A massive wake- up call for companies complicit in Amazon deforestation
Today, 230 institutional investors from 30 different countries released a joint statement calling for urgent action to protect the Amazon rainforest. The investors, with a total of 16 trillion USD under management, state that the escalating deforestation of the Amazon causes serious financial risks to companies and their investors, and demand that companies redouble their efforts to eradicate deforestation from their operations and supply chains. Never has such a large share of the world’s financial institutions joined together to demand rainforest protection.
“This should be the definitive wake-up call for businesses complicit in deforestation. If they lose the capital of investors, they risk being put out of business, says Vemund Olsen of Rainforest Foundation Norway.
“To put the financial might of these 230 investors into perspective: put together they manage assets equivalent to eight times the annual GDP of Brazil, the world’s 9th largest economy. The message from the financial sector is that if companies don’t eradicate deforestation from their operations and supply chains, they will lose customers, investments and money”, says Olsen.
“Companies must clean up their own supply chains, but they also need to put pressure on the government of Brazil to do what it takes to stop deforestation, secure the rights of indigenous peoples and reintroduce credible monitoring and enforcement of Brazil’s environmental legislation”, says Olsen.
To see the full joint investor statement and press release, see
- Press release 230 Investors with USD $16.2 trillion in AUM Call for Corporate Action on Deforestation, Signaling Support for the Amazon and “Investor statement on deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon.”