TELL BLACKROCK: Stop funding rainforest destruction NOW!

Blackrock is funneling HUGE amounts of money to companies slashing rainforests for profit! Every year, the world loses enough forests to fill the state of New York. With each passing second, Blackrock adds more fuel to the deforestation crisis.

To get to the forests, Blackrock-funded companies often grab land that Indigenous communities have stewarded for generations. These companies violently force Indigenous people from their homes, destroy their livelihoods, dump waste in their rivers, use paramilitary force to divide and repress them, and turn their treasured land into toxic industrial palm oil plantations.

Comments

Dear Michelle Edkins,

These are challenging and confusing times for ESG, and BlackRock is right at the center of these challenges. On the one hand, your firm has positioned itself as a leader in advancing a “social purpose” and recognizing that climate risk is investment risk. On the other hand, while BlackRock has demonstrated increased stewardship around the issue of deforestation, this increased stewardship has not resulted in decreased exposure to risk, or to resolving the root issues.

Let’s take the example of Indonesia’s second largest palm oil company, Astra Agro Lestari (AAL) and its owner, Astra International. As The Financial Times has reported, BlackRock is the third largest shareholder in Astra International, and holds shares in AAL as well. (“BlackRock accused of ESG inconsistency over Indonesia palm oil,” FT, May 2021) You are aware of the case.

In October 2022, six major multinationals – Danone, Hershey, P&G, Colgate Palmolive, L’Oreal, and Nestle – suspended business with AAL due to its human rights abuses. Sustainalytics dropped its rating to “Severe Risk.” The Indonesian Ministry of the Environment has pressed AAL for answers. AAL continues to deny any wrongdoing.

So, where is BlackRock here? Where does a rating of severe risk fit in your ESG approach? Will you engage with Astra International and push them to change their ways? Will you remove them from your portfolios?

Perhaps if BlackRock had a clear threshold for exclusion, based on human rights and environmental criteria, the course of action would be clear.

Don’t you think it's time BlackRock developed a policy to categorically address human rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and deforestation risk in your portfolios?

In the palm oil sector, Astra International is known as a rogue actor, which has consistently failed to clean up its act. BlackRock should categorically, and publicly, exclude AAL from your portfolios. But it’s a bigger problem than just one company. BlackRock should create and market deforestation-free funds as a default option for your clients. You should vote for shareholder resolutions to protect forests and human rights and vote out corporate board members who lag on climate. And you should put these and other actions into an investment policy statement to make your priorities clear and to lead the way for your peers.

Leading responsible investment firms are developing comprehensive policies to address deforestation risk, and BlackRock should do the same.

Thank you.
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