⁍ Many of the world’s biggest financial institutions are ‘fuelling’ deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by failing to set clear policies to stop the damage, a forest conservation group said.

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⁍ Major institutional investors that lack zero-deforestation policies include Aberdeen Standard Investments, Legal and General Investment Management, Amundi Asset Management and Candriam Investors Group.

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⁍ In September 2019, 251 investors, collectively managing nearly $18 trillion in assets, signed a statement urging companies to do their part in halting destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

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– A year after 251 of the world’s biggest investors called on companies to do something to stop the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, only 21 of those companies have zero-deforestation policies in place, according to a report released Thursday. “The financial sector is fuelling deforestation in Brazil through their investments in companies in beef and soy supply chains,” Global Canopy executive director Niki Mardas tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The report found that 12 investment firms, including Legal and General Investment Management, Amundi Asset Management, and Candriam Investors Group, have zero-deforestation policies for timber, palm oil, or both but not for soy and cattle, despite the latter being the main drivers of deforestation in Brazil. Just 21 of the 251 investors who signed the September 2019 statement have zero-deforestation policies for all forest-risk commodities in their portfolios, including BNP Paribas, DNB Asset Management, HSBC, and Storebrand Group. “The critical thing is that investors engage with companies to address the issue,” Mardas says. “Investors should consider disinvestment in cases where engagement has failed.” (The Amazon is experiencing its worst rash of fires in 10 years.)