METHODOLOGY
How the data is built, adjusted and scored
SCOPE
Forests & Finance tracks financing connected to 500 company groups involved in eight agricultural and forestry commodities and 14 metals and minerals, whose operations may impact natural tropical forests in Southeast Asia, Central and West Africa, and in parts of South America.
FINANCIAL DATA
Financial databases, company reports, company register filings, and media and analyst reports were used to identify corporate loans and underwriting facilities provided to the selected companies for the period 2013–2026 (September). Investments in bonds and shares were identified through financial databases, Profundo’s pension fund portfolio disclosure database, and United States insurance company filings, at the most recently available filing date — September 2026.
The BNDES Transparency portal and Brazil’s Central Bank portal were used to identify additional financial flows to forest-risk companies in Brazil.
This research provides a deal-level dataset of specific relationships between selected companies and any linked financial institution. Of the more than 300 researched companies operating in the six selected soft commodities, only 230 had identifiable financing where the financier, financing amount and start date were known within the period of study. For the mining dataset, the 130 largest groups engaged in the exploration and extraction of each mineral, worldwide, were selected.
Companies with business activities outside the forest-risk sector had recorded amounts reduced, to more accurately present the proportion of financing reasonably attributable to their forest-risk operations. Where the source did not specify the purpose of investment or the receiving division, reduction factors were calculated individually by comparing a company’s forest-risk activities against its parent group total. Further adjusters were calculated for companies operating in multiple geographies within scope.
01
IDENTIFY
Corporate loans, underwriting, bonds and shareholdings are traced through financial databases, company filings and public portals.
02
ATTRIBUTE
Corporate loans, underwriting, bonds and shareholdings are traced through financial databases, company filings and public portals.
03
ADJUST
Corporate loans, underwriting, bonds and shareholdings are traced through financial databases, company filings and public portals.
04
SCORE
Corporate loans, underwriting, bonds and shareholdings are traced through financial databases, company filings and public portals.
POLICY ASSESSMENTS
The objective is to assess the quality and robustness of the financing and investment policies financial institutions have adopted to avoid getting involved in, or contributing to, deforestation and related environmental, social and governance issues. The criteria are based on international agreements and conventions — mostly from bodies linked to the United Nations, such as the ILO and UNEP — and on best practice in the global business community and the financial sector with respect to forest-risk commodities.
For soft commodities, scores are assigned separately for each forest-risk commodity the bank or investor is involved in. Each institution therefore gets up to eight commodity scores — cocoa, coffee, beef, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber, soy and timber — plus an overall score. The overall score is calculated from the financing and investment data in the Forests & Finance database, covering January 2016 to September 2026: the share for each commodity is combined with the policy score for that commodity.
RESOURCES
Every methodology document, adjuster table and policy matrix behind the figures on this site. Newest first.
SHOWING 8 FILES
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Explore our FAQHOW IS FORESTS & FINANCE DIFFERENT?
Where this dataset sits alongside the other assessments of finance and deforestation.
FROM ENVIRONMENTAL PAPER NETWORK RED LINES?
Red Lines is a global assessment; Forests & Finance focuses on companies operating in Southeast Asia. Red Lines covers the pulp and paper industry, while this site covers six forest-risk commodities — beef, soy, palm oil, pulp & paper, timber and rubber. And Red Lines does not score banks on their policies; Forests & Finance does.
FROM FOREST 500?
The Forests & Finance policy assessment has more detailed criteria on deforestation and the protection of human rights, labour rights and traditional peoples’ rights. Forest 500 has more detailed criteria on the scope of policies, on implementation at the institution level, and on reporting.
FROM THE FAIR FINANCE GUIDE?
The Fair Finance Guide covers institutions in 14 countries — including Indonesia, Brazil and Japan, but not Malaysia, China or the US, whose banks play a large role in financing deforestation-risk commodities. This methodology is based on the Fair Finance Guide but includes more “shalls” than “shoulds”, and adds detail on biodiversity, labour protection, international conventions and tax structures. Where the Guide requires FSC certification, Forests & Finance requires “credible certification”.
FROM FINANCIAL DATABASES?
The data here is largely sourced from financial databases such as Bloomberg, IJGlobal and TradeFinanceAnalytics. The difference is adjustment: values are reduced per sector and per region, so that what is shown reflects the proportion of financing reasonably attributable to a company’s forest-risk operations in a given region, rather than its total corporate financing.
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