I en ny artikel skriver Forest 500, at skovrydning i høj grad er forårsaget af det globale handelssystem, som alle er medskyldige i. Forest 500 mener, at man alt for let kan skyde skylden for skovrydning på uansvarlige regeringer, herunder Kina og Brasilien, hvilket dog svækker vores realistiske billede af situationen.
Skovrydning ligger, ifølge Forest 500, på vores middagstallerkner og i vores investeringer. Dette gælder nemlig både fra de virksomeder, der leverer vores mad, til de finansielle institutioner, der forvalter vores pensioner. Da de store aktører fortsætter med at ignorere og finansiere skovrydningen, de forårsager, underminerer de den globalge indsats.
Tropisk skovrydning er i høj grad drevet af udvidelsen af landbruget for råvarer som palmeolie, soja, kvæg og tømmer. Virksomhederne bag denne handel er finansieret af 5,5 billioner dollars – det dobbelte af Storbritanniens BNP – i lån og investeringer fra finansielle institutioner, som ikke tager tilstrækkelige skridt til at imødegå den risiko, dette udgør.
Hertil skriver de:
Troublingly, only a quarter of companies and a fifth of financial institutions in the Forest 500 recognise that deforestation poses any sort of risk to their business activities or reputation, notwithstanding that deforestation exacerbates climate impacts, drives biodiversity loss and affects water supplies.
If the annual Forest 500 data tells a very familiar story, the legal context in which companies operate is changing in a way that will have far-reaching consequences. Regulation – already passed in the UK, and in train in the EU and US – that prohibits companies from using commodities that have been produced on deforested land (although only if this is illegally deforested in the UK and US) – will be significant. These new regulations will require companies to implement due diligence systems to ensure their compliance and to report on their actions.
For the past eight years, the Forest 500 has been a story of a handful of leaders on halting deforestation and many laggards. However, with the most recent data demonstrating how far behind this group really is, it will more likely begin to represent a catalogue of hundreds of large companies and financial institutions that are very poorly prepared for the legislative changes coming down the line.
Læs hele artiklen her:
https://forest500.org/analysis/insights/business-fails-hear-alarm-deforestation
