Call for Indigenous rights to be protected in political and financial-sector commitments to ending deforestation

22 September 2022, NYC, US – Speaking at an event during New York City Climate Week highlighting the importance of protecting Indigenous rights in global pledges to combat deforestation, Txai Suruí, a young Indigenous activist from Brazil, had an urgent message: “I am not asking you to save us, we are saving you.” 

The event, co-hosted by Global Canopy and Make My Money Matter, a campaign spearheaded by United Nations SDG advocate and multiple award winning Screenwriter and Director Richard Curtis, addressed the significant role the global finance sector plays in financing industries linked to commodity-driven deforestation.

While major investors are starting to tackle deforestation in portfolios, greater collaboration on this issue between financial institutions, governments and individuals is needed, speakers concluded.

Mary Beth Gallagher, Director of Engagement from Domini Impact Investments LLC, said that her firm had joined with more than 30 global financial institutions with 8.7 trillion dollars in assets under management to commit to deforestation-free portfolios by 2025. “We are working together to signal that finance is committed to addressing deforestation and we need companies to be part of the solution. There is capital ready to move in that direction.” Even acknowledging work to engage companies on human rights policy adoption and implementation, she added, “companies and investors are lagging in some real meaningful ways around their commitments to human rights.” 

Commenting on a joint statement, that was issued last week by 532 investors representing US $39 trillion in assets, for governments to leverage the private capital required to effectively address the climate crisis, Johan Lopez, UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative Regional Co-ordinator for the Americas, indicated that this statement could initiate a change in the finance sector towards more responsible and sustainable investment. “What we have here is a big movement of investors telling governments that they are here to work with them, and also pushing governments to make more ambitious and pragmatic pledges,” he said.

However, while the joint statement presses governments to make new or more ambitious commitments to end deforestation, it makes no reference to Indigenous peoples or local communities in connection with this. Indigenous peoples protect 80% of biodiversity globally, and commitments on deforestation must be accompanied by Indigenous rights protections, resources for Indigenous peoples and local communities to monitor their lands, and access to justice provisions.

Measures voted last week by the European Parliament on the deforestation-free products law – designed to address the EU’s contribution to the destruction of vital forest ecosystems globally – would require banks, investment and insurance companies to check that their clients don’t contribute to global deforestation, or stop financing them. Indigenous peoples, local communities and allies are urging the European Commission and European Council to retain these financial sector requirements, as well as the measures on Indigenous rights protections, as the law enters its final deliberation stage. 

Global Canopy’s Director of Strategic Communications Amy Fairbairn said: “There is no solution to climate change without a solution to deforestation. And there is no solution to deforestation without Indigenous peoples and local communities in the lead.”

Behind big companies and financial institutions is individual citizen spending, so the value of personal action should not be underestimated. Drawing this pivotal link for event audiences, Richard Curtis commented: “Our pensions and investments are indirectly tearing down the world’s forests. In the short term, they’re contradicting our values – but in the long run, they are jeopardising the very futures that we’re supposed to be saving for. It is crucial that the global financial sector works to protect the world’s forests, as well as the people who live in them, as it tackles deforestation. The time for urgent action is now.”

Concluding the event, Txai Suruí added: “Now you can’t say you don’t know, so the question is, what is it that you will do?” 

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Notes to Editors:

Global Canopy is a data-driven not for profit that targets the market forces destroying nature by improving transparency and accountability. https://globalcanopy.org 

Make My Money Matter is a people-powered campaign fighting for a world where we all know where our pension money goes, and where we can demand it’s invested to build a better future. https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk 

Details on the joint investor statement here: https://theinvestoragenda.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-Global-Investor-Statement-.pdf 

Details on the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products here: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/deforestation-proposal.htm

Details on the financial sector commitment letter on eliminating commodity-driven deforestation here: ​​https://racetozero.unfccc.int/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/DFF-Commitment-Letter-.pdf

https://climatechampions.unfccc.int/system/nature-and-tackling-deforestation/