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# Banks Made $26bn From Companies Linked to Deforestation Since Paris Deal, Report says — as COP30 spotlights Forest Finance
- URL: https://cocoaradar.com/banks-made-26bn-from-companies-linked-to-deforestation-since-paris-deal-report-says-as-cop30-spotlights-forest-finance/
- Published: 2025-11-07T14:41:45.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-07T14:41:44.000Z
- Description: Ahead of COP30, a Global Witness investigation — conducted with Dutch consultancy Profundo using Forests & Finance data — finds banks and asset managers generated $26bn in income from financing 50 companies publicly accused of driving tropical deforestation, land grabs and human rights abuses
- Author: Anthony Myers
- Tags: COP30

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**The analysis by the campaigning organisation, shared with CocoaRadar, covers credit- and investment-related income largely between 2016–2024 (with bond and equity positions assessed to May 2025).** 

Global Witness approached all financial institutions named for comment; key responses are summarised below.

### The Headline Numbers

Global Witness reports that since the Paris Agreement, global finance has continued to reward forest-risk business models:

- **$26bn**: income earned by nearly 4,000 financial institutions from investments, loans and underwriting tied to 50 companies linked to deforestation.
- **By financial centre**: US institutions earned **$5.4bn**; EU institutions **$3.5bn**; UK institutions **$1.2bn**; all other countries **$15.9bn**.
- **Top country earners**: US (**$5.4bn**) and Indonesia (**$4.9bn**), followed by the Netherlands, France and the UK (each **\~$1.2bn**).
- **By sector**: pulp & paper (**48% of income**) and palm oil (**41%**) dominate, with soy (**4%**), beef (**3%**), rubber (**3%**) and timber (**1%**) trailing.
- **Segment-adjusted**: figures reflect the share of each company’s business exposed to forest-risk commodities in tropical regions. Counting *all* activities lifts total earnings to **$104.7bn**.

> “Trying to increase nature-positive finance…without addressing the negative is fighting a losing battle,” Professor Nicola Ranger of the London School of Economics told Global Witness.

### A System Profiting From Forest Loss

The report argues that despite high-profile pledges to end deforestation by **2030**, destruction has escalated, with **2024** marking a record spike. It links this to the ease with which commodities, including cocoa, produced on cleared land are traded — and financed.

The top five individual bank earners are reported to be from **Indonesia** and **Brazil**, led by **Bank Central Asia** (about **$1.1bn**), largely via palm oil and pulp & paper. In total, more than **2,000 US-based institutions** earned the most overall, driven predominantly by asset managers **Vanguard**, **BlackRock** and **Capital Group** holding shares in forest-risk firms.

Among EU players, **BNP Paribas** is cited as the largest earner (**$810m**, \~90% tied to pulp & paper), followed by **Rabobank** (**$750m**). In the UK, **HSBC**, **abrdn (Aberdeen)** and **Schroders** lead.

Brazil’s public lender **BNDES** reportedly ranks second globally (**$868m**) despite a sustainability mandate; it is a major shareholder in **JBS**, long criticized for sourcing risks in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado.

On **China**, the analysis finds cumulative income in the global top ten, driven mostly by **credit** rather than equity investments, with lenders including **CITIC**, **ICBC** and **Bank of China** among significant creditors to forest-risk conglomerates.

### **Income, Hectares Cleared — But Incentives Matter**

Global Witness cautions that bank income is not a direct proxy for on-the-ground forest loss. High earnings in **pulp & paper** and **palm oil** reflect capital-intensive business models that rely heavily on loans and bond issuance, not necessarily larger areas cleared than **beef** or **soy**, which research has shown to be major deforestation drivers.

Locality also shapes flows: Indonesian and Brazilian firms often rely on domestic lenders for cost and relationship reasons; development banks (e.g., **BNDES**) have explicit national mandates, concentrating financing — and incomes — at home.

### **Case Studies and Sector Snapshots**

- **Palm oil** generated an estimated **$10.6bn** in financier income. **Wilmar** — which has a 2013 “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” policy — is named among major firms; its top financers include **DBS**, **OCBC** and **HSBC**. Wilmar rejects claims it continues to drive deforestation, citing suspension and remedial measures and ongoing monitoring.
- **Beef**: For cattle, the top 10 financers were all **US** or **Brazil-based**; over **21%** of income accrued to **Capital Group**, **BlackRock** and **Vanguard**, reflecting the outsized role of asset managers. **JBS**, the world’s largest meat company, is linked in the report to sourcing from risk areas in the **Cerrado** and **Apyterewa Indigenous territory**. JBS says it enforces responsible sourcing, supply-chain monitoring and sectoral engagement, and that purchases complied with policies at the time.
- **Soy**: Over **one-third (33.5%)** of soy-derived income is linked to **US** institutions; **Japan** is second (about **9%**). **Cargill** is cited for historical links to deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia; it declined comment for this report.

