RIO DE JANEIRO — H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, announced Thursday that it had stopped purchasing leather from Brazil over concerns that the country’s cattle industry has contributed to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

The announcement of the temporary ban is the second to hit Brazil after a spike in rainforest fires this year drew global outcry. Last week, VF Corporation, which includes international brands like Timberland and The North Face, announced a temporary suspension of purchases of Brazilian leather, until its suppliers could prove they weren’t connected to any environmental harm.

Nearly 50,000 fires have been detected in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year — the highest number in almost a decade. While fires happen every year during the dry season, as farmers and land grabbers clear trees to grow crops or graze cattle, the spike coincides with new policies by President Jair Bolsonaro that have encouraged greater access to protected lands.

Though it is unclear how much of the leather exported by Brazil is linked to Amazon deforestation, researchers connect much of it to the forest being cut down for pasture. A 2016 report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization linked 80 percent of deforestation in the country to cattle grazing.