TL;DR: JBS – the global meat empire linked to widespread Amazon deforestation – is planning a massive US $5 billion expansion into Southeast Asia, which could threaten the climate, fragile ecosystems and Indigenous lands in Indonesia. Greenpeace Netherlands is taking JBS to court to block the company’s nature destroying expansion – and we need your support to stop them.

When you think of global warming, you probably picture smoke billowing from coal power plants or tailpipes of gas-guzzling cars. But behind closed doors, one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis isn’t an oil company – it’s a global meat dynasty.

You might not know its name, but JBS is the largest meat processor on Earth. JBS has capacity to slaughter tens of thousands of cattle and pigs, and millions of chickens every single day. In doing so, Greenpeace Nordic estimates it pumps out more superheating methane gas than fossil fuel giants ExxonMobil and Shell combined.

For years, investigative reports have linked JBS’s supply chain to massive deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights violations, and brutal labour conditions. Now, evidence suggests the company is planning the biggest meat sector expansion we know of, setting its sights on new frontiers in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

To understand where JBS is headed, we have to look at the trail it has already left behind.

JBS’s legacy of forest destruction from the Amazon to Australia 

JBS isn’t just a dominant force in the Americas – it is also Australia’s largest beef processing company.

A recent investigation by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) reports a startling fact: agriculture in Australia now drives more land clearing than palm oil in Indonesia in recent years. Bulldozers routinely flatten native Australian forests to create cattle pastures, the report finds, destroying critical habitats for native wildlife like koalas and washing sediment onto the fragile Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is the world’s second largest beef and bovine meat exporter, after Brazil – and the top one when looking at fresh or chilled beef. About two thirds of Australian beef and veal are exported. If you buy a beef burger at a fast-food chain in Japan, South Korea, or anywhere across East Asia, there is a chance that meal is connected to lost koala habitat in Australia.

Over three quarters of Australian live cattle are exported to Indonesia. Now, JBS wants to take its model even further into Southeast Asia.

Inside JBS’s Asian joint venture worth US $5 billion 

JBS plans to combine its entire Australian and New Zealand operations into a new joint-venture with Danantara, Indonesia’s newly formed sovereign wealth fund. Together, they aim to supersize industrial meat production across Southeast Asia.

The proposed joint venture would establish a holding company registered in the Netherlands – a country frequently used as a tax haven and JBS’s corporate headquarters since 2025. The venture aims to raise US $5 billion for further JBS expansion. This almost doubles JBS’s previous known expansion plans, which was already the largest identified industrial meat expansion in the world.

Why would a national wealth fund choose this moment to pour billions into industrial livestock? 

The answer may be connected to Indonesia’s deeply controversial Food and Energy Estate program.

In regions like South Papua, the Indonesian government has reportedly been using state pressure and even its military to terrorise and intimidate Papuans, as it advanced a project to clear millions of hectares of Indigenous land. Officially launched under the banner of “national food security,” the project sparked resistance from Indigenous communities whose ancestral forests, wetlands, and savannahs are threatened by mega-farms for sugarcane, rice, palm oil, and cattle ranching. This was documented by the powerful new documentary ‘Pig Feast’, co-produced by Greenpeace Indonesia, which was widely viewed across the country despite reported efforts by Indonesian authorities to prevent it being screened.

A 2025 Greenpeace Indonesia report calculated that clearing just 560,000 hectares for planned sugarcane plantations in South Papua would release 221 million tonnes of CO₂ – the equivalent of driving 48 million cars for a full year. Rapid industrial land clearing also increases the risk of severe droughts, forest fires, water pollution, and widespread flooding.

While official documents have not explicitly named JBS as a direct partner in the Papua project, the timing raises serious questions. Danantara oversees key state enterprises involved in the Food and Energy state program, and JBS’s new joint venture aims to fund and expand multi-protein production through acquisitions and greenfield investments across the region, reportedly initially focused in Indonesia and likely to involve beef, poultry and possibly aquaculture. While Indonesian officials have indicated that the government will stop clearing forests for rice fields – a testament to the courageous resistance of local people – officials have clarified that they are not confirming that all projects in the food estate will be stopped.

Reacting to this, my colleague Kiki Taufik, Global Head of the Indonesian Forest Campaign, stated that “Papua is not a wasteland or a new land bank for industrial expansion; its forests are home to Indigenous Peoples, a source of food and water, a stronghold of biodiversity, and the foundation of Papua’s future.” Kiki went on to call for the government to “halt projects that threaten natural forests, critical ecosystems, and customary territories” and restore so-called “degraded lands”, centering local communities in decision making, instead of imposing extractive activities on these lands, affirming that “there is no path to food sovereignty and sustainable development at the expense of forests, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and Papua’s future.”

Connecting all these dots reveals a troubling picture: a global meat giant linked to rampant rainforest destruction and Indigenous and labour rights violations partnering with a state fund that is reportedly connected to tropical forest clearance on Indigenous lands with military backing.

Corporate monopolies vs. real community resilience

Big agricultural corporations often claim that massive industrial farms are necessary to feed growing populations – and that is, predictably, the headline in JBS’s PR about the deal.

However, independent research from groups like IPES-Food and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa shows that global corporate farming actually threatens food security rather than protecting it.

