Bank of America Corp (BoA) has become the latest US financial institution to tighten its rules to prevent the funding of deforestation.
Along with other lenders, the BoA has been lobbied to take this action by the San Francisco environmental group Rainforest Action Network. It follows Citicorp which took similar steps in January.
BoA says it will not now fund companies involved in gas or oil exploration, mining or logging in “old-growth rainforests”. It will also refuse to finance logging operations in areas defined as “intact forests” by the World Resource Institute.
Under its new policy it will also refuse loans to companies that “knowingly purchase timber from illegal logging operations” or from “sensitive sources” whre indigenous people have unresolved land claims.
Rainforest Action Network is targeting other banks to follow Citicorp and BoA’s example, including Goldman Sachs, Bank One Corp and Morgan Chase.
