Brands & Banks: You need to do more for an A!

RAN analyzed a total of 17 brands and banks to see how they’re treating rainforests and the people who depend on them, and what shall we say—the vast majority might score an A for taste, but FAIL when it comes to rainforest and human rights protection: Ferrero’s chocolate candy is no bueno at all, Nissin’s instant noodles are literally Flop Ramen, and no bath tissue in the world is Charmin’ enough to clean up P&G’s trail of rainforest destruction. 

These brands and banks are great at making policies and promises. But making promises and greenwashing isn’t enough — they need to take tangible action. Let's demand it from them!

TO: Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, Kao, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Nissin Foods, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, ABN Amro, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), CIMB, DBS, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), JPMorgan Chase, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG):

The Keep Forests Standing campaign calls on some of the 17 most influential corporations fueling the destruction of rainforests and the violation of human rights to take real action now. 

Our scorecard shows that your company has failed to take adequate action to address its contribution to the destruction of forests, ongoing land grabs, and violence against local and Indigenous communities. Effectively immediately, your company must: 

Adopt ‘No Deforestation, No Peatland and No Exploitation’ (NDPE) policies 

  • Create a plan to achieve and prove implementation
  • Mandatory policy adoption for all business partnerships 

Release Forest Footprint 

  • Publicly disclose their total impact on forests, peatlands and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities 

Prevent violence and uphold human rights 

  • Establish human rights monitoring and due diligence systems and field-based methods to verify that the rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent are being respected  
  • Enact zero tolerance procedures to prevent violence, criminalization, intimidation, and killing of land rights defenders

Hold Bad Actors to Account 

  • Create process to end relationships with business partnerships complicit in deforestation and human rights abuses

Prove compliance by business partners 

  • Publish independent verification of NDPE compliance
  • Do not rely on ineffective certification systems

The Keep Forests Standing campaign demands more than paper promises. We call on you to take immediate action now!