Defend Forest Defenders!
Forest defenders are fighting to protect their sacred places, livelihoods, and our planet’s last rainforests from unstoppable corporate greed, often risking their own lives.
Brands and banks are failing to stop deforestation, respect rights, and protect forest defenders. They need to know where community-owned land is AND respect the people’s rights. This means ensuring Free and Informed Prior Consent (FPIC) and Zero Tolerance for threats, violence, intimidation, and murder.
Let’s call on these brands and banks to take the next steps now in the fight to keep forests standing and uphold human rights.
To: Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, Kao, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), CIMB, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), DBS, ABN Amro, and JPMorgan Chase:
The world’s climate is at a perilous tipping point and protecting forests and respecting the rights of communities on the frontlines are critical elements to any real solution. Forest and land defenders are often the first line of defence against the reckless companies driving forest destruction, yet they are increasingly under threat. In 2019 alone over 200 defenders were murdered.
Your company continues to fuel deforestation and human rights abuses through your supply chains, investments, and financing portfolios. You can stop these abuses if you make human rights and forest protection top priorities for your company.
I am calling on your company to enact zero tolerance procedures within its supply chains, investments and/or financing portfolios to prevent violence, criminalization, intimidation, and killing of forest, land, and human rights defenders. Show the world that your company is a leader and is willing to tackle the root causes of this human rights and environmental crises by supporting and safeguarding defenders. There is no time to waste.