RBS, sponsors of ethical investment summit, linked to razing of rainforest
Scots bank in focus over crisis in Brazil
AScots bank sponsoring a major ethical investment conference has ploughed millions of pounds into agricultural companies fined for links with illegal deforestation in Brazil.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is hosting the Ethical Finance Summit 2019 in Edinburgh next month, has sunk more than £ 220 million into grain- trading houses Cargill and Bunge.
They were among five firms fined by the Brazilian Government in 2018 for buying almost 3,000 tonnes of grain produced in areas off- limits under environmental rules.
Cargill is the parent company of a factory in Bathgate that makes fish food for Scottish salmon farmers. The destruction of Brazil’s rainforests – often called the “Lungs of the World” because they produce so much oxygen – has caused an international outcry. Fires are still burning after a summer when more than 80,000 wildfires were reported, an increase of 84% on last year.
President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of encouraging deforestation to boost farming and forestry. Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Any company in Scotland that has links to the destruction of the rainforests needs to stop their contribution to this disaster immediately.
“It is hard to imagine how RBS justifies investing in companies caught sourcing illegal soy in Brazil, but the current crisis means it should immediately stop investing in companies complicit in its destruction.
“And Cargill’s Bathgate factory must make sure none of the soy that goes into salmon feed is coming from Brazil and then review whether they really want to work with a company caught fuelling illegal destruction of nature in Brazil.”
RBS is hosting the world summit on ethical finance in Edinburgh on October 8 and 9.
Kirsty Britz, director of sustainable banking with RBS, said: “Doing the right thing for our customers is at the heart of everything we do.
“In bringing together leaders from across the world we want to work across sectors and industries to embed sustainability in finance.”
RBS has provided Cargill with more than £177m in loans and Bunge with almost £ 50m of investment. The companies were among five firms fined £24m by Brazil’s environmental watchdog in 2018.
Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson, Ross Greer, said RBS’S activities in Brazil are “steeped in environmental destruction”.
“This publicly- owned institution should act in the public interest and divest immediately,” he added.
Richard George, head of forests at
A filmmaker has warned the world must stand with the people of the Amazon to save the rainforests.
Eilidh Munro, 29, from Edinburgh, says it is too easy to blame the loggers or farmers when poverty and dishonest politicians are driving deforestation.
She said: “While the impact of the people who clear the forest for logging or agriculture is negative, these will often be people who are escaping poverty elsewhere or, in the case of the indigenous communities, their only option to make money. Greenpeace UK, said:“Any companies sourcing from Cargill and Bunge or any banks investing in them are tainted by association and should take a stand by cutting these destructive companies out of their supply chains and investments.” An RBS spokesman said: “RBS does not operate in Brazil but we share the worldwide concern over recent increases in deforestation in It’s a problem that stems from politicians encouraging people to do things that are going to financially benefit the state – not the individual or the environment – but telling them that it will.” The Amazon rainforest, home to one-tenth of the planet’s animal and plant species, around one million indigenous people and 390 billion trees is still in the grips of an uncontrollable blaze. The fires were originally tacitly encouraged, say environmentalists, by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who has emboldened loggers and farmers to clear and burn land since taking office in January. Eilidh and environmental journalist Bethan John have the Amazon. Whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, we have a clear policy that prevents lending to any projects involving unsustainable vegetation clearance, including
the conversion of filmed Voices on the Road, a documentary due to launch later this year, which shows the effects of fire, logging, and farming. Focusing on a new road being built through a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Manu Biosphere Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon, the team wanted to give a platform to indigenous people.
In November 2018, the small team spent 40 days trekking through the Amazon jungle in south eastern Peru – near where the blazes are currently raging in Brazil – alongside expedition teammate Shirley Jennifer Serrano Rojas, a biologist from Cusco. primary tropical forests and land clearance by burning.
“We also prohibit any lending to companies with direct involvement in illegal logging and/or uncontrolled use of fire for land clearance.”
Cargill and Bunge have challenged Ibama’s ruling (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) and denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman for Bunge said: “Bunge presented its legal defence, contesting the findings.”
A Cargill spokeswoman said: “It is in administrative review by Ibama and we have not paid any fines.”