{"id":67706,"date":"2024-06-10T22:18:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T20:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=67706"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:54:35","slug":"banks-must-stop-funding-illegal-amazon-deforestation-prosecutor-says-after-greenpeace-brazil-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/press-release\/67706\/banks-must-stop-funding-illegal-amazon-deforestation-prosecutor-says-after-greenpeace-brazil-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Banks must stop funding illegal Amazon deforestation, Prosecutor says after Greenpeace Brazil report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil \u2014 In a clear sign to financial institutions that nature destruction is no longer considered business as usual, the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) said that financing agricultural activities in public forests, Indigenous lands and conservation units in the Amazon can constitute the crime of invading public lands and advised1<\/sup> that eight institutions \u2014 including Spanish and Dutch banks Santander and Rabobank \u2014 immediately terminate any such contracts granted via subsidized credit2<\/sup>. The landmark decision follows Greenpeace Brazil\u2019s report3<\/sup> and complaint, which found that national and international banks had been using Brazil’s rural credit system to finance thousands of rural properties that are driving illegal deforestation, invasion of Indigenous territories, and other destructive activities.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOur investigation highlighted the scandalous failings of due diligence by banks in Brazil. The Prosecutor\u2019s Office has now made it clear that banks must take responsibility for their actions and stop financing properties that do not comply with environmental rules. This is a positive step and we hope the banks in question take the necessary action in this specific instance, but also that the banking system in general stops funding the thousands of other cases where businesses are being funded to destroy the Amazon rainforest. \u201d said Tha\u00eds Bannwart, a campaigner with Greenpeace Brazil. <\/p>\n\n

The list of financial institutions subject to the MPF\u2019s recommendations highlights the international reach of banks financing nature destruction. In addition to public and private banks based in Brazil \u2014 Banco da Amazonia, Banco Sicredi, Bradesco, Caixa Economica Federal and Ita\u00fa \u2014 the list of impacted financial institutions includes Santander, which is headquartered in Spain, and Banco De Lage Landen Brasil, which is a fully owned subsidiary of Netherlands-headquartered Rabobank. Once informed of these recommendations, the banks are legally obliged to respond within 30 days to confirm whether they will terminate the contracts together with a timeline of the proposed actions. After this, the MPF will make a decision on next steps – that could be criminal or civil legal action.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cBanks with headquarters in Europe that continue to operate rural credit in Brazil should also follow the MPF\u2019s recommendation and cancel their operations with properties that have socio and environmental irregularities, including violations of Brazilian constitutional environmental rights. This situation also shows why it is vitally important the European Commission reviews the role of finance in deforestation and forest degradation under the scope of the EU deforestation regulation,\u201d continued Bannwart. <\/p>\n\n

ENDS<\/p>\n\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

[1] Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) recommendation (in Portuguese)<\/a><\/p>\n\n

[2] Rural Credit is a type of loan provided by public and private banks to finance agricultural production. <\/p>\n\n

[3] Download Greenpeace Brazil\u2019s report Bankrolling Extinction: Banks and Investors as Partners in Deforestation (in Portuguese).<\/a><\/p>\n\n

    <\/ol>\n\n

    Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

    Greenpeace Brazil Press Desk, imprensa.br@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

    Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The landmark decision follows a Greenpeace Brazil\u2019s report which found that national and international banks had been using Brazil’s rural credit system to finance thousands of rural properties that are driving illegal deforestation, invasion of Indigenous territories, and other destructive activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":67710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"Defund Nature Destruction Now","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[84,149],"p4-page-type":[98],"class_list":["post-67706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-forests","tag-amazon","p4-page-type-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67706"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67720,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67706\/revisions\/67720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67706"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=67706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}