Deforestation is intrinsically linked to human rights abuses. The agricultural expansion that drives over 90% of the destruction also impacts the 1.6 billion people who rely on tropical forests for their lives and livelihoods.

This podcast covers the launch of the latest Forest 500 human rights briefing called: The human rights blindspot on deforestation action. The latest data shows just 1% of the companies most exposed to deforestation have a policy that covers all of the human rights aspects that their commodities are exposed to.

The podcast focuses on free, prior and informed consent - or FPIC - one of the key human rights linked to deforestation.

You'll hear from:

• Yula Rocha - Indigenous and Climate Projects Manager, People’s Palace Projects
• Adriana Ramos - Public Policies specialist at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA)
• Cathal Doyle - Co-ordinator, Legal and Human Rights Programme, Forest Peoples Programme
• Emma Thomson, Forest 500 and Tracking Lead, Global Canopy
• Giulia Bondi​​​​, EU Senior Campaigner, Global Witness

For 10 years Global Canopy has been publishing its Forest 500 report, assessing the deforestation record of the 350 companies and 150 financial institutions most exposed to tropical deforestation. In this podcast - to mark the launch of the tenth report - you'll hear about the 10 lessons that can drive real deforestation change.
Ten years has seen the collection of 1.3 million data points that are used to assess the strength and implementation of the 500's publicly available deforestation, ecosystem conversion and human rights commitments and policies.
In this podcast, the Independent's senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle is joined by Giulia Carbone, Director of Natural Climate Solutions at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Grace Iara, Lead convenor of the Alliance for the Amazon, Global Canopy Executive Director Niki Mardas and Pierre Cannet, Global Head of Public Affairs and Policy at Client Earth.
Learn more and read the report at www.forest500.org

Forest IQ is a powerful new data platform for financial institutions that for the first time brings together aligned, best-in-class, and actionable data on how more than 2,000 major companies are addressing their links to deforestation.

This podcast is taken from the launch event and explores how the platform can enable financial institutions to easily screen portfolios, engage with the most relevant companies, manage deforestation risks and achieve their climate and nature targets. 

There is no way to meet net-zero targets without an end to deforestation and its launch comes at a time of growing policy and compliance pressure on the finance sector to act.

You'll hear from Global Canopy's Executive Director Niki Mardas introducing Forest IQ, before a panel discussion led  by - Danielle Carreira from the World Economic Forum, questioning Tim Steinweg from the PRI, Emily McKenzie from the TNFD, Eugenie Mathieu from Aviva Investors and Gemma Corrigan from Federated Hermes.