How Big Banks Are Putting Rain Forests in Peril

How Big Banks Are Putting Rain Forests in Peril

In early 2015, scientists monitoring satellite images at Global Forest Watch raised the alarm about the destruction of rain forests in Indonesia.

Environmental groups raced to the scene in West Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo, to find a charred wasteland: smoldering fires, orangutans driven from their nests, and signs of an extensive release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“There was pretty much no forest left,” said Karmele Llano Sánchez, director of the nonprofit International Animal Rescue’s orangutan rescue group, which set out to save the endangered primates. “All the forest had burned.”

The article continues:

Fingers pointed to the Rajawali Group, a sprawling local conglomerate known for its ties to powerful politicians like Malaysia’s scandal-plagued prime minister. But lesser known is how some of the world’s largest banks have helped Rajawali — and other global agricultural powerhouses — expand their plantation empires.

The year before the clearing of trees in West Kalimantan, Rajawali’s plantation arm secured $235 million in loans — funds that the Indonesian company used to buy out a partner and bolster its landholdings — from banks including Credit Suisse and Bank of America, according to an examination of lending data by The New York Times.
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The deal forms part of at least $43 billion in loans and underwriting to companies linked to deforestation and forest burning in Southeast Asia alone, according to a tally compiled by the California-based Rainforest Action Network, the Dutch consultancy Profundo and the Indonesian nongovernmental organization TuK Indonesia. More than a third of that sum comes from American, European and Japanese banks, many of which have sustainability pledges that specifically mention deforestation.

That figure is almost certainly incomplete because not all financing is made public. It also excludes loans made by the same banks to forestry projects outside Southeast Asia, or financing provided to other, more global players.

Saying you're protecting the world's natural resources is great marketing.

But as long as people don't catch on, actually doing it isn't quite as important.

These rain forests are storing mass amounts of carbon dioxide, burning them is like a carbon dioxide bomb. There will be no profits when the earth dies.

a reply to: loam

You didn't go deep enough into your research. Banks are merely being banks and loaning money where return on investment is high.

Its the plan to combat climate change that is causing massive deforestration in Indonesia. Primary forests are being destroyed to make room for palm oil plantations to make biofuel that is 70 % exported to satisfy Euopean demand for biofuel and production of food stuff.

www.theicct.org...

On average, more than 70% of Indonesia’s palm oil and palm oil products are exported, according to data from FAOSTAT (FAOSTAT, 2016). Of the palm oil and its derivatives consumed domestically in 2013, 73% was used for food products, and 12% was used for biofuels, translating to about one million metric tons of palm oil in fuel.1 Oil palm plantations in Indonesia are required to comply with the Indonesian Sust

It has already been proven that the biofuels program is a bust, because it requires a litre and 1/2 to farm the food crops used to create biofuels but the climate change scam artists just won't let it go.

Tired of Control Freaks

Sounds like a waste of roasted and smoked Orang meat. Pity the banks couldn't have made more off the deal, maybe next time they will.

a reply to: loam

You do know that Trees are a renewable resource.

That's right, Renewable.

Go and plant one today.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

I didn't realize planting a seed magically returns an entire ecosystem to its former status.

I can make sculptures out of a turd, but it's still just a turd.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Not only are they renewable, increased CO2 in the atmosphere has caused the earth to green,

www.bbc.com...

It is called Greening of the Earth and its Drivers, and it is based on data from the Modis and AVHRR instruments which have been carried on American satellites over the past 33 years.The sensors show significant greening of something between 25% and 50% of the Earth's vegetated land, which in turn is slowing the pace of climate change as the plants are drawing CO2 from the atmosphere. Just 4% of vegetated land has suffered from plant loss.

of course, all this greening doesn't compensate for the negative effects of global warming (must not forget that, says climate change scan artists).

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: loam

Every year we go out and plant thousands of Tree seedlings (not seeds) in forest areas that were decimated by fire around the world. We also spread out jute netting to hold seed for underbrush such as grasses and small shrubs.

It doesn't take much or a long time to help return and ecosystem back to normalcy.

It is when no one cares enough to do so that a ecosystem is lost.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

Many overlook that there are algae, bacteria and plankton that feed off CO2 also.

I am in full agreement with you.

I stared you

What will future generations say when they cut the last tree?

a reply to: luciferslight

AS long as we keep replanting trees we will never be without them.

"Trees are a renewable resource"

originally posted by: Churchhousecreeper
These rain forests are storing mass amounts of carbon dioxide, burning them is like a carbon dioxide bomb. There will be no profits when the earth dies.

A carbon dioxide bomb? CO2 is good for plant growth and is not stored. Plants convert CO2 into food and gives off O2 in the atmosphere. The more CO2 the more fervent the plant life. It is not a harmful greenhouse gas like the EPA says.

"Trees and plants are our friends"