Extractors

Mr. Adkins is the CEO of American Electric Power, an Ohio-based electric utility that serves 11 states, including West Virginia, and relies on West Virginia coal for many of its power plants. He has the ear of Senator Joe Manchin and his outsized influence is responsible for significant limitations on US plans to reduce carbon emissions.

Mr. Seung is the CEO of the Korindo Group, an Indonesian-based producer, processor, and manufacturer of various products, including wind towers, battery separators, and container vehicles. It also operates plantations of palm oil and timber. Korindo has engaged in massive-scale deforestation in Papua and North Maluku Indonesia, and has been using the FSC’s eco-forestry label to greenwash its practices. It sells its timber, plywood, pulpwood, biomass, and newsprint to Asia Pulp & Paper, APRIL, Sumitomo Forestry, Oji Corporation, and News Corps Australia. The company has received a score of 38% on the Forest 500 Index  based on its poor commitment strength, reporting and implementation, and social considerations. See: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-consultant-why-did-a-palm-oil-conglomerate-pay-22m-to-an-unnamed-expert-in-papua/

Mr. Kuok is the CEO of Wilmar International Ltd., the world’s largest refiner and trader of palm oil. Wilmar International received a total score of 25% on Forest 500, which assesses the biggest companies in the world in terms of their anti-deforestation commitments. The company is one of the world’s largest oil palm plantation owners and processors, reportedly controlling around 45% of worldwide palm oil trade sourced from more than 80% of global palm oil growers. Wilmar also has a global soybean crushing capacity of 36 million metric tons per year, the majority of which is in China. It has no commitments to protect priority forests and no commitments to report on its supply chain. Furthermore, Wilmar does not monitor or verify supplier compliance.

A summary of Mr. Koch’s activities can be found under Deniers. 

Mr. MacLennan is the CEO of Cargill, a US-based company that has a long history of destruction and one of  the biggest companies that contribute to deforestation, according to a report by NGO Mighty Earth. MacLennan has been in charge of the company’s global strategy since 2013. He was calling the shots when, in 2019, former congressman Henry Waxman called Cargill the “worst company in the world,” referring to its track record on deforestation. Cargill profits from the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of people. In Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia, Cargill is involved in the destruction of the Amazon, Gran Chaco, and Cerrado ecosystems, funding the production of soy and beef. In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, Cargill purchases products that have been illegally grown in protected areas and national parks. In Indonesia and Malaysia, Cargill buys palm oil from companies that illegally clear rainforests. Its corporate customers include McDonald’s, Burger King, Walmart, Unilever, and others.

Mr. Molina is the CEO of Marfrig, the second largest Brazilian food processing company, and the second-largest beef producer in the world. Marfrig has an operational base in 22 countries, exporting to over 100. An analysis by environmental campaign organization Mighty Earth, working in collaboration with MapHubs, links meat companies JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva to Amazon fires. See:  Fanning the Flames: The Corporations Destroying the Amazon and Worsening the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unlike US wildfires, fires in the Amazon are intentionally set to clear land for use as cattle pasture or for crop production. Mighty Earth finds that just three companies – JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva – are responsible for 72 percent of beef exported in the areas with the highest concentration of fires. These findings echo Mighty Earth’s 2019 report, The Companies Behind the Burning of the Amazon.

Mr. Tomazoni is the CEO of JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world, producing factory-processed beef, chicken and pork, and also selling by-products from the processing of these meats. One of Brazil’s leading exporters of beef and one of the more known deforestation companies, it operates over 200 production facilities worldwide, processing many tens of thousands of cattle per day. On the Forest 500 index, it has received a score of just 39%. Further, in July 2020, JBS reportedly acquired cattle from a farm in the Brazilian Amazon under sanction for illegal deforestation, the fifth time in a year that the company has been linked to illegal deforestation. 

A summary of Mr. Wirth’s activities can be found under Deniers. 

A summary of Mr. Woods’ activities can be found under Deniers.