BNP Paribas is accused of financing deforestation in Brazil – 02/27/2023 – Market

Two NGOs filed a lawsuit against the French bank BNP Paribas, denouncing it for financing a giant in the Brazilian agri-food sector accused of contributing to deforestation, appropriation of indigenous lands and forced labor – the plaintiffs announced this Monday (27).

Presented by the Brazilian CPT (Comissão Pastoral da Terra) and the French association Notre Affaire à Tous at the Paris court, the complaint was revealed four days after BNP Paribas was sued by three other associations for the defense of the environment.

In the action, the two organizations denounced the bank’s “significant contribution” to global warming, related to its clients in the oil and gas sector.

CPT and Notre Affaire à Tous sent a formal notice at the end of October requesting that BNP Paribas end its financial support to Marfrig, Brazil’s second largest meat packer. According to both organizations, the company “would have been responsible for more than 120 thousand hectares of illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and in the Cerrado”.

Since 2017, French law requires large companies to take effective measures to prevent violations of human rights and the environment throughout their supply chain.

The associations accuse BNP Paribas of having violated the French law on the duty of care. The legislation requires multinationals headquartered in France to establish a plan, “including reasonable surveillance measures to identify risks and prevent serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, health and safety of people, as well as the environment , resulting from the activities of the company and the companies it controls” in France and abroad.

“Despite its commitments and its communications (…), the accumulated evidence of BNP’s support for Marfrig and Marfrig’s lack of vigilance in relation to its suppliers reveal the insufficiency of the measures taken by BNP. We cannot close our eyes to deforestation and forced labor and pretend to be an actor for change and carbon neutrality”, argued the general delegate of Notre Affaire à Tous, Jérémie Suissa, in a statement released on Monday.

Sought by the AFP, the BNP said it “regretted” that NGOs seek “the path of litigation, rather than dialogue”.

“As the main European bank, we are exposed, on the front line, to the particularly contentious actions of NGOs”, the institution reacted.

The bank claims that its “sectoral policies” are “among the strictest” in the banking industry.

It also stated that it requires that, “by 2025, its customers have a ‘zero deforestation’ strategy in their production and supply chains, as well as full traceability of the beef and soy supply chains in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado “.

According to the note, the bank said it “will no longer provide products or financial services to companies that are not in line with this policy”.