Banks are directly financing the fossil fuel industry and their dollars are also literally clear cutting the world’s rainforests for the production of palm oil, paper and pulp and soy. It’s a double whammy on the climate and a triple danger for Indigenous and frontline communities. That’s why RAN is ramping up the pressure on some of the world’s largest banks and financiers.
Brands and banks are responsible for driving the destruction of rainforests, the violation of human rights, our worsening climate crisis, and the extinction of entire species — all to make a quick profit from commodities like palm oil, soy, cocoa, pulp and paper, beef, and timber We must hold them to account and put an end to the devastation.
Some of the brands and products on our grocery store shelves are directly tied to rainforest destruction. The corporations making a profit from commodities like palm oil, pulp and paper, soy, cocoa, timber, and meat are causing deforestation around the world.
Tropical forests do not burn by themselves — Big Agribusiness is setting the fires intentionally, as it’s the cheapest way to clear new land for palm oil, pulp and paper, soy, and beef. But they need the cash from the world’s mega banks and investors like fire needs oxygen — to defend our forests we need to defund the fires.
Half the people in the world have bank accounts — but what are the banks doing with all that cash? Banks have been financing fossil fuels for decades, but most people don’t realize that they’re also bankrolling forest destruction. Their dollars are literally fueling the clear cutting of the world’s rainforests for palm oil, pulp and paper, soy and beef. That’s why we must stop the funding of forest destruction.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics and its corruption scandals are directly tied to rainforest destruction: The Games’ timber supplier Korindo was “allegedly engaged in questionable deals” as they bought up rainforests in Indonesia to harvest timber and develop palm oil plantations. But to date, the Tokyo 2020 organizers have failed to disclose how much Korindo wood they used, rejected six complaints we brought against them over their use of Korindo wood, and only partially disclosed where the wood was sourced from.
Within Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt, exploitative and destructive palm oil plantation industry, it takes a high degree of well documented bad behavior to stand out among the worst of the worst. But PT. Kallista Alam (PT KA), a palm oil company operating in the Aceh Province of Sumatra, is such a bad actor…
Nestlé, Mondelēz and Mars are failing to prevent the burning of rainforests and tropical deforestation for Conflict Palm Oil in elephant habitat within Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem =>
Breaking News: Kellogg announces stronger Palm Oil and Deforestation Policies including precedent-setting protections for human rights defenders and a commitment to forest restoration!
Tens of thousands of people depend on the intact forests of the Leuser Ecosystem and the area is rife with looming threats and unresolved conflicts between local communities and rogue palm oil plantation operators. The expansion of palm oil plantation companies has harmed community livelihoods by damaging local resources, including agricultural land such as rice fields, and has brought terror, intimidation and criminalization into the lives of local community members.
