Banks must use their leverage to protect the Amazon. Don’t let big traders walk out of the Amazon Soy Moratorium and fuel a new wave of Amazon destruction.
To CEOs of Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, BNP Paribas and Barclays,
On January 5, 2026, ABIOVE, the industry group representing major soy traders – Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, and Amaggi – formally withdrew from the Amazon Soy Moratorium. For nearly two decades, it provided safeguards to prevent soy-driven deforestation in the Amazon biome and it worked. This voluntary agreement reduced deforestation by 69% between 2009 and 2022 while allowing the soy sector to grow 344%. Food companies, retailers, and their financiers relied on those safeguards to meet their own No Deforestation commitments.
Your Banks’ Exposure
Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, BNP Paribas and Barclays are among the top creditors to Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, and Amaggi’s Brazilian soy operations. According to Forests & Finance, between January 2020 and July 2025 your banks provided almost a billion dollars in loans and underwriting to these five traders. At the time, that financing was extended to members of the most effective voluntary large-scale conservation mechanism whose buyers were under the assumption the Amazon Soy Moratorium would ensure deforestation-free soy from the region.
Without immediate action from your bank, your financing risks fueling large-scale soy-driven deforestation of the Amazon, pushing it ever closer to a devastating tipping point. Preliminary IPAM analysis indicates deforestation could surge 30% by 2045 if the Moratorium collapses.
The Risks Are Mounting
Regulatory Risk: The EU Deforestation Regulation will penalize non-compliant companies up to 4% of EU turnover. Your clients just abandoned verification infrastructure that made EUDR compliance manageable at scale, exposing USD 7-8 billion in annual Brazil-EU soy imports to penalties and market restrictions.
Market Access Risk: Support for Amazon protection and deforestation-free soy is high in key markets and among major buyers. Major European retailers including Lidl, Aldi and Tesco have publicly demanded traders maintain the Moratorium. Over 50 UK food companies representing 60% of UK soy demand reaffirmed commitment to Amazon protection in July 2025.
Reputational Risk: Financing Amazon destruction undermines your banks’ commitments to address biodiversity loss, deforestation and climate change in highly sensitive ecosystems.
Use Your Leverage To Protect the Amazon
You have a brief window to show real leadership and push to maintain the integrity of deforestation-free soy from Brazil. To prevent your financing from enabling Amazon destruction, update your policies to require all clients operating in the Brazilian soy sector comply with Amazon Soy Moratorium standards, specifically: no purchases of soy from land deforested after July 2008, farm-level traceability and a rejection of any deforestation in the biome as conditions of continued lending and underwriting.
Use your leverage to engage directly with your clients – Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus and Amaggi – urging them to publicly reaffirm their compliance with the ASM standards.
Sincerely,