UPDATE 1-France's BNP to stop financing customers using converted Amazon forest land
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PARIS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - France's BNP Paribassaid on Monday it would not finance customers producing orbuying beef or soybeans from land in the Amazon cleared orconverted after 2008.
BNP, which outlined a policy to fight deforestation in theAmazon and the Cerrado regions, also said it would encourage itsclients not to produce or buy beef or soybeans from Cerrado landcleared or converted land after Jan. 1 2020.
The bank, France's largest listed lender, said it would onlyprovide financial products or services to companies - producers,meat conditioners and traders - with a strategy to achieve zerodeforestation in their production and supply chains by 2025 atthe latest.
"Financial institutions exposed to the agricultural sectorin Brazil must contribute to this fight against deforestation,"BNP Paribas said in a statement.
European lenders like Credit Suisse, Dutch bank INGand BNP Paribas committed last month to stop financingtrade in crude oil from Ecuador after pressure from campaignersaiming to protect the Amazon rainforest.
Indigenous leaders battling to prevent further oilexploration in their territory said the banks' role had madethem complicit in oil spills, violations of land rights and thedestruction of rainforest by Ecuador's oil industry.(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Matthieu Protard; Editing byKirsten Donovan)
