Over the last decade, hundreds of major global brands and banks have been pressured to make public commitments to stop deforestation, peatland development and address human rights abuses in supply chains, investments and fnancing portfolios.
Over 400 companies in the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), along with major European and US banks in the Banking Environment Initiative and Soft Commodities Compact, committed to achieving zero net deforestation by 2020.
All have missed the mark.
And despite collective commitments made in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to halt deforestation by 2020—and in the New York Declaration on Forests to center Indigenous Peoples and local communities in any efforts to protect, restore and manage forests—communities continue to have their rights disregarded, while land and environmental defenders face increasing violence and criminalization.
The failure of brands and banks to effectively implement their commitments is contributing to ongoing human rights abuses and the growing climate and biodiversity crises.
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) recently launched a report “Keep Forests Standing”, a campaign that holds corporate responsibility to stop deforestation and the expansion of the forestry and plantation industries into the last tropical forests.
This report profles ten multinational brands, seven major banks, and ten forestry and agribusiness corporations which, through a web of interconnections, represent some of the most influential corporations fueling the destruction of rainforests and the violation of human rights.
The brands are the multinational, fast-moving consumer goods companies of Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, Kao, Mars, Mondeléz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever.
The banks are the fnancial powerhouses of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), CIMB, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), DBS, ABN Amro, and JPMorgan Chase.
Support the Keep Forests Standing campaign by signing this online petition. The research publication can be accessed by clicking this link