Due diligence towards Deforestation-Free Finance: Guidance for financial institutions

Deforestation poses a systemic risk to ecosystems, people and the global economy – and the finance sector is key to the production and trade of commodities that drive nature loss. 

Deforestation-Free Finance brings together practical guidance developed by a broad range of partners to support financial institutions to eliminate deforestation, conversion, and associated human rights abuses from their financial portfolios.

On 25 April, new due diligence guidance for financial institutions, developed jointly by Global Canopy, Neural Alpha and the Stockholm Environment Institute was published on the Deforestation-Free Finance site.

The how-to guide sets out a recommended approach for conducting due diligence to identify, prevent and mitigate risks and impacts of deforestation, conversion and associated human rights abuses.

During the webinar, we heard experts discuss:

• What the new due diligence guidance is and how it links to other guidance and resources
• A dive into location-based data and how it can be used
• The experience of Santander in engaging companies to address deforestation risks

This was a bilingual webinar with simultaneous translation (English/Brazilian Portuguese).

Speakers

Silvia Chicarino

Environmental and Social Risk Superintendent, Santander

Ben Levett

Lead ESG Researcher, Neural Alpha

Pei Chi Wong

Senior Research Associate, Global Canopy

Moderated by: Bruno Bischoff

Head of ESG Risk Advisory, Ecofact