Carbon offsetting and REDD

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) has become the dominant international forest policy. Variations of REDD+ include Nature-Based Solutions and corporate pledges to achieve Zero Net Deforestation. In reality, though, deforestation continues, polluting companies use REDD+ offsets to avoid reducing their fossil fuel emissions, and zero-net deforestation pledges allow forests to be cleared in one area as long as an “equivalent” area is restored elsewhere.

Bulletin articles 15 December 2024

How Jurisdictional REDD in Indonesia threatens forests and benefits NGOs: the case of East Kalimantan

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.

Bulletin articles 24 October 2024

PODCAST - Indonesia: Dayak Women Defend the Forest of Tambun Bungai

This article tells the story of a Podcast that is being jointly launched with Solidaritas Perumpuan, a feminist organisation from Indonesia. This espisode is the third in the series “Women’s struggles for land”, produced by WRM together with organisations from different countries. This one tells the story of women's resistance to oil palm plantations, REDD and a large-scale project for food production (Food Estate) in three villages in Central Kalimantan.

Other information 24 October 2024

Mozambique’s Carbon Credits: Low Revenues, Rising Deforestation, and Limited Benefits for Communities

Mozambique's Zambezia Integrated Landscape Management Program (ZILMP) was launched in 2019 to combat climate change and reduce deforestation in nine districts, aiming for $50 million in carbon credit revenues by 2024. In this publication, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIR) shows that six months before its ending, the initiative achieved only 25% of emissions reduction and 14% of revenue targets, with minimal benefits reaching local communitie

Bulletin articles 19 December 2023

The Industrial Park KIPI reveals the dirty and destructive face of Indonesia´s “green” transition

President Jokowi calls the Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia (KIPI) “the largest green industrial area in the world”. But in reality, there is nothing green about the KIPI. It will lead to massive fossil fuel use, land and water grabbing, while threatening thousands of people in coastal communities with forced eviction. (Available in Indonesian).

Bulletin articles 16 June 2022

Expansion of Pulp and Paper Companies APP and APRIL in Indonesia: More Deforestation and Violence

More than 10 million hectares in Indonesia are controlled by the pulp and paper industry, mainly by two giant corporations: APP and APRIL. Despite the companies’ commitments to protect forests and peatland, both keep being associated with deforestation, forest fires and to a business model of violence, criminalization and dispossession of forest communities. (Available in Bahasa Indonesia)

Articles 28 April 2022

The Legacy of the Community Carbon Project in Nhambita, Mozambique: Nostalgia, Disillusionment and Indignation

The UK company Envirotrade began a REDD+ project in 2003 that involved communities in the buffer zone of the Gorongosa National Park. In 2018, the company abandoned the region, leaving behind unfulfilled obligations, debts to villagers and hundreds of perplexed families.