French BNP to Halt Financial Assist to Clients Who Grow or Buy Soybeans in Converted Amazon Land

French international banking group BNP Paribas announced on 15 February that it will no longer provide financial services to customers who grow or buy Brazilian soybeans in Amazonian land that has been cleared or converted since 2008, Oils & Fats International reported on March 05. The company said Brazilian beef and soyabean production had accelerated deforestation in the country’s Amazon and Cerrado regions which “legal or illegal, jeopardises the ecological integrity and future of these two biomes”. 

BNP said the move was part of its commitment to encourage its customers producing or buying beef or soya from the country’s Amazon and Cerrado regions to become ‘zero deforestation’ and to transparently demonstrate their progress. As a result, BNP said it would only provide its products or services to companies with a strategy to achieve zero deforestation in their production and supply chains by 2025. The company said it would also encourage its clients not to produce or buy beef or soybeans from cleared or converted land in the country’s Cerrado region after 1 January 2021, in line with global standards.