This share prices have a 15 minute delay and are shown in the local time of the market in which the quote is displayed.
This dedicated section outlines how Santander Brasil embeds the Group’s global policies and its local procedures in its activities in the Amazon and other biomes in Brazil.
Santander is committed to safeguarding and promoting the sustainable development of the Amazon rainforest, which is vital to address climate change and conserve biodiversity. We need economic growth, but it must be sustainable.
Deforestation has been taking place in the Brazilian Amazon for several decades, in part due to the spread of illegal ranching.
However, this cannot be attributed to a single cause. Logging, agriculture, cattle ranching, mining, property speculation, unclear land ownership and large infrastructure projects have all played a role. Of these, speculation and undefined land ownership have been key drivers: speculators, after burning the forest, will often raise cattle on land whose ownership is not clear as a way of strengthening their claim.
Given the growing concerns about climate change and biodiversity conservation, Santander Brasil adopts specific policies and practices when lending to customers operating in the Amazon and in other biomes in Brazil. These measures complement the Group’s Global Environmental, Social & Climate Change Risk Management Policy (ESCC) and the bank´s adoption of the Equator Principles. We also support the nature-based economy by fostering alliances and nature-based businesses in Brazil.
Index
Santander’s global ESCC policy applies to the financing of customers with operations in the Brazilian biomes.
It requires, for example, that lumber companies that harvest native tropical wood species to hold Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Additionally, sets out an annual risk assessment of large agribusiness companies operating in the biomes. Our policy also outlines these prohibited activities:
- Extraction and sale of native tropical timber species.
- Forestry plantations in areas designated as protected by official bodies.
- Developments in any forested areas that have experienced forest fires or mass deforestation in the past five years.
- Potential expansion of the agricultural/plantations frontier to the detriment of natural forest.
- Activities impacting tropical forests, tropical savannahs and savannah biomes or located in high-risk geographies.
- Any projects or activities for oil and gas extraction, power generation or transmission, mining, manufacturing, plantations or other major infrastructure projects that put areas classified as Ramsar Sites, World Heritage Sites or by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as categories I, II, III or IV at risk.
For years, Santander Brasil has been working with its customers to promote sustainable development and continuously enhance our approach to addressing deforestation. Santander Brasil has an E&S (Environmental and Social) risk department in São Paulo, staffed by expert analysts with degrees in biology, geography, environmental management and chemical engineering. Our framework ensures:
- regular reviews of customer’s practices: We conduct annual ESG reviews of more than 2,000 corporate and retail customers, including beef processors, soy traders and logging companies;
- safeguards relating to indigenous and conservation areas: We screen loan applications to make sure that properties do not overlap with officially recognized indigenous territories, conservation units and forests classified by the government as Type B1;
- comprehensive loan screening: all loan requests by farmers and ranchers to Santander in Brazil – not only those within the Amazon biome – are checked for government embargoes due to illegal deforestation. This review covers not only the financed property, but also nearby areas and those given as collateral in the Bank’s operations.
- Since Q1 2022, we have been running daily checks to identify potential recent deforestation on farms and ranches that we finance throughout the entire loan term, even before any government fines are imposed.
Environmental and social reviews of companies
Santander has a set of ESCC procedures and controls for corporate customers across Brazil (not just in the Amazon) that consider not only if our customers are legally compliant but also the existence of good practices.
Over the past decade, we have been conducting reviews of more than 2,000 corporate and retail customers per year. Details of these numbers are available on the Santander Brasil website. The reviews cover companies in every region of Brazil, such as large soy producers, soy traders, beef processors, mining, and logging companies. For beef producers, we pay close attention to their supplier’s practices.
Scope. Santander’s ESCC procedures apply to Wholesale and Large Retail (E3) segments that:
- operate in certain economic sectors, including agribusiness, forestry, mining, energy, oil & gas and industry in general;
- have annual sales revenues of at least BRL 30 million (roughly EUR 4.85 million); and
- maintain a debt exposure with Santander of at least BRL 7 million (EUR ~1 million).
Methodology. Santander Brasil uses an ESCC rating which is taken into account in the credit rating of corporate customers. This model includes an assessment of supply chain practices, fines, degraded land, and profile of E&S management.
It also includes climate factors through:
- a water stress calculator that takes into account the customer's economic activity, the river basin(s) in which it is located, as well as management measures to save water; and
- an assessment of the customer’s climate resilience, considering adaptations to change, such as new weather patterns, legislation or consumer behaviour.
