Press Releases

Press releases and resources for journalists from Global Witness. For general media enquiries please call + 44 (0) 7912 517 127 or email [email protected]

Statement | April 23, 2021
World leaders must commit to holding climate-wrecking industries and their financial backers to account

The world can’t solve the climate crisis if leaders are unwilling to name the main culprits, let alone have the courage to take on these powerful industry interests.
Statement | Jan. 12, 2021
New report on finance sector’s response to deforestation shows failure of voluntary banking initiatives to tackle deforestation and need for government regulation

Voluntary banking initiatives like the Soft Commodities Compact have clearly failed to rein in banks’ financing of global deforestation, which is helping drive the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and human rights abuses around the world.
Press release | Dec. 2, 2020
Major global banks complicit in widespread destruction of the Amazon rainforest linked to Brazilian beef companies, and international audits flawed

Major Brazilian meat traders are failing to remove huge swathes of Amazon deforestation from their supply chains, which flawed audits by DNV-GL and Grant Thornton then did not pick up
Statement | Nov. 11, 2020
Global Witness response to UK government announcement on new deforestation law

While we welcome the UK government’s commitment to introduce legislation to tackle the UK’s role in global deforestation, the government’s proposals do not go far enough.
Press release | Oct. 22, 2020
Global Witness welcomes landmark report from European Parliament on tackling EU’s role in global deforestation

This ground-breaking report is a clarion call for the EU to step up and tackle its role in global deforestation.
Press release | Oct. 19, 2020
Preserving climate-critical forests with the support of Arcadia

Global Witness is very pleased to announce a new grant of £1.5million from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. This three-year grant (2020–2023) will support our Forests Campaign, which aims to preserve the worlds’ most climate-critical tropical forests by tackling the finance that is bankrolling deforestation.
Press release | Oct. 6, 2020
Global Witness, BankTrack and 19 other civil society organisations call on UK government not to leave finance out of a proposed new law on deforestation

Today, over twenty organisations sent an open letter to the UK government calling for the finance industry not to be left out of a proposed new law to tackle the UK’s contribution to global deforestation
Press release | Oct. 6, 2020
Open letter: Don't leave finance out of a future law on imported deforestation

In light of the continued role of UK finance in backing companies associated with deforestation, we hope the UK government will ensure that legislation covers financial institutions
Press release | Oct. 5, 2020
Global Witness welcomes calls by major businesses for stronger UK legislation on global deforestation

Global Witness welcomes today’s open letter by major businesses including McDonalds, Unilever, Marks & Spencer , Morrison's, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Lidl, Nando's and Nestle, calling for tougher new rules to tackle deforestation in UK supply chains.
Press release | June 22, 2020
A letter to the Consumer Goods Forum: It’s Time to Stop the Fires and Deliver on ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation’ Commitments

Companies should be delivering on crucial deforestation commitments.