Merel Van Der Mark, Forest and Finance Coalition
Have you ever tried to mop a floor while water from the tap keeps running onto it?
This is what indigenous peoples and traditional communities are facing as they try to protect their territories. Mobilizing money to protect their territories has proven to be extremely difficult and time consuming. Meanwhile, there seems to be no lack of finance for the bulldozers that keep operating at full speed as companies and their suppliers continue to grab lands, destroy livelihoods and violate human rights. Over the past decade, banks have invested at least USD 429 billion in tropical forest-risk commodities.
Most worrying, there is an upward trend, with banks increasing their financing for these companies in the past years. This money pipeline towards destruction has to be stopped, and for that, we need strong financial regulations. Without that, the effort to mobilize resources for forest protection will be a futile exercise. Like mopping up a floor with the tap running .