Latest News

Native groups in Brazil: We were not sought advice from on carbon credits

Indigenous organizations in the Brazilian state of Para said they were not spoken with by the federal government before it signed a deal with multinational business to offer carbon offset credits to support preservation of the Amazon rain forest in the state.

Amazon.com Inc and other firms agreed last month to purchase carbon credits valued at $180 million through the LEAF Union conservation initiative, which it assisted establish in 2021 with a group of companies and federal governments, consisting of the United States and United Kingdom.

At the time, Para Guv Helder Barbalho stated the offer had the involvement of Indigenous individuals and traditional neighborhoods.

But on Tuesday, 38 Native and community organizations from Para signed a public letter knocking his failure to consult them.

It is inappropriate for the government of Pará to take decisions without consulting conventional neighborhoods, who are the best protectors of the forests while also being one of the most impacted by the absence of efficient climate adaptation policies, they said in the letter.

Forest individuals should be heard and consulted. Our territories are not for sale, they stated.

Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a tribal leader who was the letter's principal author, said the role of U.S.-based companies like Amazon and Walmart in the carbon credit purchase was worrying, as well as that of property supervisor BlackRock, which she said had a harmful footprint in her region.

Our top priority is the expulsion of invaders on our reservation lands that are threatened by miners and a grain train, she informed Reuters by telephone. Our leaders were never spoken with on the carbon credits. We are being offered like items.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a demand for remark.

Korap Munduruku is an Indigenous instructor turned neighborhood leader who won the prominent Goldman ecological prize in 2023 for her efforts to encourage mining business leave Munduruku lands.

The arrangement is LEAF's very first handle the Amazon, the world's biggest rainforest, which is important to suppressing climate change due to the fact that of the massive quantity of greenhouse gas its trees absorb.

The offer anticipates the purchase of approximately 12 million tons of carbon credits produced by decreasing logging in Para between 2023 and 2026. It was announced on Sept. 24 throughout New York Environment Week.

Each of the credits represents a decrease of 1 metric heap of carbon emissions and they are jurisdictional, so Pará gets paid for reducing deforestation across the state, consisting of on public lands like bookings.

Guv Barbalho stated the state would just gather the part of the sales' proceeds required to continue its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while the rest would go to Indigenous individuals and traditional neighborhoods in addition to household farms.

Para will host the UN COP30 climate top next year, in a. move that is the focal point of President Luiz Inacio Lula da. Silva's bid to bring back Brazil's ecological credentials after. years of skyrocketing logging.

(source: Reuters)