French banks have provided around two billion euros to food companies promoting deforestation despite a law that prohibits them from financing environmental damage, according to the analysis of a specialized NGO.
Three years after France's adoption of historic legislation, obliging companies to identify and prevent any violation of human rights or environmental degradation in their supply chain, large donors continue finance projects promoting deforestation in the Brazilian part of the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Papua New Guinea, according to the survey by the NGO Global Witness.
20,000 hectares of forest cleared in Gabon
This NGO specializing in the fight against the looting of natural resources believes that BNP Paribas, Natixis and Crédit Agricole "all have policies and commitments in agricultural raw materials that risk promoting deforestation".
Last year, Natixis contributed 45 million euros to a revolving credit line allocated to the agri-food group Olam International. However, a 2016 report by the environmental pressure group Mighty Earth accused this group of having caused the deforestation of 20,000 hectares in Gabon to create a large palm oil factory there.
Crédit Agricole also involved
According to Global Witness, Crédit Agricole appears as the main funder in Halcyon Agri's 2018 annual report. Greenpeace said in 2018 that this company had taken control two years earlier of a rubber factory in Cameroon, which has long been responsible for deforestation and cleared an additional 2,300 hectares of forest between 2016 and 2018.
In 2017, Crédit Agricole was the pilot bank for a debt issue of 300 million dollars (274 million euros) carried out on behalf of the Chinese group Sinochem, majority shareholder of Halcyon Agri according to the Thomson Eikon database . In July of the same year, the bank again provided $ 10 million in guarantees for Sinochem operations, according to Global Witness.
Marfrig and deforested beef
Finally, although it committed in 2015 to investments respecting the principle of “zero deforestation”, BNP Paribas participated in 2019 in a $ 500 million issue of transition bonds on behalf of Marfrig, the Brazilian giant of beef, says Global Witness.
However, according to Daniel Brindis at Greenpeace, Marfrig, whose sources of supply are varied, "cannot systematically ensure that the farms that sell to its direct suppliers are not linked to deforestation".
Certified customers?
BNP Paribas, for its part, assured Global Witness that this debt issue was specifically aimed at reducing the problems of deforestation and land rights in the livestock supply chain of Marfrig, in particular through satellite monitoring of the density vegetation in the areas where the Brazilian giant operates.
BNP Paribas was the principal guarantor of a billion dollar bond issue carried out in May 2019 on behalf of a subsidiary of Marfrig, NBM US Holdings, according to Thomson Eikon. The bank also managed bonds estimated at $ 1 million for Sinochem International.
The bank told Global Witness that all of its customers in the Amazon "are certified or engaged in a certification process" to ensure that their practices are responsible.
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