Open Letter from Civil Society to the Global Finance Community

The Amazon is on fire. Investors share the blame. They need to become part of the solution.

The primary blame for the current burning of the Amazon is being placed, rightly, on the violent, regressive and racist administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has explicitly encouraged illegal miners and ranchers to set fire to the lungs of the earth. But reckless multinational businesses’ exploitative practices created these conditions – and these same companies will likely be poised to profit as today’s fires opens up the door for tomorrow’s plantations and ranches.

These companies do not act alone: behind them are the banks and institutional investors that provide the credit and equity financing that enables their operations and drives massive deforestation: institutions like BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, Santander, BNP Paribas, HSBC and countless others. These financiers do not only enable the destruction of our forests – they profit from it.

The fate of the Amazon is the fate of the world. Today we call on you, the banks and institutional investors that provide debt and equity financing, to use your money, which in many cases is our money, to directly challenge Bolsonaro’s destructive agenda in Brazil.

We call on you to immediately suspend all financing to agribusiness firms active in the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado until and unless you can take longer term, systemic actions to:

* Require all agribusiness companies with whom you do business to ensure public traceability of supply chains to the point of origin and commit to ending deforestation in their supply chains.

* Require all agribusiness companies with whom you do business to publicly disclose ESG risks related to deforestation and land rights, including any investigations, indictments or fines issued for deforestation and/or land grabbing.

* Require all agribusiness companies with whom you do business to adopt and implement a zero tolerance policy for violence against environment and human rights defenders.

* Adopt a due diligence policy, including a transparent stakeholder engagement mechanism, to monitor agribusiness companies operating in sensitive forest ecosystems for any evidence of deforestation, and take immediate action to suspend business in cases of non-compliance.

* Require all agribusiness companies to audit supply chains for operations on legally-recognized indigenous territories and/or in areas in which indigenous peoples are fighting for legal territorial recognition, and exclude these companies from portfolios.

* Support shareholder resolutions and public policy efforts that advance supply chain transparency, respect for human rights, native ecosystem protections, and compliance with the Paris Climate Accord.

If you are a bank extending credit to agribusiness interests domiciled in or active in Brazil and you cannot take these actions – it’s time to cancel your loans.

If you are an institutional investor holding shares in companies with operations in the Amazon or the Cerrado and you cannot take these actions – it’s time to divest.

Fiduciary duty means putting out the fires. To put out the fires, cut off the fuel. Defund Deforestation!



Add your name to the list below



Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth, U.S.

Mathew Jacobson, Mighty Earth

Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch

Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity

Jake Schmidt, Natural Resources Defense Council

Salih Booker, Center for International Policy

Ginger Cassady, Rainforest Action Network  

Michael Brune, Sierra Club

Anna Wallin, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening

James Whitehead, Forest Peoples Programme

Marc Ona Essangui, Brainforest

Sylvain Angerand, Canopée

Electa Sevier, Mothers Out Front

Reinhard Behrend, Rettet den Regenwald

Dena Blumenthal, The Humane League

Richard Michel, Climate Reality

Fatah Sadaoui, SumOfUs

André-Yanne Parent, The Climate Reality Project Canada

Masja  Helmer, Both ENDS

Susan Power, Al-Haq

Tara Thornton, Endangered Species Coalition

Anja Dragomirović, Center for Environment

RL Miller, Climate Hawks Vote

Chuck Willer, Coast Range Association

Charity Ryerson, Corporate Accountability Lab

Michelle Cook, Divest Invest Protect

Daniel Cerqueira, Due Process of Law Foundation

Meg  Sheehan, EcoLawDefenders

Aryenish Birdie, Encompass

Thomas  Wheeler, Environmental Protection Information Center

Emily Goldman, ESG Transparency Initiative

Martin Luiga, Estonian Forest Aid

Matt BUtler, Everyone Orchestra

Shona Cattan, Extinction Rebellion

Erin Eberle, Farm Forward

Paul Hughes, FORESTS FOREVER

Randy Hayes, Foundation Earth  

Eva Altepost, FOUR PAWS  

Phil White, Grounded

Caroline Mordaunt, Healer

Carlos Matías  Callegari, Hospital Alemán  

Juliette Majot, IInstitute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Heather Rosmarin, InterAmerican Clean Energy Institute

Alexandre Andrade Sampaio, International Accountability Project  

Margaret Zhou, International Rivers

Kimberly  Baker , Klamath Forest Alliance

Michael Dotson, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center

Dhanada Mishra, KMBB

Max Klose, LANUV NRW

Colombe Nadeau-O'Shea, Mercy For Animals

Tim Hermach, Native Forest Council

Jonathan Westin, New York Communities for Change (NYCC)

Rebecca  Cramer, Northland Sustainable Solutions

Peter Schurman, One Global Democracy

Alexander Lee, Project Laundry List

Andreas Missbach, Public Eye

Michael Kellett, RESTORE: The North Woods Inc

Carol Hautau, Salem Alliance for the Environment

Sarah Killer, Sama Sanctuary

Lúcia Gomes Pereira, Sinergia Animal

Nicholas Smith, Tech Five

Nigel Pitman, The Field Museum

Alicia Rodriguez, The Land and Sea Institute

Jordan Abhold, TransChance Health

Carolina Urrutia, Transforma  

Carlos Nobre, USP

Thomas Peter Mygind, Valk Solutions

elena KRAGULJ, Viaje a la Sostenibilidad

Jesse Kocher, Walk Score

Osprey Orielle Lake, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

flavia broffoni, XR

Marion Aechter-Droege, Frauenkraft