Banks and UK supermarkets accused of backing deforestation in Brazil

theguardian.com:

Global financiers, UK supermarkets and an Italian leather supplier have supported deforestation, land-grabbing and the use of slave labour in Brazil by funding and stocking products from the Brazilian meat giant JBS, an investigation claimed on Friday. Financial institutions mentioned in the investigation’s report were HSBC, Barclays, Santander, Deutsche Bank, BlackRock and JP Morgan.

The report said the institutions had “for years funnelled billions of dollars to JBS and continue to do so – while at the same time pledging to remove deforestation from their portfolios”. The report noted that Barclays facilitated a bond deal for JBS worth almost $1bn last year and said the bank “has continually done business with [JBS] over multiple years despite numerous Global Witness reports on the company”.

The report further found that between “September and October of last year, investment companies controlled by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Santander, BlackRock and JP Morgan” held shares worth more than $293m in JBS. The supermarkets selling products that used JBS beef, which were checked in February this year, were named as Sainsbury’s, Iceland and Asda.

The report named the Italian leather supplier, Gruppo Mastrotto, as a buyer of JBS skins. Global Witness, which conducted the investigation, said its findings came “as deforestation reaches record levels” and while the “dismantling of environmental policies and the weakening of environmental agencies under [Brazil’s president, Jair] Bolsonaro have been highlighted as key risks that may push the Amazon to an irreversible tipping point, with devastating consequences for Indigenous peoples and local communities, the global climate and biodiversity”.