June 2019

ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank are ducking their responsibility for the disastrous consequences of providing finance to the palm oil sector. This black book reveals that these four Australian banks are failing in their attempts to prevent their money from being used to fund rainforest clearing, land grabbing and human rights violations. ...These banks, however, refuse to recognise the structural nature of the palm oil sector's issues. ...That is why Friends of the Earth Australia is calling on ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank to cut their financial ties with the palm oil sector and to withdraw from it as soon as possible.

...All big four banks had ongoing financial involvement with Wilmar International of over US$2billion, which has had multiple allegations of harmful practices. One such example is in West Sumatra Indonesia where the PT PMJ plantation, part of the Indonesian company AMP POM – PT AMP, a subsidiary Wilmar International is accused of intimidating the resident population and chasing the inhabitants off their native land to make way for palm oil.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg, 68 human rights and environmental violations were discovered at multiple palm oil plantations belonging to Wilmar International Limited, Triputra Agro Persada, POSCO DAEWOO, Olam International Limited, Noble Plantations Pte Ltd, Goodhope Asia, Astra International that have received money from at least one of these four Australian banks within the past ten years. ...ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank have been active in the palm oil sector for a considerable period of time...