The Green Economy

On the eve of the International Day of Struggle against Tree Monocultures, we invite you to participate in the webinar “Tree Plantations, Carbon Markets and Resistances”. It will be on Friday 20th September.

This briefing provides an overview of the expansion of tree plantations aimed at carbon markets. Where are these plantations located, who is profiting from them, what have been the impacts for communities living on the lands these projects occupy, and what international initiatives are taking place to boost tree plantations for carbon offsetting.

Sign in solidarity with Vincent Djiropo, a community leader of the Winnin peoples who was detained in San Pedro, Bas-Sassandra region, Ivory Coast, on December 14th 2024, for defending the forests where his community lives. Since this letter was released for sign-ons, on December 15th, 2024, Vincent has been taken to jail and 19 more people involved in the struggle have been detained.

On November 22, the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 ended in Baku, Azerbaijan. At one of its sessions, Brazilian authorities spoke about the next one, COP30, to be held in the Amazon region. They did so in front of a mega photo of untouched Amazon forest. However, away from Baku’s spotlights, the reality of many Amazonian peoples is one of despair at the forest being consumed by forest fires.

In the province of East Kalimantan, the World Bank is supporting the Indonesian government’s first jurisdictional REDD programme. International conservationist NGOs, TNC and WWF, have been playing a key role in the preparation and execution of the programme. While they proclaim it to be a “success story” (1), this programme is full of contradictions. Available in Indonesian.

“We declare our opposition to the mining project” - that is the message from the community of Sainte Luce to QIT-Madagascar Minerals (QMM) and Malagasy authorities. The community declared their opposition to the company's intentions to mine ilmenite – a mineral used in white paint and plastics, among other products – as this would destroy their lands and fishing grounds. They made their position clear in a letter and video testimonies, which they delivered to the Rio Tinto subsidiary and authorities in December of 2023.

The proposal to “close the biodiversity finance gap” does not address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss. Instead, it intensifies the commodification of nature, which allows the corporate and financial sector to profit from the environmental crisis. Andre Standing, member of the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), offers an analysis of this situation in this interview, which was published by Acción Ecológica during the COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The article deals with the creation of REDD+ as a “conservation fad”, which served as a parameter for the channeling of resources from investment banks and governments of the global north, immediately also arousing interest among corporations of the food and consumer goods sectors.

Climate change is not a natural disaster. It is the result of decisions, practices and policies adopted and maintained by a relatively small number of actors, primarily for their own interests. Its consequences, however, are global and have the most significant impact in places and on communities that bear the least responsibility for creating the crisis.

COP29 approval of Article 6.4 is “opening the floodgates for a global carbon market that will have devastating impacts on communities in the Global South”

In her latest book, Cassandra, a long-standing activist against the carbon markets, puts together important information about the “overdose” of false solutions to the current climate emergency. Who is responsible for the current crisis? What have they done to get rid of their responsibility while making profits and destroying peoples’ livelihoods? By presenting past and recent cases, the book provides an anti-colonial analysis of the environmental crises and highlights Indigenous and forest-dependent peoples’ resistance.

The Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is being held from October 21st to November 1st in Colombia. This initiative has failed in its goal of halting the alarming loss of biodiversity. For 30 years, instead of putting an end to extractive companies' destruction, the CBD's proposals have worsened the situation – through actions that have undermined both the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and communities, and their ability to remain in the territories they inhabit and protect.