Two NGOs denounced the French bank BNP Paribas for financing a Brazilian agri-food giant that, according to them, contributes to indiscriminate logging, forced labor and occupation of indigenous territories, these organizations reported on Monday.
The statement by the Brazilian NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) and Notre Affaire à Tous before the Paris judicial court, was released four days after the admission of another lawsuit against BNP Paribas filed by three other environmental organizations.
In that case, they denounced the “significant contribution” of the bank to climate change by its oil and gas clients.
Since 2017, French law has required large companies to take effective measures to prevent violations of human rights and the environment throughout their supply chain.
CPT and Notre Affaire à Tous sent a formal notice at the end of October to the bank demanding that it cease its support for Marfrig, the second largest meat packaging company in Brazil and which, according to the NGOs, would be responsible for logging “illegal” of “more than 120,000 hectares in the Amazon and the Cerrado savannah”, in the heart of the country.
“Despite their commitments and statements (…) the accumulated evidence of BNP’s support for Marfrig and Marfrig’s lack of vigilance of its suppliers reveals the inadequacy of measures taken by BNP” Paribas, denounced Jérémi Suissa, general delegate of Notre Affaire à Tous, in a statement on Monday.
Contacted by AFP, the bank said “to regret” that the NGOs choose “the path of litigation instead of dialogue”.
“As Europe’s leading bank, we are exposed on the front line to particularly contentious actions by NGOs”, he reacted.
The bank claims that its “sectoral policies” they find each other “among the strictestfrom the banking sector.
He also specified that he has demanded that “by 2025, your clients have a ‘zero deforestation’ strategy in their production and supply chains“, as well as “complete traceability of the beef and soy supply chains of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado”, without which your financial services will cease.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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