Why global conglomerates create vulnerability:

• Systemic fragility: A food system controlled by just a small handful of global corporations is easily disrupted by trade conflicts, fertiliser shortages, climate disasters, and market speculation. We’re seeing this play out in real time with Trump’s tariff wars, extreme heatwaves and the US-Israel war on Iran causing sharp price spikes and leaving nations vulnerable to sudden shortages.

• Profit-driven priorities: Large agribusinesses are required to maximise profit for shareholders in the short-term. They do not exist to promote human nutrition, equitable distribution, or sustainable land management. They have a perverse incentive to bulldoze precious ecosystems to produce meat, animal feed, ultraprocessed foods and even fuel, putting corporate profits above the health of people and planet. What’s even worse, the industry actually profits from the scarcity and disruption mentioned above.

Protecting food sovereignty is the path forward

Rebuilding our food systems gives us a practical, real-world toolkit for survival in times of increasing instability. True food security and nature resilience do not come from building massive industrial factory farms or handing control of local land and ecosystems to foreign corporations.

When we invest in traditional and nature-friendly farming methods, we can massively cut methane emissions and actively heal the land to protect our communities:

• Space for nature: A planet-friendly approach uses less land, making space to heal and restore ecosystems, itself a form of defence and resilience in the face of climate change and other instability.
• Natural cooling: Planting native trees and cover crops creates natural shade canopy, shielding livestock, crops, and farmers from severe heatwaves.
• Flood protection: Restoring deep root systems anchors topsoil during heavy downpours, preventing destructive landslides and soil erosion.
• Drought and fire resilience: Building organic matter in the soil turns farmland into a natural sponge – holding onto vital moisture during dry spells and absorbing excess water during floods; equally, returning damaged or dried out peatlands to a healthy waterlogged state reduces fire risks and keeps carbon stored, including by blocking dams and shifting industrial plantations off the land.
• Ecological balance: Diversity on farms brings back pollinators and natural predators, keeping agricultural pests in check without relying on chemical pesticides.
• Healthier diets: Traditional, diverse foods and seed varieties are highly adapted to local circumstances so are often more resilient and healthier.

Farmers, Indigenous leaders, and local communities around the world are already doing this critical work on the ground, with direct benefits for farmers and rural people. However, these sustainable practices are being undermined by the rapid expansion of industrial agribusiness. Governments should be supporting farmers practicing nature-friendly farming, not sinking millions into industrial factory farms.

We want a future built on resilient community led food systems. Take action today

We are standing at a critical turning point. Will the future of Southeast Asia, Nigeria and other frontiers for agricultural expansion be built on resilient, community-led food systems, or – like other regions – handed over to the billionaires running the world’s most destructive meat empire?

The choices we make today will shape food systems for decades. While mega-corporations have deep pockets, organised communities have the power to stop them in their tracks. And Indigenous communities in Papua are already resisting, with Greenpeace Indonesia supporting them on the ground.

But we can also take action at the source. Greenpeace Netherlands is taking JBS to court in their Netherlands base to challenge their aggressive expansion plans – which would result in more deforestation, emissions and human rights abuses – before the bulldozers can reach the forest floor. Sign the petition and support our legal action today.

Take the world’s biggest meat company to court

We need to stop the expansion of the world’s largest meat company. Join the People vs. Big Ag.

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Amanda Larsson is the Global Project Lead for Big Ag at Greenpeace Aotearoa 

Along the coast of southern Thailand, in the neighboring districts of Chana and Thepa, there is a name for the stretch of sea that begins just beyond the shore: Talae Na Baan, the “Homefront Sea” – it  tells a lot about the relationship between the small-scale fishing communities who live there and the waters they have lived alongside for generations. 

The sea puts food on the table and provides an income, but it is also woven into family histories, memories and a sense of home. The relationship goes both ways: communities have created no-fishing zones, built traditional Zung-Kor artificial reefs that provide shelter for marine life, established crab banks to help populations recover, and monitor the health of coastal ecosystems themselves.

Khairiyah “Yah” Rahmanyah, the daughter of a fisherman from Ban Suan Gong, in Chana, knows this relationship intimately.  She grew up with the sea shaping almost every part of her life.

The house I live in, the clothes that I wear, my shoes, my school uniform, my tuition fees, even the bike and the toys I own, it all comes from the sea. My whole life of happiness, fond memories, every story that made me who I am, are all from the sea.

Today, Yah is a young leader and environmental communicator with the Chana Rak Thin movement. She grew up fighting alongside her community to protect their coastline from industrial development, including a gas pipeline project that threatened local ecosystems and led to her father’s arrest after a peaceful protest, and more recent plans for a deep-sea port.

A very different landscape tells a similar story. In the Brazilian Amazon, Apurinã families in the Caititu Indigenous Territory in the Amazonas State are using agroforestry to restore degraded land, grow food and medicinal plants, and keep traditional knowledge alive. There, too, protecting biodiversity is closely tied to the people who live in the territory and to the knowledge, rights and ways of life that have shaped it.

Chana and Caititu are very different places, but they bring us to a question the world is now confronting at a much larger scale: what does it really mean to protect nature?

30×30: Beyond the numbers

In 2022, governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), including a commitment to protect and conserve at least 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030, and to put at least 30% of degraded ecosystems under effective restoration by the same year. Together, these 30×30 targets are about much more than the amount of territory covered. 

