The scale of last year’s fires in the Amazon triggered a global reaction. In an important statement in September 2019, 235 investors with over US $16 trillion in assets under management demanded action from companies linked to deforestation.
Since then, some investors have continued to use their leverage to engage with
exposed companies. In June 2020, 22 of the statement signatories were also
part of a group that wrote to and met with the Brazilian government to raise their concerns over financing companies in Brazil due to increased deforestation and human rights risks.
These are positive steps, bringing this issue to the fore for the finance sector and putting pressure on companies and governments to tackle deforestation. Now investors need to embed this active stance in publicly-available deforestation policies – just as they have asked companies to do in their statement.