Supply chain. A key part of our assessment of agribusiness customers in the Amazon is a thorough check of their supply chain. For this, we use internet-based tools such as Trase, government data on fines and audits, and news reports. If we uncover any issues, we ask customers about their practices and specific incidents. If we identify material breaches of environmental law and regulation, our standard contracts stipulate our right to take remedial action that includes demanding full repayment of the debt early.
Collaborative efforts to stop deforestation. In addition to its role in Febraban(Brazil’s Banking Federation) described below, Santander Brasil participates in two other initiatives that work to find solutions to contain deforestation in the agricultural sector chain. As a cofounder of The Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), we were its first chair from 2006 to 2009 during the crucial phase of creating its first sustainability standard. The bank is also a founder and board member of the Brazilian Roundtable on Sustainable Livestock (MBPS, in Portuguese), a multi-stakeholder initiative founded in 2008 to promote better ranching practices in Brazil.
Farmers and ranchers
A significant portion of illegally deforested lands does not have a clear owner or is government-owned property. For this reason, Santander verifies land ownership or lease before financing farmers and ranchers.
As part of our credit approval process, we partner with a leading satellite-imaging firm to monitor all properties financed or held as collateral. We monitor approximately 19,000 properties for deforestation alerts. This firm provides daily information on government embargoes that prohibit production on illegally deforested plots.
It also provides us with data related to modern slave labour, as well as incursions into officially recognized indigenous territories, parks, conservation areas and forests classified by the government as Type B.
If we identify problems or spot issues, we contact the customer and ask for an explanation. If we detect a material breach of environmental law or regulation, our standard contracts allow us to require early loan repayment.
In addition to these tools, Santander uses two internet-based satellite-imaging services – Global Forest Watch and MapBiomas – that enable us to detect potential tree cover loss on customer’s farms and ranches over a specified time period.
1. Type B Public Forests are forest areas that have been collected by the government but have not yet been assigned a specific use. This means that although these forests are under government control, they have not yet been designated for a specific use, such as environmental conservation, community use or forest concessions.
Santander Brasil adopts specific policies in the Amazon that focus on beef processing customers.
In 2021, Santander Brasil began engaging with more than a dozen beef processing customers to tackle illegal deforestation linked to their supply chain by 2025. This engagement led to several of them declaring commitments online in 2022 and developing plans to monitor Tier 1 indirect suppliers (supplier of the direct supplier)2, a key gap in traceability and monitoring systems.
Santander Brasil, along with other banks, shared lessons learnt with Febraban, which lead to the creation, in March 2023, of a sector protocol – SARB 026/2023, which sets the standards for managing the risk of illegal deforestation in the bovine meat chain. The protocol defined guidelines to be adopted by its signatories.
This is the first sector-wide environmental protocol for financing beef processing. Since every major bank in Brazil is a signatory, it is considered an effective way of sustainable change and addressing deforestation.
All the 22 banks in Brazil that have agreed to comply to the protocol need to adhere to common minimum requirements to combat illegal deforestation in the Legal Amazon and Maranhão.
By signing the protocol, Santander has aligned its objective with that of the Brazilian financial industry, and has been engaging with its meatpacking customers.
To comply with the Febraban protocol, beef meatpackers operating in the Legal Amazon and Maranhão must:
- Until December 2025, establish a traceability and monitoring system, to demonstrate that cattle acquisition is free from illegal deforestation across all Direct and Tier 1 Indirect Suppliers.
- Starting in March 2024, publish annual progress updates. Reports will be published annually by March 31st, using data from December 31st of the previous year. The reports must contain the KPIs necessary to verify compliance with the Commitment, covering Direct and Tier 1 Indirect Suppliers, indicating whether or not the data is audited by a third party.
- By December 2023, publish on their websites a Commitment and Traceability Plan, aiming for the acquisition of cattle free from illegal deforestation across all Direct and Tier 1 Indirect Suppliers.
Status of Santander Brasil’s implementation of the SARB 026/2023 sector protocol:
Signatory banks must monitor the implementation of actions within the deadlines stipulated by the regulation, evaluate the customers' public reports on the dates established, and take measures based on the content published by meat producers.
Since the protocol was established, Santander has been actively engaging with all meatpacker customers that it affects, leveraging our technical expertise to assist in developing their traceability plans and reports. By the December 2023 deadline, 100% of eligible customers had been verified for protocol compliance, and we monitored their progress reports throughout 2024. For those who did not initially present the required plans, credit limits were temporarily suspended and reinstated only upon compliance. We will continue to act accordingly and monitor compliance with the milestone set by the Febraban protocol, checking adherence to the implementation timeline.