For conservation, this means areas that are effectively conserved and managed, ecologically representative, connected and equitably governed, recognising Indigenous and traditional territories where applicable, while recognising and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. For restoration, it means helping degraded ecosystems recover in ways that enhance biodiversity, ecological integrity and ecosystem functions. For both, Direct Access Financing is essential to support community-led conservation and restoration, and must be recognised as a prerequisite for the successful implementation of the KMGBF 2030 targets.

Four years later, the challenge is turning that promise into reality

This October, governments are meeting at the UN Biodiversity conference, CBD COP17 in Yerevan, Armenia for the collective review of progress in implementing the global biodiversity framework. The conference comes at a crucial moment: halfway between the agreement reached in 2022 and its 2030 deadline for the implementation of its 23 targets.

Chana and Thepa show what is at stake. Communities are already managing and restoring their coastal ecosystems and seeking formal recognition for the areas they protect. Yet without stronger legal recognition, these areas remain vulnerable to industrial development. Delivering 30×30 therefore means not only recognising these community-led solutions, but ensuring that their rights and governance systems are recognised and protected too.

What real protection in action looks like

In the Caititu Indigenous Territory, Apurinã families are showing another side of what protecting biodiversity can mean. Caititu lies on the edge of one of the Amazon’s major deforestation frontiers, surrounded by growing pressure from cattle ranching, agribusiness, fires and land speculation. Yet much of its forest remains standing, with its ecological functions still largely intact. In areas that have been degraded, communities are using agroforestry to help bring the forest back.

Across 21 villages, 37 agroforestry systems now combine crops such as cassava, banana, açaí, cupuaçu and medicinal plants with forest restoration. An Indigenous fire brigade helps protect the territory during the dry season, while women and elders pass knowledge about plants, cultivation and healing to younger generations.

Through Agroforestry Systems, we guarantee food and wealth for our tables. It has strengthened our knowledge of planting and medicinal uses,” says Maria dos Anjos Apurinã, known as the “Queen of Agroforestry Systems.

Caititu and Chana show what the huge added value of Indigenous and community-controlled ecosystem management can look like in practice. And similar solutions are already taking shape around the world.

Across the world, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are already leading solutions to protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity. Greenpeace’s new Real Community Solutions Map is an interactive platform that brings some of these experiences together, showing how rights, community leadership, financial support and healthy ecosystems can go hand in hand.

As governments work to turn 30×30 into reality, these solutions deserve to be recognised, supported and learned from.

Explore the Real Community Solutions Map.

Jaqueline Sordi is the Communications Lead for the Tropical Forests campaign at Greenpeace International

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Amsterdam, Netherlands – 12 Greenpeace activists have scaled three barns at a controversial megafarm development in northeast Croatia, painting a 500m² slogan reading ‘Stop This Shit’ onto the roofs in protest at the threat that animal waste from the facility poses to a nearby biosphere reserve.

Dániel Nyitray, Campaigner at Greenpeace International, said: “Industrial meat giants like MHP are expanding aggressively all over the world, fattening the pockets of billionaires, while poisoning rivers and drinking water with toxic animal waste. Communities everywhere are fed up – and these activists have taken action today to send a clear message: stop this shit! We deserve clean air, drinkable water, and a food system that nourishes people, not corporate greed.”

As the protest took place, activists from Zelena akcija (Friends of the Earth Croatia) and Prijatelji životinja (Animal Friends Croatia) dressed in business suits installed a 3.5m high inflatable chicken outside the gates of the facility. One activist sat on a makeshift toilet atop the gates, representing both corporate indifference to local concerns and the enormous amount of animal waste the megafarm will produce.

The protest targeted a project on the Croatian border with Hungary by poultry giant MHP, Europe’s largest chicken producer, which is expected to produce 1.8 million chickens a year once operational.  The facility is expected to begin operations imminently. Local groups are concerned that the 1 million litres of waste the plant will produce annually threatens to pollute local soil, air and waterways, amongst other detrimental environmental impacts. 

Dora Sivka, President at Zelena akcija (Friends of the Earth Croatia), said: “The grassroots movement against megafarms and slaughterhouses in Croatia, which brings together 10 local initiatives and is supported by 160 European NGOs, has already voiced a clear ‘No’ to such projects through multiple protests. What makes it even more tragic is that the first of 24 planned projects begins operations right next to the Amazon of Europe, one of Europe’s most important protected wetlands!” 

The development has generated strong local opposition due to its construction just a few hundred metres from the Veliki Pažut reserve, part of the Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve, a 930,000 hectare UNESCO protected wetland known as the ‘Amazon of Europe’ due to its incredible biodiversity and vast river corridors.[1] The reserve, which spans five countries, is home to a range of important species including the highest breeding density of white-tailed eagles in Europe and is a crucial habitat for over 250,000 waterbirds.[2]

Luka Oman, President at Prijatelji životinja (Animal Friends Croatia), said: “Every megafarm is built on immense animal suffering that extends to the environment and to the people. Behind us, chickens bred to grow unnaturally fast are packed into sheds so tightly that they don’t have room to spread their wings. These intensive conditions create ideal circumstances for the spread of infectious diseases, threatening wild birds in the ornithological reserve just 320m away. The responsible authorities must respect the will of citizens and stop the horror of megafarm expansion across Croatia.”

