 Investment fund drops Brazil's JBS over environment Rio De Janeiro (AFP) July 28, 2020 - The asset management division of the Nordic region's largest bank said Tuesday it has divested from the world's biggest meat processing company, Brazil's JBS, over destruction of the Amazon rainforest and other scandals. Nordea Asset Management, a 230-billion-euro fund, said the decision was taken by its "responsible investments committee," and applies to around 40 million euros in all. The Helsinki-based fund said the divestment was decided earlier this month. But it was only made public after an investigative journalism consortium published a report Monday accusing JBS of illicitly sourcing cattle from ranches blacklisted for destroying the Amazon. It was the fifth time in just over a year that JBS, which exports around the world, has been accused of "cattle laundering," in which animals from a blacklisted ranch are transferred to another to dodge a ban on sales. JBS's response to outbreaks of the new coronavirus at its slaughterhouses, past corruption scandals and "poor engagement" were also factors in the decision, Nordea Asset Management said in a statement. "After a period of engagement with the company... we did not feel that we were seeing the response that we were looking for" on "numerous" issues, said Nordea's head of responsible investment, Eric Pedersen. "As JBS shares have not been a preferred investment of ours for a long time... we did not have very much left at the end." Notably, he said, the decision applies not only to Nordea's "ESG" funds -- Environmental, Social and Governance funds, which pursue socially responsible investments -- but to all its products. "JBS does not comment on decisions by investors, but regrets it had not recently been approached by the fund in question to directly present all the measures and actions demonstrating its full committment to transparency and sustainability," the Brazilian company said in a statement sent to AFP. Brazil faces mounting pressure to slow surging deforestation after massive fires devastated the Amazon last year -- often set to clear land for ranching and farming. Nordea is one of 29 global investment firms managing close to $4 trillion in assets that last month wrote an open letter to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro urging him to change government policies blamed for accelerating the destruction of the world's largest rainforest. |
The Philippines was the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders again last year while slipping to second most dangerous in the world behind Colombia, a watchdog said Wednesday.
A total of 43 defenders were killed in the archipelago -- the vast majority on the fertile and resource-rich islands of Mindanao and Negros -- compared with 30 in 2018, Global Witness said in a report.
Nearly half of the killings recorded since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in 2016 have been linked to the armed forces or paramilitary groups, it said.
- Who is being killed? -
Indigenous leaders, farmers and state employees charged with protecting the environment were among the victims.
More than half the deaths were related to agribusiness, Global Witness said. Sixteen killings were linked to mining -- the highest in the world.
Nearly half of those killed lived on Mindanao, where the army has long maintained a heavy presence in the fight against communist and Muslim insurgents.
The island was under martial law until the end of last year.
Large numbers of defenders were also killed on Negros, a sugar-producing island in the central Philippines that is also heavily militarised and where activists have long campaigned for land reform to reduce inequality and poverty.
"Defenders living in Mindanao and Negros made up almost 90 percent of land and environmental activists killed in the country in 2019," the report said.
Kaylo Bontolan, a leader of the Manobo tribe on Mindanao, was among them.
He was killed in a military airstrike in April last year when he returned to his mountain home to help document violence against fellow tribe members.
"Like Datu Kaylo, many of those killed were indigenous people asserting their right to self-determination and their ancestral lands," the report said.
- What's at stake? -
The impact of climate change has dialled up the pressure on defenders as they seek to protect indigenous land rights and stop commercial loggers and miners destroying pristine rainforests and polluting the environment.
"Rising temperatures, landslides and increasingly dangerous typhoons make the Philippines the country most at-risk of multiple climate hazards," Global Witness warned.
While Duterte's government has acknowledged the environmental threats to the country, the reality is "business as usual", it said.
"Large companies, influential politicians and established landowners continue to make money with brazen disregard for the rights and wellbeing of local communities, and the lives of activists," the report said.
An example, it noted, was the planned China-backed construction of an $800 million hydropower dam on indigenous land in Mindanao that will displace more than 700 households, who say they were not consulted.
- Is it more dangerous under Duterte? -
The report says 119 defenders were killed during Duterte's first three years in office -- almost twice the number compared with the three years before he took power.
While defenders have long faced deadly reprisals for their efforts, Global Witness said the Duterte administration's "relentless vilification" of them and widespread impunity for offenders could be driving the increase.
The report highlighted the practice of "red-tagging" activists and environmental groups -- accusing them of being rebels or communist sympathisers -- which it said was part of a broader global trend to delegitimise communities' concerns.
A new anti-terrorism law that gives security forces sweeping powers to go after groups or individuals could put government critics, including defenders, at risk of prosecution, it added.
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