On September 5, 2018 the Office of U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, Friends of the Earth, and Amazon Watch held a briefing entitled, “Private Investment as a Driver of Deforestation: Senate Briefing on Exposure of US Investment to Deforestation, Corruption, and Governance Risks.” The briefing took place in the Senate Russell Building in Washington, DC.
Civil Society experts from Ecuador, Indonesia and Liberia presented their experiences from the frontlines of tropical deforestation and examined existing financial, material and reputational risks to US investors exposed to conflict crude oil, palm oil and other forest-risk commodities.
Issues addressed during the briefing included: capacity of national governments to negotiate with multinational corporations; corruption; free prior informed consent of local communities affected by deforestation; human rights of indigenous inhabitants of deforested land; the role of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO); and the use of international and national law in prosecuting human rights abuses by local and multinational corporations.
Geoffrey Mazullo, Principal, Emerging Markets ESG attended the briefing.