Illustration: global banks have lent nearly $600 billion since 2020 to firms driving tropical deforestation, according to the Forests & Finance coalition report.
Global banks have lent as much as $595 billion since 2020 to companies that contribute to tropical deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems, according to research released Wednesday by a coalition of environmental groups — a finding that lands just five days before the world's biggest biodiversity summit opens in Armenia.
The annual Banking on Biodiversity Collapse report from the Forests & Finance coalition says lenders funneled $351 billion to "high-risk" agricultural commodity companies and another $244 billion to mining firms between 2020 and 2025, despite mounting pledges by the financial sector to align with climate and nature goals, Reuters reported on October 14, 2026.
What Happened
The report, published on Wednesday, tracks credit and underwriting flowing from major banks to companies operating in and around tropical forest regions. According to the coalition, the two financed sectors — industrial agriculture and mining — are the primary drivers of deforestation, land degradation, and conflict with local communities across the tropical forest basins of South America, Southeast Asia, and Central and West Africa.
The findings are not about a handful of rogue lenders. The coalition says the banks issuing the largest volumes of high-risk credit still do not have adequate safeguards in place to mitigate the risks of serious environmental and social harm — even as many of those same institutions publicly commit to sustainability targets.
The numbers behind the headline are striking. Annual lending and underwriting to mining companies operating in tropical-forest-rich countries rose 55 percent between 2016 and 2025, climbing from $23.7 billion to $36.7 billion, with the fastest growth in financing for lithium and nickel — metals central to the electric-vehicle and battery boom. Over the same span, annual forest-risk financing for agricultural commodities accelerated 71 percent, from $37.9 billion to $64.7 billion, with beef-industry financing up more than 50 percent, soy up 137 percent, and pulp and paper up 157 percent, according to the report.
Illustration: forest-risk financing is concentrated in the tropical forest basins of South America, Southeast Asia, and Central and West Africa.
Southeast Asia stands out in the data. Banks have provided $67.1 billion to Indonesia's pulp and palm oil sectors since 2020, financing that the coalition says has contributed significantly to deforestation and peatland drainage — and made regions such as Kalimantan and Sumatra more vulnerable to fires and floods. The finding connects directly to this season's wildfire emergency: Reuters noted that haze from Indonesia's most intense El Niño-fueled wildfire season in 11 years has triggered a spike in respiratory illnesses and a sharp decline in air quality in Singapore and Malaysia.
Background
The report arrives at a moment of reckoning for conservation policy. A new round of global biodiversity talks — COP17 under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity — opens on October 19 in Yerevan, Armenia, and runs through October 30. It will be the first global review of progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the landmark deal adopted in December 2022 under which nearly 200 countries pledged to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, including conserving at least 30 percent of the world's land, inland waters, and marine areas.
The stocktake expected in Yerevan is set to be sobering. An assessment by the CBD Secretariat indicates that global progress remains insufficient across the framework's 23 targets, and reporting this week suggests countries are far behind on their 2030 conservation commitments. Under Target 18 of the framework, 196 countries committed to reduce nature-harming incentives by at least $500 billion a year by 2030 — yet only about 5 percent have set comprehensive national targets, and an estimated $2.6 trillion a year in public money, close to 2.5 percent of global GDP, still flows to practices that deplete soils, pollute watercourses, and degrade ecosystems, according to UN figures cited in recent reporting.
The tension is visible on the finance front. More than 130 businesses and financial institutions representing $4.7 trillion in assets under management signed an open letter, organized by Business for Nature and the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, calling on governments at COP17 to reform those incentives. Signatories include BNP Paribas Asset Management, Danone, and Orsted. Their argument: current subsidies make high-impact products artificially cheap, penalizing companies with more sustainable practices. Realigning public spending, they argue, does not require governments to find new money — only to allocate existing money more wisely.
Illustration: COP17 opens in Yerevan, Armenia, on October 19, 2026, for the first global review of the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity framework.
Why It Matters
The Forests & Finance findings sharpen a debate that has been building for years: whether voluntary green-finance pledges by banks mean anything while the money keeps flowing to forest-risk sectors. Financing for commodities and mining in tropical regions is not an abstract accounting entry — it is the fuel behind bulldozers, drainage canals, and the conversion of some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth into plantations, pastures, and open pits.
