"Swiss Re has more insurance cases linked to conflicts with indigenous people and quilombola communities", 27 March 2025

...SWISS RE, one of the world’s leading insurers, provided agricultural insurance to a farm notified by environmental inspection for illegal deforestation and two other agricultural areas that, according to the geographic coordinates on the policies, are located on properties partially overlapping traditional communities. The contracts, signed in 2024, received a total of 264,000 BRL (45,470 USD) in government subsidies.

The information was obtained by Repórter Brasil through data provided by the PSR (Rural Insurance Premium Subsidy Programme), which is managed by Mapa (Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock). With the programme, the federal government pays part of the premium as an incentive to the country’s agricultural production.

Before that, in November 2023, an article by Repórter Brasil had already identified other cases where Swiss Re insured crops overlapping indigenous land and farms with records of illegal deforestation. The investigation gave rise to a petition by the international organization Ekō demanding that the multinational company stop insuring irregular farms. The initiative has more than 66,000 signatures.

When asked about the new cases, the insurer did not comment on any of them specifically but responded that, in mid-2024, it improved its processes for analysing social and environmental risks. They began to include, for example, additional information provided by FUNAI [The National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples] and Conservation Units. Swiss Re also stated that “existing contracts that no longer meet the new standards will not be renewed.” Read the full statement here...

“Insuring plantations in conflict areas is against international legislative and corporate standards, especially for companies committed to complying with Convention 169 – which addresses the rights of indigenous peoples – and following Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) principles,” says Marco Antônio Delfino de Almeida, a Federal Prosecutor in Dourados, city of Mato Grosso do Sul, in an interview with Repórter Brasil in 2023. This is his opinion despite the fact that, according to him, there is no legal restriction to providing insurance, since the indigenous territory is still in the process of demarcation...

Also in 2024, cattle rancher Ezequiel Sisnando Xenofonte Neto hired Swiss Re to protect his cattle in Santa Rita, State of Maranhão (MA)...

An area that is home to 62 families, partially overlapping the Cetro Farm, was certified in 2022 as a remnant of a quilombo area...

Father and son are being investigated by the Public Prosecution Service in Maranhão for poisoning the waters of a stream used by the quilombola (maroon-descendant) community with pesticides. In an investigation by the Civil Police, Xenofonte Neto was indicted for causing harm to the residents...