Why Brazilian Prosecutors Want to Block $180 Mn Conservation Project in Amazon?

Brazilian prosecutors are planning to annul a $180 million carbon offset scheme aimed at conserving the Amazon rainforest. The scheme was signed last year by the state of Para, according to a complaint filed on June 3, as reported by Reuters.

The lawsuit threatens the image the Government of Para has been trying to build as the host of the upcoming global climate summit, known as COP30. It also impacts the broader carbon credit industry as a whole, which had been trying to reposition itself after years of facing accusations of abuse and fraud.

Home to some of the most endangered and vulnerable biodiversities in the Amazon rainforest, the state of Para was once an epicentre of deforestation, with only 203,460 hectares deforested in 2019, reported Earth.org .

Reuters also reported that the prosecutors argued that the state government had failed to inform and consult the communities that would be impacted by the deal. They also claimed that Brazilian law does not allow the pre-sale of carbon credits, which in this case represent the carbon stored in trees that the project says it will protect from deforestation.

The state, the prosecutors wrote, aimed to approve its carbon credit plan “before COP 30, which has generated considerable pressure on Indigenous peoples and traditional communities in Para.”

The deal promised to sell up to  12 million metric tons of forest-based carbon credits to the LEAF Coalition, included the US, UK and Norwegian governments, and companies like Amazon, Bayer, H&M and Walmart among other, reported Mongabay.

Prosecutors Challenge Carbon Deal

As Mongabay reported, the Brazil prosecutors had called for the cancellation of the carbon credit deal in the Amazon Rainforest, indicating that it breaks the national law and risks harming indigenous communities.

The $180 million conservation project, signed last year by the state of Para in Brazil, promises to sell up to 12 million metric tons of forest-based carbon credits to the LEAF Coalition, comprised of the US, UK and Norwegian governments, and companies like Amazon, Bayer, H&M and Walmart.

Prosecutors claim the deal violates a law passed just two months after the agreement was signed, which prohibits the future sale of carbon credits. They have characterized the deal as “an extractive and colonialist” form of negotiating and privatising traditional territories.