There is a climate dimension too. Tropical forests are among the planet's most powerful carbon sinks, and destroying them releases stored carbon while eliminating future absorption capacity. The same financing that clears forests in Indonesia, Brazil, and the Congo Basin is therefore financing a faster route toward the emissions trajectory the world has pledged to bend downward.
The lithium and nickel detail adds an uncomfortable layer. These metals are essential to the energy transition — batteries, electric vehicles, grid storage — which means the financing of their extraction is entangled with the green transition itself. The question COP17 delegates will face is not whether mining should exist, but whether the financial system can price and mitigate its true environmental and social costs.
The European Union has already staked out a position. On October 12, the Council of the EU adopted its negotiating stance for COP17, vowing to resist any weakening of global biodiversity targets and to push for increased financing. Ireland's Minister of State for Nature, Christopher O'Sullivan, said there could be "no lowering of the ambition" agreed under the global framework.
What Happens Next
All eyes now turn to Yerevan. The COP17 summit, from October 19 to 30, will produce the first formal global review of the Kunming-Montreal framework — and finance is expected to top the agenda, alongside the reform of harmful subsidies and the push to mobilize $200 billion a year for biodiversity. Watch for whether the talks produce concrete rules on how private finance must report and reduce nature-related risk, or whether they end, as previous rounds have, with strengthened language but unchanged money flows.
For banks, the report increases pressure from regulators, shareholders, and activists alike. The coalition's central charge — that the biggest lenders lack adequate safeguards against environmental and social harm — is a direct challenge to the sustainability reports many of these institutions publish. Whether any bank responds with concrete policy changes before Yerevan will be an early signal of how seriously the sector takes the scrutiny.
And for the rest of us, the numbers are a reminder that the fate of tropical forests is decided as much in boardrooms and loan committees as it is in the field. Until the $595 billion flowing into destruction starts flowing toward restoration instead, the 2030 conservation targets agreed by nearly 200 countries will remain, in the words of CBD Executive Secretary Astrid Schomaker, progressing — but not at the pace and scale required.
Sponsored: explore today's featured sponsored offers
Frequently Asked Questions
How much have banks lent to firms linked to tropical deforestation?
Banks lent as much as $595 billion since 2020 to companies contributing to tropical deforestation and ecosystem destruction, according to the Forests & Finance coalition's annual Banking on Biodiversity Collapse report released on October 14, 2026.
What is the Forests & Finance coalition?
It is a coalition of environmental groups that tracks financial flows to forest-risk sectors. Its annual Banking on Biodiversity Collapse report measures bank lending and underwriting to agricultural commodity and mining companies operating in tropical forest regions.
Which sectors received the most forest-risk financing?
Agricultural commodity firms received $351 billion between 2020 and 2025, while mining companies received $244 billion. Within agriculture, beef-industry financing rose more than 50 percent since 2016, soy financing rose 137 percent, and pulp and paper financing rose 157 percent.
When and where is the COP17 biodiversity summit?
COP17, the UN biodiversity conference under the Convention on Biological Diversity, takes place in Yerevan, Armenia, from October 19 to 30, 2026. It will hold the first global review of progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
What is the 30-by-30 target?
It is the commitment made by nearly 200 countries in the 2022 Kunming-Montreal agreement to conserve at least 30 percent of the world's land, inland waters, and marine areas by 2030, alongside targets on restoration, pollution reduction, and financing.
Follow World News Daily Hub for continuing coverage of COP17 and the fight to protect the world's tropical forests.
Sources
- Reuters — "Banks lend nearly $600 billion to firms posing threats to tropical forests, environmental groups say" (Oct 14, 2026)
- Reuters — "Midway to 2030 deadline, countries falling far short on promise to protect nature" (Oct 14, 2026), via the Forests & Finance coalition report and Business for Nature open letter
- Reuters — "EU eyes COP31 climate deal to accelerate CO2 cuts, document shows" (Oct 12, 2026), on the EU's COP31/COP17 negotiating position
- The Climate Watch — "World falling behind on biodiversity goals as COP17 tests global finance commitments" and "EU rejects weaker biodiversity targets, urges more finance at COP17" (Oct 14, 2026), reporting on the CBD Secretariat assessment and Council of the EU position
Comments
Post a Comment