Banks and investment funds have provided $595 billion in financing to firms involved in agribusiness and mining in tropical forest areas since 2020, according to a new report by the Forests & Finance coalition.
As the coalition noted in the Banking on Biodiversity Collapse 2026 report, the findings raise an ‘urgent need’ to connect financing decisions to real-world impacts, and ‘close the accountability gap’.
‘Accountability gap’
“Forests, rivers and reefs aren’t optional extras – they’re the support systems the economy and life itself depend on,” commented Stephanie Dowlen, senior forest campaigner with Rainforest Action Network. “But banks are financing their collapse anyway.
“We have to close the accountability gap and build food and energy systems that can actually function over the long term, not ones that destroy the foundations we all depend on.”
For the first time, the coalition’s analysis includes financing for metal and mineral mining, reflecting the expansion of nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper production into tropical forest regions. It also expanded its assessment of forest-risk commodities to include coffee and cocoa.
Public commitments
As the coalition noted, the average score for bank policies covering financing for forest-risk agro-commodities stands at just 25%, reflecting ‘major gaps’ in public commitments to protect human rights and biodiversity.
It said that financing has continued for firms linked to deforestation, peatland destruction, fires, pollution, and violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights across South America, Southeast Asia and Central and West Africa.
Brazil and Indonesia are identified as areas of particular risk, following the collapse of the Amazon Soy Moratorium in the former, and continued expansion of plantation models associated with deforestation in the latter.
Focus on COP17
The coalition’s findings were published during the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) conference in Amsterdam, which takes place just before governments gather in Armenia for the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17).
At COP17, the coalition is calling on governments to strengthen financial regulation requiring banks and investors to conduct biodiversity and human rights due diligence, and improve transparency.
Separately, it has called on banks to strengthen their requirements covering deforestation, conversion of natural ecosystems and peatland development, independently verify compliance and end financing relationships with companies that repeatedly violate those standards.
The report was produced by the Forests & Finance coalition, an initiative of Rainforest Action Network, TuK Indonesia, Profundo, Amazon Watch, Milieudefensie, CED Cameroon, Repórter Brasil, Observatório da Mineração, BankTrack, Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Friends of the Earth US. Read more here.
