Campaign group Global Witness recently accused British bank HSBC of earning $130 million by bankrolling logging companies responsible for environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, a Malaysian part of Borneo.
Campaign group Global Witness recently accused British bank HSBC of earning $130 million by bankrolling logging companies responsible for environmental destruction and human rights abuses in Sarawak, a Malaysian part of Borneo.
The Sarawak region exports more tropical timber than South America and Africa combined, Global Witness said, yet it retains just 5 percent of its forest holdings following decades of industrial-scale logging and plantation development. In its report, "In the Future There Will be no Forests Left," Global Witness identifies HSBC loans to seven large logging firms, including Shin Yang Group, Sarawak Oil Palms, WTK Group and Ta Ann. The companies are accused of clearing rainforests, illegally clearing steep riverbanks and mountains, clearing peat forests for palm oil plantations, and stealing land from native people.
The latest report is a blot on HSBC's record, which has a track record of doing more than just paying lip service to environmental concerns, according to The Economist. The bank's decisions to maintain ties with the logging companies does not align with its Forest Land and Forest Products Sector Policy, which required clients to have 70 percent of activities certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) by 2009, with evidence that the remainder was legal.
Global Witness found that none of the companies in Sarawak has any FSC-certified holdings. Meanwhile, HSBC told The Economist that it was "not accurate" to say its clients were in violation of its forestland policy, and it said 99 percent of its forest-sector clients are "compliant" or "near-compliant" with its policies. "We consider engagement rather than exclusion as the right approach for a responsible bank to take," HSBC told The Economist. "In this way, we believe HSBC contributes more to sustainable development-and the long-term commercial viability of our customers' businesses-than if we were merely to exit customer relationships."
