Illegal Mining In La Pampa, Peru / January 20, 2017
Germany’s Das Erste TV channel recently broadcast a documentary titled “Klimaneutral? Von wegen”. If you’re British, that translates as “Climate neutral? As if”. And if you’re from the US it’s, “Climate neutral? My ass”.
The documentary was produced by journalists from FAKT, a political documentary series on Das Erste.
Lichtenauer Mineralquelle, a German bottled water company, advertises its product as “climate neutral”. In a 2021 advert, Lichenauer Mineralquelle’s managing director, Paul Korn explained that,
“We are proud to say that every bottle of water that has left the company since January 2021 is climate neutral. This is an important milestone in the company’s history, but also a contribution to global climate protection.”
PHOTO Credit: Screenshot from Lichtenauer’s website.
The company’s website explains that its claim of climate neutrality is in part a result of buying carbon offsets from the Munich-based carbon consulting firm ClimatePartner.
“Our project in Peru protects the primary rainforest there and prevents illegal logging. In addition, it offers 400 local families a secure income through Brazil nut cultivation.”
FAKT notes that Lichtenauer is just one company of many in Germany that buys carbon offsets in order to advertise its products as “climate neutral” or similar. Others include Aldi Süd, Barilla, BP, DM, Eurowings, Hipp, Netto, ZG Raiffeisen, and Shell.
This post focuses on the REDD Project in Brazil Nut Concessions and Lichtenauer’s “carbon neutral” claims for its bottled water.
Illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios
FAKT’s journalists Carmen Salas and Knud Vetten fly to Puerto Maldonado, the capital of the Madre de Dios region. From there, they travel by car to La Pampa. This is one of the most dangerous places in Peru, because of the illegal gold mining mafia.
Peruvian colleagues at the investigative publication OjoPúblico had told them about a raid that was about to take place. FAKT’s journalists travel with armed police and military to La Pampa, where they find a scene of complete devastation. 30 years ago this was dense jungle.
PHOTO Credit: Screenshot from FAKT’s documentary – illegal gold mining at La Pampa, Madre de Dios, Peru
The police and military find and blow up eight illegal gold mining operations. They arrest several people. FAKT notes that while that’s a success for the security forces it’s not going to stop the search for gold.
The REDD project borders La Pampa and consists of about 400 Brazil nut concessions and a buffer zone that should also be protected.
The project was developed by a company called Bosques Amazónicos that was incorporated in Peru in 2004. The project was verified by the carbon certifying company Verra in 2012.
The illegal gold mining area is part of the reference area for the REDD project in Brazil nut concessions. That’s the area the project developers use to write the counterfactual baseline story about what would happen if the REDD project did not go ahead.
FAKT’s journalists note that the project area consists largely of intact forest. “Was there really the risk of large-scale deforestation as predicted by the project developers?” the voice-over asks.
A grossly exaggerated baseline
Salas and Vetten travel to Switzerland to interview Simon Counsell, an international expert on CO₂ projects in rainforests. Counsell has worked for almost four decades on rainforests and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. He is the former director of Rainforest Foundation UK and is currently an adviser to Survival International.
In 2021, Foodwatch published a report written by Counsell about the REDD project in Brazil nut concessions.
In a Guest Post for REDD-Monitor about the report, Counsell writes that his research “revealed that the scheme generated no real carbon savings, and that deforestation in the area actually increased dramatically after the project started”.
Counsell explains to FAKT’s journalists that a fundamental problem of the project is that the reference area was used to created a grossly exaggerated deforestation baseline. Counsell says that,
“So what the project did, it looked at La Pampa and the surrounding region, for example, where there was an extreme problem with illegal gold mining, also commercial logging, settlement of farmers, and an extremely high rate of deforestation over about two decades before the carbon project started. And they said ‘Right this will also happen in the project area.’ So they have created a very high future deforestation scenario.”
