According to Global Canopy, USD 6.1 trillion in funding was provided to the 350 companies with the greatest risk exposure to tropical deforestation by some 150 financial institutions in 2023. In light of this, WWF and Themis have partnered to create a series of practical resources for financial institutions to manage their exposure to deforestation, including this introductory report which will form part of a wider Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit.

Deforestation has a range of devastating environmental and social impacts and poses a serious threat to global efforts to tackle climate change. It is perhaps the most widely discussed form of land conversion - a term which covers land use change across a range of different ecosystems and biomes, not merely forested areas, and which should therefore be considered as part of a widened scope beyond just deforestation. Indeed, although focus in recent years has tended towards preventative measures to curb deforestation in the Amazon, for example, important biomes, such as the Brazilian Cerrado and Gran Chaco (spanning Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay), which comprise savannah, wetland, and dry forest, have suffered vast destruction and degradation from land conversion, with far less attention.

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