Greenpeace peaceful protest disrupts CEOs linked with destroying millions of forest hectares

Greenpeace Canada activists peacefully gate-crashed a gathering of hundreds of CEOs and senior managers of leading global brands to call out their role in destroying forests and contributing to the climate crisis.

Minutes before the opening plenary of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Global Summit, Greenpeace climbers scaled the event venue and unfurled a banner which welcomed delegates with a spoofed CGF logo and the slogan “Failing Forests. Failing the Climate.”

Other climbers inside the venue dropped down from ceiling rafters over the reception hall where delegates gathered. They held a banner with a reminder that companies are “Still Destroying Forests”. The banner was branded with corporate logos of some of the largest players in the industry that are members of the CGF.

“We’re here to send a direct message to the CEOs of these companies attending the summit today: you are failing to end deforestation, pushing species to the brink of extinction and feeding the climate crisis. Instead of running seminars on marketing to millennials, you should be agreeing the bold actions you will take to fix your deforestation problem. And that means fundamentally changing the way you do business,” said Daniel Brindis, Forests Campaign Director of Greenpeace USA.

Greenpeace is calling on companies at the summit – which include some of the world’s largest consumer brands like Nestlé, Mondelez and Unilever – to declare a climate and ecological emergency, then cancel their sessions and use the time to agree on bold actions to end deforestation by 2020, as they promised to do almost a decade ago.

CGF members committed in 2010 to end deforestation by 2020 through “responsible sourcing” of cattle, palm oil, soya and other commodities. However, Greenpeace International released new analysis yesterday showing that at least 50 million hectares of forest will have been destroyed for commodities during the 10 years of broken corporate commitments leading up to 2020.[1]

No single company – among more than 50 that Greenpeace contacted – could demonstrate meaningful effort to end links to deforestation.[2]

“We’re living in a climate and ecological emergency and these companies have a choice: evolve their business or start winding down. Our children and the climate can’t wait for another decade of fine words and no action. It’s time to make big changes,” said Melanie Dupuis, a volunteer climber among the team of all-women climbers.

ENDS

Photos and Videos will be available here:https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MZIFJ823YP4

Notes

[1] 50 million hectares is a conservative estimate based on a combination of actual data on deforestation from 2010-15, tree cover loss from 2010-18 and forecasting until the end of 2019. From 2010-15 deforestation and tree cover loss combined was approximately 5 million hectares per year – according to scientific analysis of satellite mapping from NASA. If this rate continued, forest loss would reach 50 million hectares by the end of 2019. However, because tree cover loss has increased in the years 2016-18, it’s likely deforestation will also have increased, so the actual figure could be much higher.

[2] Companies written to include:

Consumer goods companies, such as Unilever, Mars, Nestle, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg, Danone

Retailers: Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Casino, Metro, Ahold Delhaize

Fast food companies: McDonald’s, Yum! brands (KFC), Burger King, Subway

Meat producers: Tyson, Danepak, JBS, Marfrig, Danish Crown

Dairy companies: Arla, Dairy Crest, FrieslandCampina

Commodities traders: Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Wilmar, Louis Dreyfus, Cofco