This July 11, 2024 campaign update, appearing on Vanguard S.O.S.m discusses “a Biofuelwatch investigation, in collaboration with BankTrack, the Environmental Paper Network (EPN), Global Justice Ecology Project, the Global Forest Coalition (GFC), and Chilean digital media platform Resumen.”
The following is the first paragraph of the campaign update, which can be read in full on https://vanguard-sos.com/
Arauco, a Chilean based transnational timber industry giant, has a long history dating back to the 1970s of social conflict and environmental damage. Yet it continues to receive financial backing – and a layer of corporate legitimacy – from Vanguard, its largest institutional investor. Together with BlackRock, the two US-based asset managers own hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of stock in COPEC SA, the sole proprietor of Arauco. The below investigation serves as a case study of the impacts on human rights and the environment that can be traced to the investment decisions of the world’s biggest asset managers.