"Comment: Global banks ignore Amazon's indigenous voices at their peril", 23 June 2022

...For decades, indigenous nations in Ecuador have used every conceivable tactic to resist the advance of the oil industry...In May, community leaders announced they had successfully employed a new strategy: convincing French bank BNP Paribas to rule out financing new oil and gas projects anywhere in the Amazon.

...The decision followed lobbying by Exit Amazon Oil and Gas, a coalition of indigenous representatives and U.S.-based advocacy groups. The new campaign wants global banks to implement “Amazon exclusion policies”...

Ecuador plans to start auctioning oil concessions covering some 3 million hectares of largely untouched rainforest, which is inhabited by seven indigenous nationalities...

...[I]ndigenous groups began a fresh wave of protests in the capital Quito on June 13 to demand wide-ranging economic reforms...

...Over the past 18 months, French, Dutch and Swiss lenders, including BNP Paribas, Natixis, ING and Credit Suisse, have made various commitments to stop financing the international trade in cargoes of Ecuadorian crude, which make up 90% of the oil exported from the Amazon.

...[C]ampaigners hope BNP Paribas has set a precedent for others to follow. Top of their wish list is New York-based Citigroup...The bank has led on almost all bond-underwriting deals to state oil companies Petroamazonas and Petroecuador...

Citigroup responded to a request for comment by saying it was committed to working with fossil fuel clients to responsibly drive the transition to a net-zero economy.

...The voices from the Amazon may be inconvenient for bankers. They may also prove increasingly difficult to ignore...