS figures beneath oath, elevating the prospect of the Batista brothers being compelled to testify in Dutch court docket.
Marieke Vellekoop, Govt Director at Greenpeace Netherlands, mentioned: “JBS was warned that if it introduced its bloody enterprise to the Netherlands, we might do all the things in our energy to make sure it complies with Dutch legislation. As we speak, we’re following by way of on that promise.
“JBS’ six billion greenback world growth is following its standard playbook: peddling empty guarantees, refusing transparency and sidelining communities. Greenpeace Netherlands’ modern authorized intervention forces JBS out of the shadows, exposing its historic and ongoing damaging impacts and laying the bottom for a primary main local weather and nature lawsuit in opposition to the predatory growth of the worldwide meat business.“
In November 2024, JBS introduced an settlement with the federal government of Nigeria for US$ 2.5 billion funding over 5 years comprising the development of six meat-processing crops.[2] Civil society teams in Nigeria have raised critical issues, citing environmental, well being, and social dangers related to industrial animal farming, which is but to ascertain a foothold in Africa.[3]
“We’ve got seen this earlier than,” mentioned Elujulo Opeyemi, Govt Director at Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Community (YARN), on behalf of Nigeria’s Local weather Justice Motion. “A international firm arrives with massive guarantees: jobs, improvement, progress, and as a substitute leaves a path of destruction whose worth communities pay for many years. The Niger Delta is our reminder of what occurs when governments open the door to damaging firms with out asking the laborious questions first. We’re asking these questions now, and we anticipate solutions earlier than a single plant is constructed.”
There isn’t any accessible proof that JBS has carried out any environmental and social influence assessments or consultations with communities and different stakeholders in Nigeria, and efforts by civil society to assemble extra data through Freedom of Info requests have reportedly been ignored.[4] Final month, Greenpeace Africa submitted an amicus curiae transient earlier than the African Court docket on Human and Peoples’ Rights arguing that permitting multinational firms to broaden with out significant environmental safeguards constitutes a failure of the State’s obligation to guard human rights. The transient factors particularly to JBS’ Nigeria growth for example.
In June 2025, JBS concluded a decade-long effort to checklist shares on the New York Inventory Trade. As a part of the itemizing, JBS reconstituted as a Dutch firm, transferring its headquarters from Sao Paulo to Amsterdam. Earlier than the itemizing, Greenpeace Worldwide warned JBS shareholders that it will ‘do its half to verify JBS operates inside Dutch legislation’.
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