The project is part of a significant effort by the poultry industry to expand within Croatia. In April, MHP withdrew from a multi-site mega project near the city of Sisak, Moslavina county, following months of intense public protests, including in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. The project would have become one of Europe’s largest megafarms, producing 100 million chickens a year and quadrupling the country’s annual chicken production. Another investor, Premium Chicken Company (PCC), has expressed its intention to proceed with all its planned projects.

The expansion within Croatia reflects a dramatic rise in global chicken production as consumption soars worldwide.[3] Chicken production worldwide has risen by almost 60% since 2006 to over 76 billion animals a year, according to the Financial Times. MHP, owned by Ukrainian billionaire Yuriy Kosiuk, slaughters over half a billion chickens alone each year.[4]

ENDS

Photos and video: Photo and Video from the action are available to download via the Greenpeace Media Library.

Notes:

[1] EcoMission (2022), Studija o utjecaju na okoliš farme za tov pilića – Farma Veliki Pažut, Općina Legrad, Koprivničko-križevačka županija 

[2] Amazon of Europe (2026), The Biosphere Reserve: General Information

[3] Financial Times, How chicken conquered the world, 26 Aug 2026

[4] Financial Times, The man who built Europe’s chicken factory, 1 Sep 2026

Contacts:

Joe Evans, Agriculture Global Comms Lead at Greenpeace UK,  +44 7890 595387, jevans@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org.

As governments, civil society, lawmakers and international financial institutions gather in Thailand for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual Meetings this week, they are convening against a backdrop of escalating extreme weather events around the world that makes the question of securing sufficient climate finance to fund solutions impossible to ignore.

Bangkok, the host city for the meetings, recently declared a flood disaster as thousands had to flee from their homes. This summer, Europe experienced devastating heatwaves and wildfires. Just weeks ago, catastrophic floods and landslides in Nepal killed more than 1,250 people and left thousands missing, prompting the United Nations and humanitarian partners to launch a US$49.6 million emergency appeal. 

These disasters are a reminder that sufficiently financing necessary climate action is not an abstract debate for future negotiations. People are already paying dearly for an accelerating climate crisis, while facing escalating food prices and higher energy bills. Yet the countries facing the greatest climate vulnerabilities remain trapped by repressive rules and conditions that constrain fiscal space, impose high debt burdens and pressure their governments to reduce public spending, while the wealthiest polluters are profiting from these crises without paying their fair share.

How is economic justice connected to climate justice?

As the climate crisis worsens, global policy responses are lagging behind the urgent need for securing sufficient funding for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage. Redesigning our domestic and global tax systems is central to shifting the burden of cost to the wealthiest polluters and for mobilising necessary resources for climate action.

The IMF and World Bank occupy a powerful position in the global financial architecture, and must adapt and respond to today’s polycrisis rather than further exacerbating it. Their approaches must reflect the realities countries face today, rather than further restricting public spending and deepening fiscal pressures. Their role should be helping countries reach their sustainable development goals and not further distancing them from it. 

For decades, government budget cuts and higher taxes (austerity) have been central to the economic advice forced upon developing nations by the IMF and the World Bank, trapping them in a destructive cycle. The way governments raise revenue matters as much as how much revenue they raise. Many developing countries rely heavily on regressive indirect and consumption taxes and further exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Indeed, World Bank research shows that in several developing nations, steep taxes on basic goods leave low-income households bearing the brunt of the tax pressures. 

Ordinary people should not be expected to carry an ever-increasing  share of this burden while budget cuts and unsustainable debt strip away public investment meant to build a fairer and more resilient future those public funds  are meant to secure.    

How is the climate crisis linked to  extreme wealth?

While those who contributed the least to the crisis are bearing the greatest impacts, the wealthiest and biggest polluters often get away with not paying their fair share. Recent research by Greenpeace Africa highlights a critical factor that is too often ignored in climate finance debates: who owns the assets driving global emissions?   

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Greenpeace Africa’s report, Understanding the Climate Debt of Extreme Wealth, finds that climate responsibility is far more concentrated when emissions associated with ownership and investment are considered.

In 2022  alone, the investments of the world’s richest 0.01% were associated with an estimated US$992 billion in climate debt, compared with US$405 billion in consumption-based climate debt. 

This finding challenges traditional approaches to climate policy. Climate accountability cannot be understood only through what people consume. It must also account for what  they own, where they invest and which economic activities their wealth enables and profits from.

Addressing this reality requires placing the taxation of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and major corporate polluters at the center of the agenda. It means dutiful implementation of the polluter pays principle in our tax systems. It means looking at wealth and capital ownership alongside income, and ensuring that those who profit the most contribute more towards addressing the climate damage their investments caused. 

How do fair global tax rules protect people and the planet? 

We need fairer tax systems that shift the burden to those who cause harm and profit from it, rather than relying on regressive consumption taxes. We need public investments that strengthens climate resilience and helps impacted communities rebuild,  instead of being undermined by debt and austerity. Crucially  we need international tax rules that address harmful tax practices strapping countries of billions of earned public revenues, and those that empower countries  to hold multinational corporations accountable and raise the revenues they need.

This is why the negotiations for a strong and ambitious Global Tax Treaty at the United Nations (also known as United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation) matter.

The UN process is working towards a global framework that can shape how taxing rights are allocated, how countries address cross border tax issues and how international tax cooperation works. It offers a historic  opportunity to fix global tax rules so that they serve all nations equitably, enabling them to tax the wealthiest polluters  and mobilize public resources.