She tells FAKT that the project has sold huge numbers of phantom carbon credits that are worthless in terms of the climate:
“To this day, the project operator uses this reference area, which has been identified in the project documents from the outset and is demonstrably inadequate. This means that for almost 10 years, credits have been generated and sold here that are based on a non-comparable reference area.”
In a written reply to FAKT’s questions, Bosques Amazónicos did not answer the question about whether too many carbon credits had been issued, but explained that the project was developed in accordance with Verra’s methodology.
PHOTO Credit: Screenshot from FAKT’s documentary – letter from Bosques Amazónicos.
Counsell tells FAKT that he’s surprised that Bosques Amazónicos has not responded to the growing international criticism of Verra’s certification system:
“There are methodological problems with this so-called independent system. And it is riddled with conflicts of interest. In view of these problems, I think Verra will withdraw all these methods, including the one under which this REDD project was certified. All of these projects will disappear. Scientific studies indicate that such projects will be able to issue far fewer emission certificates in future because they have to use much more realistic baselines.”
Sure enough, in late November 2023, Verra announced a “new era of forest protection with transformative REDD methodology”. The new methodology has been under development since 2020. Verra has promised to provide a path that “will enable project proponents to voluntarily transition their project(s) to the new methodology and adjust historic project calculations accordingly”.
“We can’t rely on spending years trying to fix a mechanism which may not work very well in the future anyway. We have to find fundamentally different ways of financing measures to protect the environment and prevent carbon dioxide emissions.”
Jutta Kill points out that the network of project developers, certifiers, and brokers remains in place because everyone involved profits from it:
“All these profiteers are ultimately enriching themselves with credits that have no basis in real emission reductions. This means that the profit is not only at the expense of the local population but ultimately also at the expense of the climate because phantom credits are largely being traded here.”
FAKT’s attempted on-camera interviews
FAKT’s journalists wanted to interview Bosques Amazónicos to find out how the illegal gold mining area could have been part of the reference area. They travel to Bosques Amazónicos’ office in Madre de Dios.
No one is there, but they find a note relating to REDD Castañeros – the name of the project in Peru.
Knud Vetten phones María Cantuarias. She’s head of conservation and carbon markets at Bosques Amazónicos, and is the daughter of the founder of the company, Jorge Cantuarias. He explains what they are reporting on.
The next day, Bosques Amazónicos cancels the interview explaining that neither Jorge nor María Cantuarias are currently in Lima.
Salas and Vetten fly to Lima. They visit Bosques Amazónicos’ office in the banking district in Lima. Five minutes after getting out of their car, a security guard stops them and asks whether they have permission to film.
They are allowed to the reception, where they request a background talk with someone else from the firm. They wait, but no one comes.
Lichenauer also decline an interview with FAKT’s journalists, despite repeated requests. They refer Salas and Vetten to ClimatePartner.
FAKT reports that according to Bosques Amazónico, ClimatePartner has bought almost 2.7 million carbon credits from the REDD project in Brazil nut concessions.
ClimatePartner also decline an on-camera interview. In response to written questions, ClimatePartner explain that the company bought carbon credits from the REDD project in Brazil nut concessions between 2019 and 2022. “The project is therefore part of our project portfolio,” ClimatePartner states.
A letter from Bosques Amazónicos’ lawyers
While they were researching the story, FAKT’s journalists received a letter from a large law firm in the USA. FAKT blurred out the names and addresses in the letter:
Please be advised that we are United States legal counsel for Bosques Amazónicos S.A. (“BAM”). It has come to our attention that FAKT is planning to publish a TV program and/or article regarding BAM’s carbon concessions projects, including a project in Madre de Dios, Peru (“Madre de Dios project”). We have reason to believe based on the circumstances described in this letter that FAKT intends to publish defamatory statements relating to BAM and its role and activities related to the Madre de Dios project. Should this occur, BAM will pursue all remedies it has at its disposal including bringing civil proceedings against FAKT and any parties in concert for their actionable conduct.
