The Green Economy

In line with certain aspects of a recent WRM study, we show how four REDD projects in the municipality of Portel, in the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, contribute to perpetuating certain fantasies inherent to the idea of carbon trading through the REDD mechanism.

Most of the causes of deforestation that were identified in a UN-led global analysis from 1999 continue to exist. Yet, the “solutions” proposed since then have become new underlying causes of deforestation. In this scenario, projects that destroy the forest and “green” projects depend on each other in order to be viable.

An investigation by SourceMaterial and Unearthed exposed some of the impacts of a major tree-planting carbon offsetting project in the Republic of Congo from oil giant TotalEnergies, which was announced at the end of 2021.

Watch the conversation with the authors of the WRM publication “15 Years of REDD: A Mechanism Rotten at the Core”. The webinar was held on November 3, 2022.

Amid the flurry of news about investments in carbon markets, a new WRM study has taken a closer look at a REDD initiative underway in the municipality of Portel, in the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon. The case illustrates what is known as "carbon colonialism".

On 3 November, join a conversation to reflect on “15 Years of REDD: A Mechanism Rotten at the Core”.

Industrial tree plantations have always been about corporate control over community fertile lands. The monoculture model inherently endangers communities’ survival, food sovereignty and autonomy, deepens the violence of patriarchy and racism while enforcing the same destructive and oppressive way of organizing land (and thus, people) as the one enforced during the colonial era.

People in Pari Island are seeing their houses and business more frequently under water. Besides their struggles against corporate-led tourism, four Island’s residents are taking legal action against one of the major emitters of carbon dioxide in the world and hence a major responsible for their situation: the Holcim cement corporation.

The discourse of the 'energy transition' is usually used to justify the expansion of the mineral extractive frontier. However, in addition to local pollution and impacts on forests and people, the extraction and processing of minerals require large quantities of water, with long-lasting and far-reaching effects on territories.

We, members of the Manchineri, Apurinã, Katukina Noke Kuí, Jamamadí, Jaminawa, Sharanawa, Huni Kuim, Shanenawa, Ashaninka, Madiha, Kuntanawa, Jaminawa-Arara, Jaminawa do Igarapé Preto, Marubo, Arara, Apolima-Arara, Kanoé Rondonia, Oro Wari Rondonia, Bororo, Nukini and Nawa peoples, farmers, extractive rural workers, and representatives of the organizations Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), World Rainforest Movement (WRM), Friends of the Earth Brazil, Sempre Viva Feminist Organization (SOF), World March of Women (WMW), Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST-RO) and Small Farmers’ Movement

Fossil fuels are at the root of the climate chaos – but the conditions for this crisis have been created by the interconnections and dependencies between colonialism, racism, patriarchy and class exploitation. To address climate chaos, therefore, it is necessary to address the unequal relationships of power upon which a fossil-fuel dependent capitalism is based.

The nearly 5,000 km. of the Mekong River, which crosses six countries and sustains the lives and livelihoods of millions, is under severe threat due to the on-going construction of large scale dams. Communities are resisting what could be the final struggle to save some of the remaining parts of the River… of their lives.