Ultimately, this framework can give governments the authority to make the wealthiest polluters pay for the harm they have caused, unlocking trillions of dollars to fund just transition, renewable energy deployment, resilient infrastructure for impacted and vulnerable communities, and essential public services we all need.

These discussions can not happen in vacuum or isolation, they must be brought directly into the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. These two institutions are currently perpetuating false solutions. In order to fund our future  for generations to come, governments must be allowed to redesign their tax policies so that it benefits the majority and not just the wealthiest minority of people. Only by doing that will we stand a chance to achieve climate justice and a safe future for the people and the planet.  

Ucizi Ngulube is a socio-environmental and tax justice campaigner with Greenpeace Africa.

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In 2022, nearly 200 countries came together and agreed on the Global Biodiversity Framework, a multilateral agreement with a clear message: our natural world is in deep trouble, and we have to save it. The countries set a target to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.  This was meant to do for nature what the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement does for our climate. But the latest global assessment of the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework falls short of reducing mass extinction of species. 

Aside from ensuring a liveable environment on our shared planet, protecting biodiversity should be in the core interest of big businesses to secure longer-term prosperity. We are therefore holding Ikea and other companies accountable to step up and lead by example to be part of the solution. 

The Problem: They are all moving too slowly

While politicians move at a snails pace to write these goals into law, destruction hasn’t paused. Logging companies are still cutting down trees in the very places proposed for future protection. Right in the middle of this is Ikea, the world’s biggest furniture store, which sells itself as green and sustainable. And yet wood from some of Europe’s precious and most biodiverse forests is ending up on its shelves.

Forests we can’t get back

This isn’t just a hypothetical threat. It is happening right now. In Romania, a precious forest was set to become a strictly protected zone. But loggers got there first and clear-cut the forest before any legal protection could be established. That forest and its biodiversity is now gone. It will take hundreds of years for that ecosystem to grow back. Now, the land has been removed from the protection list, as there is no longer any forest left to protect.

What needs to happen now

This destruction has to stop.  We are demanding Ikea immediately stop buying wood from some of Europe’s most valuable forests. These areas must be saved from exploitation and officially protected by law. To facilitate this, Greenpeace offices have mapped out these critical zones. There is no guesswork—Ikea knows exactly where not to log. As the biggest player in the game, Ikea has the power to change everything. If they step up and stop buying from these forests, the rest of the industry will follow, forcing politicians to finally act.

We need to protect these forests today, before more and more of them vanish forever.

Frida Bengtsson is the Head of Programme with Greenpeace Nordic in Sweden

Bucharest/Stockholm – Ikea, one of the world’s largest consumers of wood, is fuelling the destruction of Europe’s most valuable forests while hiding behind flawed certification schemes, a new report released today by Greenpeace Nordic shows. The report, The Missing Manual: What Ikea Must Do to Protect Europe’s Forests, reveals a huge gap between Ikea’s promises to use its size and scale to make a positive difference and its operational realities on the ground, and that the company fails to measure the true environmental footprint of its supply chain.[1]

Frida Bengtsson, head of Greenpeace in Sweden said: “Ikea says it wants to use its size to make sustainable wood sourcing the global norm. That ambition must start with a clear commitment: no wood from forests that need protection. Ikea has the power to help change an entire industry. It needs to lead by example, starting with the wood in its own furniture.”

Despite corporate obligations under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), market giants remain unaccountable. With world leaders meeting at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan next week, Ikea’s practices offer a sobering reminder that voluntary promises are failing to save Earth’s precious nature, including forests in Europe.

“Governments are failing to protect our forests, but let’s be clear: industry giants are driving the global nature crisis. Every two seconds, a tree is felled to feed Ikea’s supply chain, making them both one of the biggest beneficiaries and one of the biggest threats to our forests. It’s time for Ikea to show what their commitment to transform the forestry industry means on the ground; for now it’s not more than a statement of good intentions. Stop hiding behind flawed certifications: true corporate leadership means keeping your saws out of precious forests,” added Bengtsson.

An accompanying field investigation by Greenpeace Romania, Europe’s Vanishing Forests (Part 1): How Ikea is Driving Forest Destruction the Carpathians, provides damning evidence from the Romanian Carpathians: investigators documented the clear-cutting of an ecologically critical, biodiverse forest area to produce popular Ikea items like the SNIGLAR bed and BEKVÄM step stool.[2] Despite being slated for strict protection in early 2025, the Rusca Montană forest was logged in 2026 and then stripped of its proposed conservation status before legal protections could take effect.

Valentin Salageanu, spokesperson for Greenpeace Romania said: “This isn’t responsible forestry; it’s an ecological tragedy. We walked through areas proposed for strict protection, only to find endless fresh stumps where precious, biodiverse forests stood months ago. Ikea’s hunger for wood is grinding up Europe’s natural heritage. This has to stop today.”

Greenpeace is calling on Ikea to immediately stop sourcing wood from forests with high biodiversity, that qualify for protection, and to institute binding, board-level biodiversity targets across its entire global supply chain. They are also urging Ikea to track and ensure the health and resilience of forest ecosystems, while actively supporting political frameworks to protect at least 30% of land—including 10% under strict protection—by 2030.

Greenpeace Nordic and Greenpeace Romania submitted drafts to Ikea for review and comment prior to publication. In their response Ikea returned to noting their compliance with local legal requirements and FSC standards while largely rejecting the report’s key conclusions and recommendations for an immediate logging moratorium in the proposed protected areas. Ikea did not contest the clearcutting of the forest that “was considered for possible future protection” nor the supply chain linkage to Ikea’s products.

