Spare a buck for the rainforest ANZ

The Green Party is renewing its call for the ANZ bank to stop financing illegal rainforest destruction in Papua New Guinea in light of ANZ's announcement today of a record annual profit to September of A$4.2 billion. ANZ should instead be providing carbon financing services to keep the rainforests intact.

"It is obscene that ANZ persists in financing the illegal destruction of rainforests in Papua New Guinea. And it is doubly obscene when they are making billions of dollars in profits and clearly have financial strength to stop making money from rainforest destruction," says Dr. Russel Norman Green Party Co-Leader.

"The destruction of tropical forests is the single biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions globally, contributing around 20% of all emissions.

"ANZ is financing the logging activities of Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau, which is the biggest logging company in Papua New Guinea. Most of the logging in Papua New Guinea is illegal.

"ANZ also reported good outcomes from its investment in AMMB in Malaysia. AMMB owns AmBank which has linkages with the palm oil industry in Borneo. The palm oil industry is rapidly destroying the rainforest habitat of the endangered orang-utan.

"ANZ doesn't need to finance rainforest destruction and add to climate change to make money. It should behave as a responsible bank and withdraw from financing Rimbunan Hijau.

"ANZ is also involved in financing Gunn's new pulp mill in Tasmania, Australia, which will result in huge greenhouse emissions and destruction of many thousands of hectares of forest.

"The new CEO of ANZ came from HSBC which has a policy of not financing rainforest destruction and I call on him to implement the same policy at ANZ. I would love to see ANZ using their skills and resources to facilitate carbon financing to provide traditional rainforest landowners with an income for keeping their forests intact rather than see them logged."