We, the undersigned—academics, environmental advocates, TIAA-clients, and concerned citizens—are alarmed by TIAA’s role in the Brazilian farmland market, especially in the Cerrado, a vital biome for biodiversity, peasant farmers and Indigenous communities.
Within the Cerrado region, Nuveen’s data indicates a significant role in rural land markets, with over 1 million acres in Brazil and 3 million globally.
Financial speculation in farmland promotes the expansion of agribusiness plantations, causing deforestation and threatening the land rights of rural communities. As one of the world’s largest players in farmland markets, TIAA is enabling this destructive model of agriculture, which is a main cause of climate change. TIAA’s speculative business represents a risk of displacement for rural communities and contributes to environmental destruction by promoting the expansion of monocropping plantations. We urge TIAA and its subsidiary Nuveen to recognize the broader consequences of their farmland business and take immediate steps toward transparency, accountability, and justice by meeting with impacted communities in Bahia to address the damage caused by land grabs and toxic agribusiness practices. Given its scale and influence, TIAA has a responsibility to lead by example, shifting away from harmful practices and toward sustainable, equitable models.
This is a critical moment to not only mitigate harm, but to chart a course toward a more just and sustainable future for the planet. Your leadership can play a vital role in protecting the Cerrado, its people, and our shared climate future. We ask you to go to Bahia and begin a constructive dialogue with impacted communities, and we are ready to support a more responsible and ethical path forward.
TIAA/Nuveen must:
- Engage Directly with Affected Communities: Initiate meaningful, ongoing dialogue with communities in Bahia to understand the true impacts of farmland speculation and agribusiness plantations.
- Restore Impacted Ecosystems: Invest in the ecological restoration of lands deforested or degraded due to agribusiness plantations, prioritizing the recovery of native biodiversity and local water systems.
- Ensure Transparency in Land Business: Publicly disclose all farmland holdings in Brazil, including past and present ownership structures and subsidiaries
- Commit to Ethical Investment Practices: Reevaluate and, where appropriate, divest from landholdings that are tied to deforestation, land conflicts, or violations of community rights.
- Strengthen Sustainability Standards: Adopt stronger safeguards that ensure future investments do not contribute to environmental degradation or social displacement. These standards should be science-based, aligned with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, community-informed, and publicly reported.
- Stop acquiring land in Brazil: Land speculation is inherently harmful. Enact a moratorium on all new operations in farmland and agribusiness markets and seek to cap and reduce its landholdings portfolio.
