By Gabriel Elizondo in Maraba, Brazil
The expansion of Brazil's cattle industry is widely regarded as being one of the greatest single threats to the Amazon rainforest.
Now, environmentalists say deforestation in the fragile region, and consequently climate change, are set to worsen following the World Bank's sponsorship of a major loan to Brazil's second-largest beef processors.
The criticism comes after the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, lent Bertin Ltda $90m last year to expand and modernise its beef processing and slaughterhouse operations.
The IFC's own pre-loan analysis called the loan "significant" because the effects could prove to be "irreversible and/or unprecedented".
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