ENDS

Photos and Videos available from the Greenpeace Media Library.

Notes:

[1] The Missing Manual: What Ikea Must Do to Protect Europe’s Forests

[2] Europe’s Vanishing Forests (Part 1): How Ikea is Driving Forest Destruction the Carpathians

Contacts:

Daniel Bengtsson, Communications lead, Greenpeace Nordic, +46 70 300 9510, daniel.bengtsson@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

Bangkok, Thailand – As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings commence in Bangkok, Thailand faces widespread flooding, and people are left to deal with the devastating fallout of a financial system that continues to let the wealthiest polluters continue to profit while they pollute. As governments and international financial institutions gather to address pressing global challenges, it is very clear that securing sufficient funds for climate action and nature protection must include taxing the wealthiest polluters.

Pichmol Rugrod, Plastic-Free Future project lead, Greenpeace Thailand said: “The floods affecting communities across Thailand show how the costs of a changing climate are increasingly being borne by ordinary people – through damaged homes, lost income and livelihoods, and public money needed for recovery. This is what climate debt looks like in people’s lives. Those who have contributed the least should not continue to pay the highest price, while the wealthiest polluters continue to profit and pay nothing. As global financial leaders meet in Bangkok, taxing the wealthiest polluters must be identified as part of the solution, with the revenues used to support affected communities and fund climate action.”

In 2022 alone, investments by the world’s richest 0.01% in carbon-intensive industries were associated with an estimated US$992 billion in climate costs incurred, a figure comparable to global climate finance requirements. To claim money to develop proper solutions for the people and hold those most responsible for climate damage accountable, countries must be able to find ways to tax the wealthiest polluters.

Gerance Mutwol, Fair Share project lead, Greenpeace Africa, said: “As the climate crisis worsens, policy responses are falling far short of the urgent need for funding for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. It is outrageous that ultra-wealthy polluters continue to profit from investments in and ownership of highly polluting industries driving the climate crisis, while international financial institutions continue to put debt repayments and fiscal austerity ahead of protecting communities.

“To fund a fair and resilient future for generations to come, governments must be able to redesign tax systems so they benefit the majority, not just the wealthiest. Governments must support a strong UN Tax Convention to close tax loopholes that drain national budgets, protect countries’ taxing rights and ensure tax systems support sustainable development goals and not work against them.”

Greenpeace International is calling for the IMF and World Bank to move beyond recommendations for austerity to taxation of high-net-worth individuals and the profits of corporate polluters like fossil fuels companies, in order to unlock much-needed funding for countries to act on climate. We are calling on governments to use the UN Tax Convention to build fairer global tax rules, end harmful tax practices that deprive countries of billions in revenue, and make the wealthiest polluters pay for the climate and environmental damages they cause to  fund a fair and green future.[1]

Together with over 200 civil society organizations, trade unions, and climate coalitions from across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Greenpeace Africa is participating in the International Peoples’ Assembly taking place on 12-13 October at Ambassador Hotel Bangkok. 

ENDS

Notes:

[1] The Global Tax Treaty, also known as the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, is the first genuinely inclusive forum for delivering fair and inclusive global tax rules. Unlike under the OECD, every country has an equal vote, and decisions are taken by majority rather than consensus. The next round of negotiations (INC-6) will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 30 November to 12 December. Read our media briefing from INC-5 here.

Contacts:

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org 

Fighting plastic pollution with Muay Thai in Bangkok, holding the line at 1.5° in Fiji, and camping out for fair housing in Madrid, here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week.

Thailand – Greenpeace Thailand activists with a Muay Thai fighter stage a symbolic action outside the United Nations office in Bangkok, where Heads of Delegation (HODs) from Member States are meeting.
The action symbolises the need to “fight” plastic pollution at its source and calls on governments to put cuts in plastic production at the heart of a strong Global Plastics Treaty.

Germany – Greenpeace Germany speaks out against a potential reintroduction of compulsory military service and increasing militarisation in Germany, at a live concert and event in Berlin. The event focuses on the consequences of these policies for young people, as well as the demand for a security policy that does not rely solely on ever-increasing defence spending.

Fiji – Around 80 people including Pacific and Torres Strait community members, Elders and youth activists travelled as part of a colourful flotilla past the Pre-COP venues with a message for leaders: ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’ – a reminder to leaders at the Pre-COP climate summit in Nadi, Fiji that the climate limit established under the Paris Agreement is a non-negotiable survival line for humanity.

Indonesia – Members of Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Fires Prevent Team (Tim Cegah Api) hold posters and banners during a protest over wildfire haze affecting Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Haze has covered the city for nearly two months, with air pollution reaching hazardous levels. The haze has also affected air quality in Singapore and Malaysia.

Switzerland – Greenpeace is marching through Zurich alongside approximately 7,000 other people, calling for “No 50°C summers!” Under the coalition’s name, more than 70 organisations from civil society and the climate, health, environmental, and agricultural sectors are demanding immediate and effective measures to combat heat and protect the climate.

Spain – Greenpeace Spain participates in a sit-in for the right to decent housing at Puerta del Sol, Madrid.

