NGO identifies North American entities as “accomplices” in the destruction of the Amazon – News



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A study of the Article of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and the NGO Amazon Watch identified the “connections” between BlackRock, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Vanguard, Bank of America and Dimensional Fund Advisors and 11 Brazilian companies associated with conflicts and indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest.

The cases described in the report, entitled “Complicity in Destruction III: How Multinationals Contribute to Violations of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon,” are based on “documented conflicts,” Apib explained in a statement.

The firm exposes the financing of large companies, 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 show how problematic the link between companies operating in the Amazon and global financial leaders is,” the report said.

The document specifically highlighted the performance of the six North American financial entities, which together contributed more than $ 18 billion (€ 15.2 billion) to the aforementioned companies between 2017 and 2020.

“Investigations indicate that large companies in the financial sector, such as BlackRock, Vanguard and JP Morgan Chase, are using their clients’ money to enable heinous actions by companies linked to violations of indigenous rights and the devastation of the Amazon rainforest. “he stressed. Christian Poirier, director of the Amazon Watch program, quoted in a statement.

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

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

The report was produced on the basis of the analysis of legal proceedings in progress and others already closed in Brazilian justice, integrated with data on police operations and complaints of indigenous leaders and entities.

Based on the database, Dutch research center Profundo cross-referenced information to finally reach the “international production chains, buyers and investors” who act as shareholders and investors of Brazilian companies.

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

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

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