Dutch pension funds are funding deforestation and they could and should do something about that – Op-Ed Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant

Dutch banks and pension funds are facilitating and investing in worldwide deforestation. This must be changed according to an opinion piece in de Volkskrant written by Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition, Kirsten Meijer, WECF and Hannah Mowat, Fern.  

 The Netherlands is funding worldwide deforestation. The past four years more than 4 million hectares of tropical forest has been felled. This is an area the size of the Netherlands, furthermore it is an increase of 12 percent in relation to the previous year. Dutch banks and pension funds are facilitating and investing in this deforestation.  

 The ground reason for this tropical deforestation is the growing demand for agricultural lands for the production of beef, and palm and soy oil. More than one third of the international trade of these products is destined for the European market. The European Commission is aware of its responsibility: it is working on a proposal for the ‘European forest law’. The Netherlands presents itself as an ally to make trade chains deforestation free. However, something is still going wrong. 

Read the original Op-ed in Dutch on the website of De Volkskrant here

A translation of the full article can be found here