New Report on TIAA’s Links to Deforestation and Land Grabbing

On May 10, Friends of the Earth published their report on TIAA’s links to deforestation and land grabbing in partnership with ActionAidUSA, Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos de Brasil (Brazilian Social Network for Justice and Human Rights, a Grassroots International partner), and Inclusive Development International. Their report, «Invested in Exploitation? TIAA’s Ties to Land Grabbing and Deforestation,» exposes TIAA’s role in leading a trend of investment in farmland that drives up land prices and displaces family farmers, and TIAA’s investments in Southeast Asian palm oil companies known for ravaging tropical forests, abusing workers and indigenous peoples, and driving species to the brink of extinction. Download the report.

Rede Social, the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights, works closely with Brazil’s social movements, providing legal assistance and defense, research, trainings, reporting and media campaigns on civil rights abuses. A leading voice in exposing agrofuels in Brazil and across Latin America as one of the false solutions to climate change, the organization has played a key role in exposing human rights violations against rural workers and displaced rural families affected by this industry. The human rights defense of Rede Social is a critical part of resisting the repression and criminalization against Brazilian social movements.

Friends of the Earth U.S. also recently released a video about a palm oil related-land grabbing case in Indonesia in partnership with Friends of the Earth Indonesia: