rainforest

The move by HSBC – Europe’s largest bank and a major funder of palm oil companies – follows an investigation by Greenpeace International that linked it to companies destroying Indonesia’s rainforests. [2] Hundreds of thousands of people joined the campaign to change the bank’s policies, including 30,000 HSBC customers.

Annisa Rahmawati, forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, said:

Three weeks ago[1] Greenpeace exposed how, despite having policies which they claim ‘prohibit the funding of deforestation’, HSBC have been financing some of the most destructive palm oil producers in Indonesia, responsible for destroying scarce orangutan habitat, labour abuses, and increasing fire risk through rainforest clearance and illegal drainage.

Since then, 120,000 people in the UK have signed our petition calling on HSBC to stop financing deforestation, including 30,000 HSBC customers.

This decision follows the first round of rapid assessment management recommendations delivered by APP’s independent peat expert team, which is led by the Dutch organisation Deltares.(1)

APRIL is a major cause of deforestation in Indonesia, where it is levelling ancient rainforest to use the timber for pulp production and the land for industrial acacia plantations. APRIL’s operations have been condemned by every major environmental organisation in Indonesia, which have accused it of breaching Indonesian forestry regulations, causing conflict with local communities and of failing to meet its own weak policies on forest protection.