The Hidden Price of Luxury: Coach Handbags Linked to Amazon Deforestation

Pará state in Brazil’s north is set to host COP30 in November this year, and yet it stands as a testament to environmental destruction. This vast expanse of 1.25 million sq km has lost more forest than any other Brazilian state—18.6 million hectares vanished between 2001 and 2024, nearly twice Portugal's entire landmass. The scale of illegal activity is startling: authorities found that 91% of Amazon deforestation in the year to July 2024 was executed without permission.

Cattle ranching has been driving this devastation. Research shows over 90% of cleared Amazon land gets converted to pasture, and the hides from these operations boost ranching profits while shaping Brazil's cattle industry. Roughly 80% of Brazilian leather is destined for markets abroad, much of it carrying the hidden costs of forest destruction.

This story is told by the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory in devastating detail. Land grabbers have invaded this 7,738 sq km homeland of the Parakanã people, turning it into the Amazon's most deforested Indigenous territory. Between 2008 and 2023, encroachers cleared 476 sq km of forest—more than New York City's area. During Jair Bolsonaro's presidency, when land grabbing saw an upswing, Apyterewa suffered worse deforestation than any other indigenous territory in Brazil for four straight years.

Federal prosecutors uncovered the gameplan behind this destruction in 2024. Their investigation uncovered falsified animal transport permits designed to hide where cattle actually came from. After searching properties, examining land titles and bank records, prosecutors found that 47,200 cattle had been illegally raised inside Apyterewa between 2012 and 2022. They filed lawsuits against 33 ranchers and two companies for buying cattle from farms within the territory.

Earthsight investigators traced where these cattle ended up. More than 40% of the targeted ranchers sold animals to Frigol plants in Pará between 2020 and 2023. The numbers are significant: over 17,000 cattle, enough to produce 425 tonnes of hides. "This investigation highlights the threat that illegal livestock farming and its derived products pose to the rights of Indigenous peoples to the land they occupy," said Federal Prosecutor Márcio de Figueiredo Machado Araújo.

The system operates through "cattle laundering"—moving animals from illegal ranches to supposedly clean farms before slaughter. Frigol monitors its direct suppliers and some first-tier indirect suppliers but admits it cannot trace the full web of cattle movements. Company documents suggest one-third of cattle from its monitored indirect suppliers failed to meet environmental and social standards. This opacity creates perfect conditions for illegal cattle to enter supply chains serving luxury fashion brands, with Brazilian leather eventually adorning handbags sold in European boutiques.

The transformation of Brazilian hides into "Italian leather" reveals how geographical branding can obscure environmental crimes. Italy, the world's leading producer of finished leather apparel, imported 16,516 tonnes of leather from Pará between 2020 and 2023—representing 99% of the state's leather exports to Europe.

Durlicouros, Brazil's largest leather exporter to Europe, dominates this trade, accounting for 90% of hides shipped from Pará to Italy during this period. The company sources hides from Frigol, a relationship evidenced by social media accounts and confirmed in correspondence with Earthsight. Nearly a quarter of Durlicouros's leather exports to Italy were purchased by just two Veneto region tanneries: Conceria Cristina, owned by Gruppo Peretti, and Faeda.

Undercover Earthsight investigators, posing as interested buyers, confirmed that both tanneries supply leather to Coach. In a revealing meeting with Gruppo Peretti, a Conceria Cristina representative disclosed that Coach regularly uses hides from Brazil.

The investigation exposes how luxury fashion's exposure to Brazilian leather extends far beyond Coach. Fendi, owned by LVMH, Chloé, and Hugo Boss all purchase leather from both Italian tanneries. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Kering Group's Balenciaga and Gucci are among Faeda's clients, whilst Saint Laurent sources from Conceria Cristina.

When confronted with Earthsight's findings, the responses from these luxury brands showed a distinct pattern of inadequate oversight. Kering Group and Fendi claimed their contractual agreements ensure hides don't come from Brazil, but provided no details of verification methods, appearing to rely solely on supplier assurances. Hugo Boss admitted it had no existing system to monitor leather origins and only launched an investigation after receiving Earthsight's findings.

Chanel said it ended its partnership with Faeda at the beginning of 2024 because the tannery no longer met the brand's traceability requirements—an admission that the supplier was previously inadequate. Chloé was an exception—the brand has robust verification methods, requiring transaction records and purchase orders whilst employing third-party auditors and isotopic testing to verify leather origins.

What these facts show is that the “sustainable marketing” of luxury brands often masks inadequate supply chain oversight. This leaves consumers unknowingly complicit in environmental destruction and Indigenous rights violations in faraway lands while paying premium prices for products marketed as ethical and sustainable. Consumers get done both ways.

The investigation exposes fundamental flaws in industry certification schemes, particularly the LWG, which certifies companies throughout this leather supply chain. Despite Frigol's involvement in multiple investigations into illegal cattle ranching, seven of Durlicouros's eight processing facilities across Brazil hold LWG Gold ratings, including its unit in Pará.

Coach's sustainability claims heavily rely on LWG certification—about 77% of its leather goods and 99% of footwear were made from certified tanneries as of January 2022. The brand has committed to sourcing at least 90% of its leather from LWG Silver or Gold-rated tanneries by 2025. Similar commitments exist across the luxury sector: Fendi sources all its leather from LWG-certified suppliers, and Louis Vuitton uses 97% certified leather.

The Earthsight investigation says that there’s a loophole here: LWG certification provides no guarantee against deforestation or rights violations. It only certifies tanneries, manufacturers, and traders, offering no assurances about environmental or social standards at slaughterhouses or cattle ranches. Moreover, tanneries aren't required to trace supply chains to ranch level. So, LWG certification is no guarantee that leather didn't originate from deforested or stolen lands. Even LWG itself has admitted to Earthsight that its certification isn't intended to provide such guarantees.

This certification veneer risks obstructing genuine progress towards deforestation-free supply chains by affording brands an image of sustainability and at the same time misleading consumers into believing they're making ethical choices. It reduces customer-driven pressure for meaningful action whilst allowing environmental destruction to continue unchecked.

Some believe that Europe's regulatory response offers hop. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) proposes to ban leather and other goods produced illegally or on land deforested after 31 December 2020 from entering EU markets. This regulation requires companies to conduct due diligence proving products didn't originate from deforested land and were made in compliance with producer country laws. For leather companies, this means tracing cattle through every ranch where they've lived, back to their farm of origin.

The EUDR's enforcement has been delayed by one year to January 2026, providing the leather industry with an opportunity to clear up matters. In the UK, the Environment Act 2021 seeks similar protections but remains unimplemented due to absent secondary legislation.