Big banks linked to products with pangolin and leopard parts

The businesses in question have been contacted by the BBC for opinion.

Global investment firms like The Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and BlackRock, as well as UK financial services behemoths like HSBC, Prudential, Legal & amp, General, are among the companies.

Lions and animals are in danger, so it is likely that they will go extinct in the near future. In an effort to ensure that their success in the wild is not in danger, both are also listed on the Mentions( Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ) treaty, which forbids foreign corporate industry in them and their parts.

The three medical firms that are highlighted in the EIA review are Jilin Aodong Pharmaceutical Group, Tianjin Pharmaceutical party, and Tong Ren Tang Group.

Although not all of the businesses listed in the EIA review make investments in all three, they all make at least one.

Leopard bone is used as a tiger bone substitute in traditional Chinese medicine( TCM ). Tiger tooth is thought to help eliminate breeze, strengthen bones and limbs, and relieve pain. Pangolin weights are rumored to improve nursing, blood circulation, and chronic pain relief. Medical evidence does not support these assertions.

Following the report’s release, EIA Legal & amp, Policy Specialist Avinash Basker urged the Chinese government to” fulfill CITES recommendations and forbid the use of leopard, pangolin, tiger, and rhino body parts from all sources for all commercial purposes in its domestic markets.”

” The international community’s CITES tips to protect these types are disregarded when highly threatened animals like leopards, pangolin, elephant, and tigers are used in conventional medicine products.” This is apply on a truly professional scale, which can only bring these species ever-closer to extinction while instantly sending contradictory messages to consumers, increasing demand for their parts and derivatives, and tarnishing TCM’s reputation around the world, he claimed.

He continued,” It’s especially disheartening to see so many significant banks and financial institutions actually supporting this harmful using, especially given how many have vowed to do otherwise.” ” They need to withdraw from TCM producers using threatened species as soon as possible if their environmental credentials are to have any trust.”

The lion or anteater derivatives were not being sourced, according to the EIA, which claimed it was unable to do so.

” No a direct investment and does not have direct exposure to these organizations ,” according to HSBC in an interview. It also states that HSBC Global Asset Management Canada responded to the EIA statement by saying that its” opportunities in the TCM businesses were limited to passive or” sensor” money rather than actively managed funds.” This implies that funds are immediately invested in stocks based on a linked indicator that they track, such as the FTSE 100.

According to Deutsche Bank, the report is focused on property managers and was directed to DWS, an property management firm that was formerly a part of DB but is now on its own.

According to a statement from DWS, it has” different ESG-related ] environmental, social, and governance” policies that offer instructions on how to incorporate the information from the environment into our investment processes, engagement, or proxy voting activities, where we combine our voting rights for active and passive funds.

There are no positively managed DWS money invested in any of these three manufacturers nationally, according to the statement.

According to Legal & amp, General Investment Management” manages many funds against various index providers to meet a wide range of client demands.”

According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service( IPBES ), which covers the exploitation of wild species,” LGIM is aware that one of the key drivers of nature-loss” is” natural resource use and” exploitation ,” the company said.

In order to address these IPBES owners, we are creating a” nature model” that integrates and discloses high-quality, consistent, location-specific data that relates to business behavior in relation to these important nature-related issues.

BlackRock opted not to say anything.

For reply, the BBC has contacted UBS, Tong Ren Tang, Tianjin Pharmaceutical Group, and Jilin Aodong Pharma Group.