Tell Big Banks: - Stop the destruction in Amazon: end oil and gas investments!

The Amazon is under threat as more land is exploited by fossil fuel companies.

Both deforestation and the threats faced by Indigenous peoples have increased dramatically in recent years. In all likelihood, these numbers will rise even further due to the lack of regulation and the licensing of land for oil extraction and mining in territories considered sacred.

To give you an idea, in the Peruvian Amazon, there were about 500 oil spills between 2000 and 2019, while in the Ecuadorian Amazon, there were more than 900 spills between 2005 and 2015. Is this what we want for the Amazon?
Tell the big banks: Enough destruction in the Amazon: we demand an end to investments in oil and gas!

Banks are destroying the Amazon by financing oil and gas companies that operate in the region.

Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, HSBC, and Bank of America are destroying biodiversity by financing companies that threaten the cultural and socioeconomic sphere of the Indigenous peoples and traditional communities who live there.

71% of the Amazon lacks effective risk management policies related to climate change, biodiversity, forest cover, and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Over 80% of recent financing has gone to just six companies: Gran Tierra, Petrobras, Eneva, Gunvor, Hunt Oil Peru, and Pluspetrol Camisea – companies associated with human rights violations, corruption, and resistance from Indigenous Peoples.

The Amazon territory is overlooked in these banks' environmental and social risk management (ESRM) policies. Even while promising to combat biodiversity loss and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples, these banks continue to finance destructive operations – pure greenwashing!

Rainforests are one of our planet's most precious resources and are crucial in the fight against the climate crisis.

It is these billions that fund the ongoing threats suffered by the Indigenous and traditional communities of the Amazon. This money should be invested to decarbonize and promote a just energy transition in the Amazon, instead of turning it into a carbon bomb.

The time has come to put a stop to this financing.

"We cannot see the Amazon merely as a product for large-scale commerce. It is not acceptable for oil and gas prospecting projects to have a higher value than a life." – Chief Ninawa Inu Bake Huni Kui, leader of the Huni Kui people.

For all these reasons, we demand that Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, HSBC, and Bank of America recognize and respect Amazonian biodiversity and its peoples. End financing and investments in oil and gas in the Amazon now and invest in a just energy transition.

Add your name to help 350.org and local communities confront polluters and defend the Amazon. Take a stand against fossil fuel exploitation in the Amazon!

Sources: StandEarth report: Greenwashing the Amazon: How Banks Are Destroying the Amazon Rainforest While Pretending to be Green