BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale accused by NGOs of financing deforestation in the Amazon

In the middle of COP30, the NGOs Reclaim Finance and Canopée criticized four French banking groups for participating in transactions that benefited two American agri-food giants, Bunge and Cargill.

French banks became easy targets in the middle of COP30. NGOs Reclaim Finance and Canopée on Thursday, November 19 criticized the groups BNP Paribas, Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE), Crédit Agricole and Société Générale for funding two soybean traders accused of obtaining supplies from farmers who cut down the Amazon forest in Brazil. According to their report, four French banking groups participated in transactions worth $10 billion (€8.7 billion) benefiting two American agri-food giants Bunge and Cargill between January 2024 and August 2025. “French banks turn a blind eye to the reality of the problem of deforestation in the Amazon”said Andrea Hernandez, analyst at Reclaim Finance.

“Facing climate change, French banks must immediately open their eyes to the impact of deforestation on the planet and make serious commitments.”

Andrea Hernandez, analyst at Reclaim Finance

in a press release

To reach this conclusion, the two NGOs compared the locations of deforested areas in the Amazon, mapped by the MapBiomas network, which monitors land use via satellite, and the locations of Bunge and Cargill warehouses, recorded by Brazilian land registries. The association noted that on 273 occasions, these silos were located less than 50 kilometers from agricultural land located on deforested land, suggesting that Bunge and Cargill sourced their supplies there.

As for French banks, all claim to have made a commitment to fight deforestation. BNP Paribas told AFP that its client had certainly implemented that goal “zero deforestation” by the end of 2025. “Customer compliance with this policy will be assessed (…) during 2026”he explained. On the part of the Société Générale group, the policy of fighting deforestation “includes specific exclusion criteria for customers operating in the South American soybean value chain”the company said. Crédit Agricole also announced that it had made a commitment “zero deforestation”and monitoring its implementation with customers.

The BPCE group, for its part, strongly criticized the work of the two NGOs, and imposed penalties “unverifiable numbers, without clear methodology”also not “evidence provided”and added that he “will publish its approach to deforestation by the end of 2025”. Finally, both traders Bunge and Cargill claim to have also made a commitment to eliminate deforestation by the end of 2025. Despite these declarations, “This financing shows the bank’s weak, or even non-existent, commitment to deforestation”assured the two NGOs, in their press release.

These accusations emerged as leaders from around the world gathered in the Amazon, in Belém, to attend COP30. The defense of tropical forests, which play a major role in fighting global warming through carbon sequestration, was at the heart of discussions that will conclude on Friday. Funds to combat deforestation have been announced by Brazilian President Lula. “But this is only one side of the coin, and its impact seems illusory as long as there is no plan to end funding directly used for the activities that led to its demise”reminds Klervi Le Guenic, tropical forest campaign manager at the Canopée association.

And if the moratorium signed in 2006 prohibited the marketing of soybeans from deforested lands in the Amazon after 2008, then the “lungs of the earth” would still suffer significant damage related to agribusiness. In this context, Reclaim Finance and Canopée call on French banks to make a serious commitment to fighting deforestation and no longer finance the companies that participate in it.