On November 11th, 2020, the Banks and Biodiversity campaign led 38 civil society groups (CSOs) in calling on nearly 200 public development banks and financial institutions to commit to adopting the Banks and Biodiversity proposed No Go policy. The letter was sent to public development banks and financial institutions participating in the Finance in Common Summit, which took place on November 9-12, 2020, and called on financial actors to take urgent steps to safeguard the world’s last and most critical ecosystems necessary for fighting climate change, preventing biodiversity loss, and containing the emergence of zoonotic diseases.
Although these global challenges are typically addressed in silos, humanity’s success in solving them will require deeply intertwined and holistic approaches, as it is impossible to resolve one without addressing others. As upstream, enabling actors in project and development financing, public development banks and financial institutions play a particularly critical role in accelerating, slowing, or preventing direct and indirect drivers of climate change, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic diseases, and should be held responsible for these impacts.
The Banks and Biodiversity No Go policy identifies eight, high risk areas deserving of urgent and immediate protection. Examples include habitats with endangered or endemic species, free, flowing rivers, intact primary forests and vulnerable secondary forest ecosystems, community based conservation or Indigenous Territories where free, prior, informed consent have not obtained, as well as iconic ecosystems, such as the Amazon and Arctic, among others. The letter called on banks and financial institutions to adopt or integrate this policy into their environmental, social, or exclusionary activities policies.
CSO signatories included international, regional, and local groups such as BankTrack, Inclusive Development International, Friends of the Earth US, Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, Rivers Without Boundaries, Save Lamu, A Rocha Ghana, among many others. A list of organizations who endorsed the letter can be found below. To view the letter sent to public development banks, please see the links below.
