"Wall Street banks fuel NYC-scale deforestation in Paraguay's vital forest", 10 December 2024

...Ten global banks have funnelled over $1.7 billion into meatpacking companies that have been linked to 75,000 hectares of deforestation in Paraguay's Gran Chaco within just three years, a Global Witness analysis has found.  

Six of these banks, which account for over 70% of total financing in this period, have no public commitment to eliminate deforestation from their financing activities for all "high risk" forest commodity (e.g soy, palm oil, cattle and wood products) supply chains...

Global Witness analysed data from Refinitiv Eikon to assess which banks were financing two meatpacking giants, Minerva Foods and Frigorífico Concepción, between 2021-2023. 

During this period, the two firms purchased cattle from companies that source from farms tied to deforestation in parts of Paraguay’s Gran Chaco on a scale equivalent to the size of New York City, as recently revealed by a major Global Witness investigation. 

Minerva Foods responded to that prior investigation, saying that it operates in accordance with environmental laws in Paraguay, uses satellite monitoring of suppliers and takes actions to block from its supply chain ranchers who engage in illegal deforestation and encroach upon Indigenous land. 

Frigorífico Concepción stated a firm commitment to not purchasing cattle from areas affected by deforestation...

Cattle purchased by these two meatpackers between 2021 and 2023 were raised on farms overlapping some of the last remaining areas claimed by the Indigenous group, threatening their way of life and cultural survival...

Excluding banks based locally in Paraguay and Brazil, Global Witness identified 10 banks responsible for channelling a total of $1.7 billion in credit to these two firms between 2021-2023...

US banks... dominate the top 10 in terms of financing, with JP Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Oppenheimer all providing a combined $1.05 billion in financing over the three-year period...

This appears to be part of a wider trend of financial institutions failing to act on deforestation...

British bank HSBC was the third largest financier...

Global Witness contacted all 10 financial institutions mentioned in this report for comment, but none of them provided specific responses to the allegations. 

Four of them, in addition, referred to their own environmental policies. Read relevant extracts of the responses received..