### **What Banks and Companies Say**

- **BNP Paribas** says it is “strongly committed” to fighting deforestation, disputes aspects of the methodology, and points to a policy requiring clients to achieve **zero deforestation** in supply chains by **2025**, with compliance checks from **2026**.
- **BNDES** disputes a clear link between its financing and deforestation, citing blocks on funding for landowners involved in illegal clearing and other safeguards.
- **HSBC** refers to its Net Zero Transition Plan’s nature section and does not comment on specific clients.
- **JBS** rejects Global Witness’s characterization and outlines a five-pillar sustainability approach.
- **Wilmar** refutes ongoing deforestation links and details monitoring, a “suspend first” policy, and conditions for re-joining the High Carbon Stock Approach.
- Multiple institutions — including **BlackRock**, **Capital Group**, **JPMorgan Chase**, **Bradesco**, and others — declined to comment or did not respond.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/42/e5/42e56cb4-2135-4886-b7a8-860153b64965/content/images/2025/11/Amazon-at-the-crossroads-cop30.webp)

### **COP30 and the Tropical Forests Forever Facility**

The findings land as delegates arrive for **COP30** in Belém, where Brazil plans to launch the **Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF)** — a proposed **$125bn** fund investing in global markets and channelling returns to tropical forest nations, with at least **20%** for **Indigenous Peoples and local communities**.

Global Witness frames a central contradiction: the same financial system poised to help protect forests has been **profiting from deforestation**. For the TFFF to work, the group argues, it must be paired with **binding financial-sector rules** that prohibit financing deforesting companies, **robust accountability**, and **greater direct support** to frontline communities.

> “The financial system must support those who protect, not those who devastate,” says **Kawowe Parakanã**, an Indigenous leader from Apyterewa. “Stop investing in death; support those who protect the forest.”

### Policy Landscape: Promises, Delays and Loopholes

Global Witness says voluntary initiatives — such as GFANZ and sector roadmaps — have not stemmed deforestation-linked finance. It highlights:

- **EU**: The **EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)** could save more than **8 million ha** in its first decade, according to the group, but faces dilution and delay. Complementary measures, including the **Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive**, remain contested.
- **UK**: A 2021 law enabling due diligence on “illegal” deforestation remains **unenacted**, pending secondary regulations and a promised Treasury review of the financial sector’s role.
- **US**: Climate-risk disclosure rules are on hold and the **FOREST Act** has stalled.
- **China**: The world’s largest soy importer lacks binding deforestation-free supply-chain rules; green-finance guidance exists, but major lenders remain significant financiers of forest-risk sectors.
- **Indonesia**: Reporting requirements have improved, but no law currently **prohibits** financing of natural-ecosystem conversion, and state-backed projects still risk large-scale clearing.

### **How the Analysis Was Undertaken**

Global Witness says it first identified **50 companies** with credible, publicly reported links to deforestation or land conversion across **six commodity chains** (cattle, soy, palm oil, rubber, timber, pulp & paper). Profundo then analyzed **343,903** financial deals drawn from Forests & Finance (sources include Bloomberg, Refinitiv, IJGlobal, filings and media archives).

Income includes fees and interest from **corporate loans**, **revolving credit**, and **bond/share underwriting** (2016–2024), dividends on **listed equities** (2016–May 2025), and coupon income from **corporate bonds** (to May 2025). A **segment-adjustment** factor attributes only the proportion of income linked to forest-risk segments of each business.

### CocoaRadar’s takeaway 

A decade on from Paris, Global Witness contends that banks and asset managers have **widened** the forest-finance gap: limited climate-positive funding is being outpaced by **profitable** flows to forest-risk companies. With COP30 set in the Amazon, the group argues that **rules to defund deforestation** — not just new funds — are essential to meet 2030 goals.

- **Download the full Global Witness report:** [**https://gw.hacdn.io/media/documents/Banks\_make\_26\_billion\_in\_a\_decade\_of\_financing\_deforesting\_companies\_Oct\_2025.pdf**](https://gw.hacdn.io/media/documents/Banks%5Fmake%5F26%5Fbillion%5Fin%5Fa%5Fdecade%5Fof%5Ffinancing%5Fdeforesting%5Fcompanies%5FOct%5F2025.pdf?ref=cocoaradar.com)
- **COP30 takes place in Belém, Brazil, from 6-21 November 2025\. More details** [**here**](https://unfccc.int/cop30?ref=cocoaradar.com).

**\[Used with permission under the Global Witness public interest journalism policy\]**