2. Tier 1 indirect suppliers for meatpackers are those ranchers that provide cattle to direct suppliers, who then supply the meatpackers. These suppliers are crucial in the meat supply chain as they ensure a steady flow of livestock to meet the demands of meat processing facilities.
Santander is actively engaged in strategic alliances and has supported and developed innovative approaches focused on nature-based solutions and businesses in Brazil and the Amazon region.
Biomas
At COP 27 in Egypt, Santander announced the creation of Biomas, a new forest company developed in partnership with Vale, Marfrig, Suzano, Itaú and Rabobank. With the planting of two billion native trees, Biomas aims to protect and restore four million hectares in Brazil over the next 20 years, with an expected reduction of around 900 million tons of CO2e from the atmosphere. It will generate high-quality carbon credits and employment opportunities in the region.
The initial phase of the project will involve prospecting areas, scaling up native tree nurseries, engaging local communities, discussing the use of public concessions as project development sites, and implementing pilot projects. Each shareholder is initially providing BRL 20 million in equity to set up operations. In its first full year of operation, Biomas obtained all necessary regulatory approvals, assembled its team and governance, and selected three pilot regions and partners to begin field operations in 2024 within the Atlantic Forest and Amazon.
IFACC Alliance
In December 2022, Santander became the first bank to join the Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco (IFACC) initiative. Supported by The Nature Conservancy, the Tropical Forest Alliance, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations Environment Programme, IFAAC was launched in Glasgow in November 2021 to accelerate financing for sustainable production in these regions. IFACC brings together complementary capabilities to design and scale up mechanisms such as farm loans, farmland investment funds, corporate debt instruments, and capital market offerings. It also shares lessons learned among members, who have pledged USD 3 billion by 2025.
Under IFACC, we issued two financial structures that work as revolving credit facilities in 2023.
The first is a green CRA (Agribusiness Receivables Certificate), valued at BRL 17 million, launched with Grupo Gaia, Conexus, Belterra, Vale Fund and the Good Energies Foundation. It aims to provide credit to agroforestry and non-timber forest product cooperatives and eco-businesses across Brazil’s five biomes, with a strong focus on the Amazon. The certificate will provide working capital for 22 community-led businesses such as cocoa, bananas and cassava producers, benefiting around 4,500 producers who lack access to traditional credit lines. Based on a blended finance model, it enables borrowers to access more affordable capital to improve their production practices. This is the first structure of this kind designed by the bank specifically for the Amazon bioeconomy and has been highlighted as a UNEP-FI case study in 2025 (link).
The second green CRA, valued at USD 47.24 million, was developed in collaboration with Rabobank, the AGRI3 fund and British retailers Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose for the Responsible Commodities Facility (RCF) initiative. This CRA was designed to foster deforestation-free soy production in the Cerrado, following IFACC socio-environmental criteria. This financial innovation won Impact Initiative of the Year – Latin America and Caribbean at the 2023 Environment Finance Impact Awards.
Brazil NBS Investment Collaborative
Created by Capital for Climate, this alliance aims to accelerate the large-scale implementation of nature-based solutions in Brazil.
Amazon Finance Network
Launched at COP28 by IDB Invest and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), this alliance brings together 18 financial institutions from nine countries to increase investment flows, mobilize capital, share knowledge on innovative financial solutions and work the public sector, with the goal of fostering sustainable impact across the Amazon region.
Amazon Journey Platform
In 2022, Santander partnered with other banks and entities to support the launch of the Amazon Journey Platform (Plataforma Jornada Amazônia), managed by Fundação Certi. This initiative aims to promote the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Amazon, focusing on bioeconomy solutions to support forest conservation. The Platform has challenging goals, such as training 3,000 talented individuals and creating 200 startups by the end of 2025, through support, mentoring, training and financial resources. It promises to be a success in promoting businesses that help keep forests standing as well as being a solution to the challenges that limit the growth of the bioeconomy in the region.
In 2023, the Platform launched the Micro Corporate Venture Capital program, designed to attract market investment and form partnerships with large companies to accelerate the growth of startups. Eight startups have already been selected for the programme's acceleration cycle.
By the end of 2024, the initiative had trained 2,071 people, achieving 69% of the 2025 target, with 55.7% of the participants being women. Additionally, 141 startups were created and structured, reaching 70.5% of the 2025 target, and 74 startups were classified and accelerated, achieving 74% of the 2025 target.
First version July 2021 and last update March 2025