We are taking action to challenge the financial institutions complicit in the criminal deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.  

Who are we?  

The Transnational Legal Coalition (TLC) connects those most directly affected by corporate greed and environmental harm with organisations working to challenge these abuses globally. By linking local and Indigenous communities with international lawyers, campaigners, investigators and civil society groups, we take bold, coordinated action across borders to hold corporate and financial actors accountable.  

The destruction of the Amazon is globalised. Accountability for it must be, too. 

Across the Brazilian Amazon, forests are being cleared to make way for cattle ranching. Indigenous communities are losing their land and livelihoods, and the destruction is contributing to the Global climate crisis. Yet the companies and financial institutions connected to this industry continue to benefit.   

The TLC has launched coordinated legal action in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany against JBS, the world's largest meat processor, and the banks, investors and professional service providers that finance and support its operations. We are using existing anti-money-laundering laws to challenge the financial institutions that may be facilitating profits being made from criminal deforestation. 

We are raising £5000 to support this groundbreaking legal action. Together, we can follow the money, challenge impunity, and hold those who profit from environmental destruction accountable. 

What are we trying to achieve? 

To stop environmental destruction, we need to look beyond the companies clearing forests and examine the financial institutions that help make their operations possible. 

Much of the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is illegal under Brazilian law, and some may constitute criminal conduct. "We maintain that cattle and profits linked to criminal deforestation are the proceeds of crime under European anti-money-laundering laws and we want to see those laws used to hold those who may be profiting from harms held accountable."

Behind the financial transactions are people whose homes, forests and livelihoods are under threat. We are working closely with Brazilian human rights and Indigenous organisations and communities. Their experiences and voices are central to this work.  

If successful, this legal approach could open up new ways of using existing laws to challenge the financial systems that enable environmental destruction, with implications stretching far beyond the Amazon. 

What’s next?

The complaints will present evidence tracing the links between cattle raised on land affected by criminal deforestation, the profits generated through the beef supply chain, and the European institutions that may be handling and benefiting from that money. 

We will ask the relevant authorities in each country to investigate whether financial institutions and other professionals have complied with their legal obligations and to take appropriate action where they have not. 

Your support will enable us to challenge the financial structures that allow environmental destruction to continue, and help us pursue accountability not only for those directly involved in deforestation, but also for the wider systems that enable and benefit from it. 

Why your support matters  

This case is about more than one company or one supply chain. It is about establishing that the financial institutions and other actors enabling environmental destruction cannot simply look the other way.  

Taking on powerful corporations and the financial institutions behind them requires significant resources. Your support will help us build the evidence, work alongside local partners and legal experts, and pursue coordinated complaints across multiple jurisdictions.  

Photo credit: Marcus Mesquita