Complaint concerning illegal deforestation in the Congo

In June 2006 Rabobank received a letter and a report from Greenpeace about businesses allegedly involved in illegal deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of these businesses was a Rabobank customer. We notified the customer about the complaints and asked it to give them serious consideration. Partly as a result of this, the customer entered into a dialogue with Greenpeace in London to discuss the complaints. Subsequently, the customer announced in a press release that it would renounce the two felling concessions it had been awarded by the Congolese government in 2005, and that it would not expand its timber activities until there was sufficient legal and political transparency in this area in the Congo. The customer also stated explicitly that sustainable forestry forms part of its corporate social responsibility and its long-term objectives.