MUFG: Change course now!

MUFG, Japan’s largest bank, officially aims to become “the world’s most trusted financial institution - but it’s bankrolling one of the worst rainforest destroyers and human rights abusers of the palm oil sector. Why? Because to a mega bank, short term profit justifies long term damage, apparently.

Let’s tell MUFG: Change course now and cut ties with those palm oil companies unless they commit to and prove that they’re protecting rainforests and respecting human rights!

To the MUFG Board:

As the 7th largest global funder of the palm oil industry, MUFG has a responsibility to ensure your clients and investees are protecting forests and respecting human rights. 

Unfortunately, MUFG continues to finance the largest palm oil companies in the world that have known ties to rainforest destruction, human rights abuses, and even illegal behavior. Neither MUFG nor your Indonesian subsidiary Bank Danamon are properly equipped to deal with the significant risks associated with the palm oil sector. 

MUFG must do better. We demand MUFG to take the following actions:  

  1. Strengthen the financing policies of the entire MUFG banking group, including Bank Danamon, by adopting and implementing “No Deforestation, No Peatland and No Exploitation (NDPE)” policies across all investments and financial services;
  2. Stop financing corporate groups that are complicit in deforestation, peatland clearance and human rights abuses, or secure credible, time-bound commitments to ensure they transparently implement corrective actions and remedy negative impacts;
  3. Require all investees and clients to provide proof of full compliance with laws, regulations, and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes for all areas under the management and control of the corporate group;
  4. Establish robust forest and human rights monitoring systems to rapidly respond to harmful activities linked to your financing;
  5. Enact zero tolerance procedures within investments and financing portfolios to prevent violence, criminalization, intimidation, and killing of human rights, land and environmental defenders; and
  6. Know and publicly disclose your financial institution’s “forest footprint” - namely the area of forests and peatlands impacted by your bank’s investments and financial services, including the impact on Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights, when forest and peatland areas are on traditionally managed lands.