‘Gone wrong’: Doubts on carbon-credit program in Peru forest

The Associated Press ^ | March 30, 2023 | By ED DAVEY

[Oldeconomybuyer]

SAN MARTÍN, Peru (AP) — The Cordillera Azul National Park on the eastern flank of the Peruvian Andes takes in a sweep of Amazon rainforest, mountains and waterfalls in a territory about the size of Connecticut, so precious that tens of millions of dollars in carbon credits have been sold in a program that supporters said would protect its trees.

But an analysis by independent experts and reporting by The Associated Press raises doubts about whether the project has delivered on its promise to counter-balance emissions by oil companies such as Shell, TotalEnergies and others. And the tree loss has more than doubled, according to satellite analysis.

Experts say the Cordillera Azul project was flawed from the beginning, with far too many carbon credits generated and exaggerated benefits that allowed the nonprofit running the park for the Peruvian government to make more money — even as the tree canopy shrank.

Defenders of the project dispute that benefits were inflated. They say the tree loss was virtually all from natural causes, even as satellite analysis shows it’s concentrated on the western and northern borders of the park near large population centers and largely along rivers. These are places far easier to reach and illegally log than elsewhere in the mostly primordial landscape.

“It is clear something has gone wrong in this project,” said Edward Mitchard, an expert in deforestation and carbon credits at the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

*** “It is clear something has gone wrong in this project,” said Edward Mitchard, an expert in deforestation and carbon credits at the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences. ***

No Edward, it’s working exactly as planned.

[RatRipper]

Yeah, something went wrong. . . the green mob is composed of con artists, and they are trying to con the whole world.

[momincombatboots]

Whenever the socialists go green and give the ruling class and elites a way to buy their way out… while the working class goes hungry.. it’s a successful program.
It was designed to do just that.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Every time.

[jacknhoo]

The new Mined Amazon dashboard, developed in partnership with InfoAmazonia for this report, shows in real time the applications filed with the ANM that impact Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, with the possibility of using search filters by companies and territories. Data is collected daily from the ANM database and cross-referenced with the boundaries of indigenous lands and integral protection conservation units in the Legal Amazon (data from Funai and the Ministry of the Environment), identifying applications that overlap (totally or partially) or touch the borders or any part of these protected areas.

https://complicityindestruction.org/map