Thailand – Greenpeace Thailand staff and volunteers support communities affected by severe flooding in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand. The flooding, which began affecting the province on 25 September, has impacted 11 districts and more than 23,790 households.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, please visit our Media Library.

“Activism is not a crime.”

This message was unveiled by Greenpeace Spain in Valencia before 11 activists faced an unprecedented trial over a 2021 protest against a fossil gas shipment at the Port of Sagunto. This was also a message emphatically affirmed by the Spanish court’s quick rejection of the harsh punishments sought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Amid a global wave of attacks on the rights to free speech and protest, the Public Prosecutor’s Office initially sought five years in prison for 11 of the Greenpeace activists involved in a peaceful October 2021 protest against fossil gas involving Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza, one of the harshest sentences ever demanded in Europe for peaceful environmental protest. The demand was reduced to two and a half years at trial, but this remained a disproportionate punishment apparently intended to deter climate action. The court’s judgment on 6 October  2026 rejected the charge of aggravated public disorder, finding the prosecution had failed to prove the activists engaged in any violence or intimidation that altered public peace.  

To learn more about the Sagunto trial, the peaceful protest, and the global implications of this moment, we spoke with Daniel Simons, Greenpeace International Senior Legal Counsel Strategic Defence, who has been working on the case since 2021:

Why did the climate activists protest at the Port of Sagunto?

Daniel Simons: In October 2021, the largest Greenpeace ship at the time, the Esperanza, entered the Port of Sagunto to protest the dangers of fracked fossil gas by blocking a massive LNG tanker, the Merchant, from arriving. The ship had come from the United States carrying 138,000 cubic meters of fossil gas, roughly 41 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of compressed methane, extracted through fracking, one of the most environmentally damaging extraction techniques.

The non-violent protest was undertaken by highly-disciplined activists who maintained clear, calm communication with local maritime and port authorities throughout. In a peaceful act of resistance, one activist chained himself to the Esperanza’s anchor to delay the tanker’s arrival into port. He held out for 12 hours before Spain’s Civil Guard boarded the ship, cut the anchor chains, and brought it to port. No one was injured for the duration of the action.

On what basis did the Spanish government seek to punish the Sagunto activists?

Initially, in 2022, the Spanish government had imposed fines of more than €160,000 for this action for obstructing another vessel and the Esperanza’s failure to request pilotage and towing services in the Port of Sagunto. These fines are still being appealed. Then, in a move that drew international attention for its severity, Spain’s Public Prosecutor charged each individual with aggravated public disorder and sought a 5-year prison sentence, an unprecedented punishment for peaceful climate action in Europe.   

How did the judge rule? 

A trial was held before a single judge on 23 September, which included testimony from the 11 defendants. In a judgment returned on 6 October, the court rejected the charge of aggravated public disorder, finding the prosecution had failed to prove the activists engaged in any violence or intimidation that altered public peace.  

By the conclusion of the trial, it was clear that there was no basis for the unprecedented punishment sought. Not only did police officers and the shipping agent representing the tanker describe the action as peaceful, but the prosecutor even conceded that the demand for five years’ imprisonment was an error, since it exceeded the maximum penalty in force in 2021 (the law changed in 2023).

Why did the Sagunto trial draw interest from around the world? 

The Sagunto trial drew a large crowd in Valencia, including the crew from the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace International delegation, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst, and many journalists.

Here’s how Gina Romero, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, who sent a representative to the hearing, described the significance of the trial:

“The Sagunto case demonstrates how easily the legal system can be used to deter people from exercising a fundamental right, even when the law agrees in the end they did nothing wrong. It’s part of a broader, global pattern of using the legal system, criminal charges, punitive fines, and restrictive laws to shrink civic space. I will continue to raise the alarm and raise my voice to ensure that peaceful protest is not treated as a crime — in Spain or anywhere else.”

What happens next? 

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has the right to appeal the acquittal, though we hope it instead turns its attention towards those endangering, not defending, life on this planet. If needed, we will continue defending the activists through any further proceedings.

Have other Greenpeace activists faced harsh charges for peaceful climate action?

For more than 50 years, Greenpeace activists have engaged in peaceful protest on behalf of people and planet. In doing so, Greenpeace organisations and activists have sometimes found themselves facing fines and criminalisation. The use of the court system by oligarchs and corporate polluters and their enablers in government to deter protest has made such challenges more common in recent years, with more than 30 Greenpeace activists facing various criminal proceedings in Spain alone for taking part in protests.

In the rare instances when activists have found themselves detained for more than a few days — such as the case of the Arctic 30, who were held in pre-trial detention for two months in Russia after a nonviolent action against Arctic oil drilling — people from all over the world have rallied in support, not just for the activists but for the rights they are exercising. 

Why are the rights to free speech and protest under attack?

That is a good question. Part of it may be the Cassandra complex, where governments punish climate activists for their uncomfortable, but science-based message. In some countries, more sinister motives are at play. Industries that have a lot at stake know that protest works, and invest heavily in curbing dissent, reframing protesters as a security threat, and shaping laws so that peaceful but disruptive protests can be prosecuted. As more countries slide into autocracy, including some established democracies, repression of civil society becomes a central tool for government actors and the wealthy elites that back them to maintain their profits and power.

Lindsay Bigda is Deputy Communications Lead for Greenpeace’s Time to Resist programme, focusing on abusive lawsuits used to silence public participation.

