Home Brazil NGOs identify U.S. institutions as accomplices to Amazon destruction

NGOs identify U.S. institutions as accomplices to Amazon destruction

Filipe Sousa

Six U.S. financial institutions are identified as “accomplices” to environmental destruction in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as the violation of the rights of indigenous communities in the region, according to a report by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

A study by Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib) and the NGO Amazon Watch identified the “connections” between Blackrock, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Vanguard, Bank of America and Dimensional Fund Advisors corporations and 11 Brazilian companies associated with environmental and indigenous conflicts in the Amazon rainforest.

The cases detailed in the report, titled “Complicity in Destruction III: How Global Corporations Contribute to Violations of the Rights of indigenous Peoples of the Brazilian Amazon,” are based on “documented conflicts,” Apib said in a statement.

The study exposes the financing of large corporations, funds and shareholders to 11 strategic companies in Brazil: the mining companies Vale, Anglo American, Belo Sun and Potássio do Brasil; the agricultural giants Cargill, JBS and Cosan/Raízen, and the energy companies Energisa Mato Grosso, Bom Futuro Energia, Equatorial Energia Maranhão and Eletronorte.

“Unveiling this network helps to show how problematic the link between companies operating in the Amazon and global financial leaders is,” the report said.

The document highlighted in particular the performance of the six U.S. financial entities, which together contributed more than US$18 billion (15.2 billion euros) between 2017 and 2020 for the companies mentioned.

“Investigations indicate that large financial sector companies such as BlackRock, Vanguard and J.P. Morgan Chase are using their customers’ money to enable heinous actions by companies linked to indigenous rights violations and the devastation of the Amazon Rainforest,” Amazon Watch program director Christian Poirier said in a statement.

Although many of these corporations “have made public promises and commitments to environmental and social issues and, in some cases, indigenous rights,” “they continue to invest in a business model that supports companies that collect violations of environmental rights,” the report said.

This “complicity of the financial sector with destruction runs counter to the climate and human rights commitments” made by some of these companies, as well as “exposes their investors to serious risks and contributes to the growing global biodiversity and climate crisis,” Poirier said.

The report was produced from the analysis of ongoing judicial proceedings and others already closed in the Brazilian courts, complemented with data from police operations and complaints from indigenous leaders and entities.

From the database, the Dutch research center Profundo crossed the information to finally reach the “production chains, buyers and international investors” that act as shareholders and investors of Brazilian companies.

The report’s authors also denounced the actions of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on environmental issues and accused his “anti-environmental and anti-indigenous” rhetoric of “actively contributing” to the worsening environmental crisis in the region.

“Global markets have the power to contribute to or moderate Bolsonaro’s disastrous agenda for the Brazilian Amazon, allowing or avoiding the destruction of the rainforest,” the document concludes.

Contact Us

Generalist media, focusing on the relationship between Portuguese-speaking countries and China.

Plataforma Studio

Newsletter

Subscribe Plataforma Newsletter to keep up with everything!