[To read this story in Portuguese, please, click here]

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited 55 companies to respond to allegations of their involvement in the deforestation of the Amazon as well as human rights abuses. The report from Amazon Watch and Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil-APIB (National Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil) , "Complicity in Destruction II: How northern consumers and financiers enable Bolsonaro's assault on the Brazilian Amazon", states that European and North American businesses that finance and source from Brazil are connected to the Brazilian government´s roll-back of socio-environmental standards that are fundamental to preserving the Amazon's ecological integrity and the well-being of indigenous people. The report analysed Brazilian companies that were fined for environmental crimes in the Amazon since 2017, and identified a range of northern commercial interests that do business with them. There are allegations that agribusiness companies operated in areas of indigenous land conflicts and extracted resources from protected areas.

The companies that responded to these allegations, and whose responses can be found below are the following: Acai GmbH Fine Fruits Club, ASR Group, ABN Amro, Azimut Group, Boa-Franc, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Brandes Investment Partners, Citigroup, Conceria Cristina, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Fidelity, Global Timber, HSBC, ING Group, JPMorgan Chase, Louis Dreyfus Company, Marfrig, Robinson Lumber Company, Storebrand, Tradelink, Rino Mastrotto Group, Van den Berg Hardhout and Vogel Import & Export. The responses from Argus Comercio e Exportação de Alimentos, Benevides Madeiras, Marfrig, and Minerva are available here in Portuguese. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Bunge previously responded to these allegations here (also included below) and State Street and Vanguard declined to respond at that time. ADM, AgroSB, Argus Comercio e Exportação de Alimentos, Bunge, Cargill, Frigorífico Xingara, GWW Houtimport, JBS, and Nordisk Timber Eireli commented on the allegations in the Mongabay article below. Algar Agro, owner of ABC Inco and ABC Indústria e Comércio SA, Agro SB, Bunge, Cargill and Frigorifico Xingara commented on the allegations in the Epoca article in Portuguese here (and also below).

Bank of America, BlackRock, Brighton Collectibles, Capital Group, Conceria Cadore, ED&F Man, Faeda, Invesco, Santander, Thompson Mahogany Company and Vandecasteele Houtimport did not respond. Deutsche Bank, T.Rowe Price, Guillemette & Cie declined to respond. Agropecuária Rio da Areia, Groupe Rougier, Grupo BIHL: Agropecuária MALP & Frigorífico Redentor, Hoogendoorn Hout, Italpelli, JJ Samara Agronegócios Eireli, Keflico, Uniggel Proteção de Plantas, Usina Trapiche & Temape Group have not yet responded and we will add their responses if they reply in the near future. We were not able to reach Farm Credit Services or Northwest Hardwoods.