The Indigenous Advisory Group (IAG) of the Banks and Biodiversity Initiative supports the joint call for financial institutions to uphold the zero-deforestation criteria of the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM). While the Moratorium agreement itself may have been rolled back on the basis of Brazilian political interests, financial institutions should recognize the value and importance of upholding its principles as a matter of risk management and adherence to global norms. For two decades, the Moratorium has served as a practical, evidence-based measure to curb biodiversity loss, reduce climate risk, and prevent serious human rights harms affecting Indigenous Peoples. Financial sector leadership is critical to preserving credible zero-deforestation commitments and protecting a globally critical ecosystem.

For Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, the ASM has been more than a sourcing framework. It has helped safeguard territories, cultures, and fundamental rights – and upholding its fundamental criteria can continue to do so. Soy expansion into forest areas is consistently associated with land encroachment, tenure insecurity, conflict, and erosion of Indigenous rights and governance. As deforestation advances, risks to land rights, self-determination, food systems, and community safety increase, creating material human rights exposure within financial portfolios.

Indigenous territories are among the most effective barriers to deforestation and biodiversity loss. By signaling that forest conversion for soy is incompatible with responsible markets and capital, the ASM has reduced pressure on these lands. For financial institutions to abandon its time-tested criteria would weaken this protection, conflict with international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and run counter to emerging mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence regulations.

Eroding the ASM’s 2008 cut-off and zero-deforestation standard would heighten legal, regulatory, reputational, and transition risks, increasing exposure to land conflicts, trade restrictions on deforestation-linked commodities, and stranded assets as sustainability requirements tighten. Alignment with strong no-deforestation commitments instead supports supply chain resilience, biodiversity integrity, and climate stability.

At this pivotal moment, the IAG supports the Forest & Finance Coalition’s call for financial institutions to exercise active stewardship by ensuring the companies that they finance:

▪ Maintain full adherence to the principles of the ASM and its criteria

▪ Implement farm-level traceability and robust monitoring of direct and indirect deforestation risks

▪ Treat any Amazon deforestation, legal or illegal, as incompatible with financing

▪ Integrate Indigenous Peoples’ rights into due diligence, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), respect for land tenure, and protection of human rights defenders

About the Banks and Biodiversity Initiative and Indigenous Advisory Group

Bank financing in ill-conceived infrastructure development, improper land use changes, fossil fuel energy development, monoculture agricultural production, and extractive industries are driving the disappearance of biodiversity and critical ecosystems.

Despite the significant role banks play in financing these sectors and activities, many financial institutions have yet to develop robust policies or practices to address the biodiversity impacts of their lending. This is why civil society groups, academics, and people’s groups across the world are calling on banks to adopt a No Go areas approach to categorically prohibit financing of harmful activities in or near sensitive areas.

The Banks and Biodiversity Initiative aims to hold banks accountable for their impact on biodiversity and critical ecosystems, and advocates that banks adopt our proposed No Go areas. It is led by a steering committee of civil society organizations which includes: BankTrack, Bank Information Center, Friends of the Earth US, International Rivers, and Rivers without Boundaries.

The Banks and Biodiversity Initiative is also guided by the Indigenous Advisory Group, a group of Indigenous experts who inform and advise the steering committee on the intersection of biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples issues.Please see our Indigenous Advisory Group members here.