Big Banks Accused Of Financing Rain Forest Destruction

Two major banks, Credit Suisse and Bank of America, are singled out in an article about the role of banks in financing environmentally disastrous projects in Indonesia, specifically a palm oil plantation development under the Rajawali Group – “a sprawling local conglomerate known for its ties to powerful politicians,” according to the New York Times. However that deal, with those banks, is said to be far from unique. It represents 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 environmental groups in California, the Netherlands and Indonesia, and many of the banks that provide that financing have “sustainability pledges.” A spokesman from the Rajawai Group denied the company engaged in illegal burning, and a spokesman from Bank of America said its financing role in this case was minimal and that the bank would “consider more information” before making other similar commitments. In any case the rain forest devastation proceeds apace in southeast Asia, displacing indigenous communities, destroying habitat, releasing huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, and generating “a thick, suffocating smog that stretches from Jakarta to Hong Kong.”