Sign Below by September 3
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