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The human body is roughly 71% water. If you look at my arm, you will see a tattoo of the Drava River. A map from the 19th-century, when it was still an interconnected network of channels weaving across the whole region. The tattoo wraps around my arm at a point marking 71% of the way up my body. For me, it is a reminder that water is the foundation of all human life, and a symbol of my deep, unbreakable connection to this river.

I am an artist based in Northern Croatia, next to the Drava river. I grew up here and became an eco-artist, exploring creativity and sustainability, emerging from the deep connection I have to nature here. But unfortunately, this unique ecological paradise could soon be transformed into an industrial zone, as vast  factory farms have started popping up across the region.

The “Amazon of Europe” is under threat from Big Ag

For me “The Amazon of Europe” is not just a catchy slogan. This stretch of the Drava River is part of a cross-border UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, spanning multiple countries. It is a truly extraordinary, vibrant, and biologically diverse ecosystem. At the point where the Drava meets the Mura River, it forms a unique landscape: a mosaic of lush marshes, gravel banks, and wetland habitats with abundant flora and fauna. As an ornithological reserve, it acts as a vital stopover for migratory birds, with a vivid aerial life every spring and autumn. It is home to iconic species like the majestic white-tailed eagle, the black stork and terns.    

The Drava has been part of my daily life for as long as I can remember. Growing up here, the river was the anchor of our existence. In summer, we cooled off in its waters, relaxed on its banks, paddled, and kayaked. Many locals fish here, putting food from the river directly onto their family tables.

As an artist, I am fascinated by our local tradition of naive art, a 20th century movement associated primarily with self-taught artists who broadened access to artistic expression beyond academic and institutional circles. In many of these artworks, the river and its surrounding wildlife appear as recurring and central motifs representing its centrality to the lives of local people. The river is not merely part of our cultural identity; it has shaped the history, livelihoods and social fabric of our communities – from milling and gold panning to fishing, transport and other river-based activities.

A monster on the riverbank: 1.8 million chickens and massive pollution

It is horrifying to realize what is being planned for our home. A few hundred meters from the banks of this pristine river, a colossal industrial chicken farm is under construction.

The environmental impact assessment states that an astonishing 1.8 million chickens will pass through this factory farm every year on their way to slaughter, generating more than a million liters of wastewater annually. These numbers are staggering. A facility of this scale has no place anywhere, let alone right next to a protected biosphere reserve. Yet, shockingly, this site is not next to just one reserve; seven protected areas exist within 2km of the farm. If a facility of this size can be built so close to so many vital reserves, then the term ‘protected area’ is meaningless.

For those of us who live here, the river and its ecosystem are woven into our daily lives. Building a giant factory farm so close to the riverbank threatens to sever that bond forever, replacing clean water and thriving habitats with industrial waste.

Ordinary people organising resistance

When we first discovered these plans, a few of us in the community started asking questions and gathering information. Step by step, those initial inquiries turned into organized resistance.

Together, we formed Građanska Inicijativa Legrad – Donja Dubrava. We are just a small group of ordinary citizens from different backgrounds, united by our love for the Drava River to protect our land. Some organise events, others research data, consult with lawyers, liaise with local authorities, or deliver public speeches.

None of us expected to find ourselves in the middle of a high-stakes campaign like this. We didn’t seek out conflict or public attention. Most of us feel uncomfortable speaking in public. But we could not sit back and watch them destroy the place we love. We stepped into the spotlight because we know that if we don’t stand up for our home now, tomorrow will be too late.

That is why we have been organising protests, festivals, and events. And a few months ago, we organised a flashmob beside the confluence of the Mura and Drava Rivers, a natural classroom for understanding river dynamics. We formed a giant SOS sign there.  Because our river is in danger, and we need your help.

Factory farms are parachuting corporate power onto rural communities

Our story in Legrad – Donja Dubrava is not an isolated case. Across Croatia, dozens of rural communities are facing the same threat.

In the nearby village of Apatija, another giant factory farm is being planned, and forced onto local residents. Around 160 km south near the city of Sisak, plans for a colossal mega-project aiming to produce around 100 million chickens a year (four times Croatia’s annual production) were met with fierce local resistance, successfully halting parts of the development. It proves that when communities unite, people power works, and we will not rest until these projects are stopped for good. 

The pattern is glaringly obvious: wealthy corporations and billionaire executives parachute massive, polluting projects onto rural communities, expecting us to quietly suffer the consequences while they extract profit.

This is not just a series of isolated local conflicts; it is a systemic problem that is happening all over the world and it demands systemic solutions. That starts by pushing decision-makers to stop any new industrial livestock expansion from happening.

Standing up for the future of our waters

We are not lawyers, scientific experts, or professional activists. We are simply local people who have been let down by the system and forced to make a stand. It is time for our representatives to step up and defend our interests over corporate profits.

We want the confluence of Mura and Drava to remain as it is today: clean, wild, and filled with life. Where future generations  find joy and peace in its waters. For local artists to keep painting its landscapes and our children to grow up swimming in the river after school and playing on its shores, living in harmony with the ecosystem.

That is why we fight, and that is why we will not back down. Please stand in solidarity with us: help us save the Drava!

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Kristina Pongrac is an artist and local environmental defender from the Drava region in Croatia. As a member of Građanska Inicijativa Legrad – Donja Dubrava, her work explores the intersection of nature protection, folk art, and grassroots community resistance. Learn more about Kristina’s work here.