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Briefing Paper #2: Nationally and Sub-Nationally Recognized Areas

No Go area 2: Nationally recognized areas calls on banks and financiers to protect nationally and sub-nationally recognized areas, such as parks, reserves, memorials, monuments, preserves, among others, by prohibiting direct and indirect financing to activities and projects which may harm these areas. This paper provides key lessons on the risks associated with investing in nationally recognized areas, as well as on how banks and financiers can do more to protect these areas from unsustainable development and projects.

Briefing Paper #1: Internationally-Recognized Areas

Friends of the Earth US’ new briefing paper, “Protecting Biodiversity from Harmful Financing:  Internationally-Recognized Areas,” details the critical role of banks and financiers in protecting internationally recognized areas, such as World Heritage sites, IUCN category sites, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves.

简报一：国际公约以及协议承认区域

禁入区域一：该简报介绍了代表了地球上最有标志性和珍贵的自然，例如世界遗产地、世界自然保护联盟只等保护区，联合国教科文组织生物圈保护区等第。简报介绍了这些地区面临的威胁，且呼吁银行和金融机构拒绝为在这些地区内的商业活动提供融资。

ShareAction’s new report shows that Europe’s largest banks are not doing enough to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss

In their recent report, “In Debt to the Planet: An assessment of the 25 largest European banks’ biodiversity and climate strategies,” ShareAction assesses and ranks Europe’s 25 largest banks on their approach to climate changeShareAction’s new report shows that Europe’s largest banks are not doing enough to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss

Civil society organizations send a letter to commercial and public financial institutions, calling for biodiversity protection

On December 12, 2022, during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), civil society organizations impressed the importance of the international financial sector’s role in stoppingCivil society organizations send a letter to commercial and public financial institutions, calling for biodiversity protection

As touristic investments in Komodo National Park increases, local groups warn about the potential consequences of unsustainable tourism.

For years, WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia has been a crucial watchdog of the Indonesian government, which has been criticized for facilitating unsustainable projects in the Komodo National Park. Recently, they are raising concerns regarding tourism developments in and around the Park. WALHI’s paper, “Komodo National Park: The Only Home of Komodo Dragons in Peril,” exposes the negative environmental and social impacts of unchecked tourism development on the Komodo ecosystem and the Indigenous peoples who live in the park.

Mitigation is not enough for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline; threats to several No Go Areas warrant a full stop to the project

A recent article by Al Jazeera highlights the backwards thinking around the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would pose serious threats to several highly biodiverse and critical ecosystems, including at least four of the Banks and Biodiversity No Go Areas. The project’s key developers, Total Energies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, claim to be committed to minimizing the pipeline’s environmental impacts, but turn a blind eye to the fact that EACOP should have been prohibited from the start, by virtue of its location.

A new report from the Environmental Paper Network reveals another case of “Conflict Plantations,” this time in Chile.

The impacts and the needed steps towards solutions of Chile’s pulp and paper industry have been documented in a report released by the Environmental Paper Network together with Colectivo Viento Sur and Global Forest Coalition titled, “Stolen land and fading forests in Chile.” The report is Chapter 3 in a global investigative report series by the Environmental Paper Network titled, “Conflict Plantations.”