In particular, while FAKT purported to contact BAM to provide VAM with an opportunity to provide necessary background facts related to your upcoming television program, in reality you did not truly intend to obtain the facts necessary to inform FAKT as to the true facts related to the Madre de Dios project. Instead, your story was intended and is most likely to be nothing but a “hit piece” and you were faking an attempt to contact FAKT to get BAM’s comments. By going forward with your story without getting BAM’s input, you are acting in connection with the publication of the television program with the intent to publish defamatory statements relating to BAM or acting in reckless regard of the truth as to BAM’s conservation projects.
Here are the facts. On November 13, 2023, the Head of Conservation for BAM, XXXX received email correspondence from FAKT requesting an interview between November 15-18 2023, to discuss “carbon credits.”
The same day, XXXX responded stating that BAM would try to coordinate a call and requested FAKT share the topics to be addressed in the research and interview. On November 13, 2023, XXXX send further email correspondence advising that as XXXX (the founder and CEO of BAM) and herself were not in Lima, Peru that week, they would not be able to provide a recorded interview during the short time period provided by FAKT. However, XXXX advised that BAM is “at disposal to answer any questions you may have regarding the carbon market and our projects in writing.” Despite XXXX request for questions and topics, and BAM’s willingness to provide a formal response, FAKT’s journalists showed up after working hours on November 15 at BAM’s Madre de Dios office in a blatant attempt to ambush BAM employees and take unauthorized photographs and videos. On November 17, XXXX similarly arrived at BAM’s contact offices in Lima uninvited and demanded to conduct an interview with XXXX neither of whom were on the premises. Despite XXXX’s repeated attempts to speak with a representative of FAKT, BAM has received no further response from FAKT. In light of FAT’s unscrupulous behavior, it is apparent that FAKT intends to publish false and disparaging allegations against BAM, either intentionally or in reckless disregard for the truth.
Therefore, to the extent the forthcoming television program or any articles that feature the Madre de Dios project make statement defaming our client, either expressly or by implication, your conduct would be considered actionable and you (and all persons and entities who participate and assist with the publication of defamatory content injurious to our client) will be held accountable.
Based on the foregoing, we request that you confirm in writing to us within the next 24 hours that you will refrain from including any reference to our client and/or any of our climate’s projects, including but not limited to Madre de Dios project, in any upcoming television programs or articles you intend to publish. We hereby reserve all of our rights, claims, and remedies against you in connection with the foregoing.
Sincerely,
FAKT did not follow the request at the end of the letter.
FAKT spoke to Nelly Luna, co-founder and editor of OjoPúblico. In 2017, she worked on the Paradise Papers and published a report about the financial links between Bosques Amazónicos and several offshore firms in tax havens.
Nelly Luna tells FAKT’s journalists about Bosques Amazónicos’ response:
“In their view, the report affected their business model because it linked them to the Paradise Papers. They were quite aggressive, even in writing. When I re-read it now, they mention that they will agree to make a deal with us, if we sent them a letter assuring them that they had no connection with activities like this. If we did that, they wouldn’t sue us. If we didn’t sign the letter, they would sue us, the authors civilly and criminally, as well as OjoPúblico.”
The report is still available on OjoPúblico’s website. The report documents in detail a series of deals that Bosques Amazónicos made with a company called Sustainable Forestry Management that involved several offshore companies in tax havens.
FAKT’s journalists meet Indigenous People who live in the forest around the Brazil nut concessions that form the REDD project. The Indigenous People have nothing to do with the REDD project or Bosques Amazónicos.
They are worried because the illegal gold miners are getting ever closer to their territory.
The Indigenous People say that they have also received threats from the illegal gold miners. As FAKT’s journalists spoke with them, illegal gold miners were only a few hundred metres away.
“The forest is intact on our side. On the other side, there’s always a collapse, and another, and another. They dig hole after hole. They try here, and if they don’t find anything, they go somewhere else. The search for gold will never end. It will go on and on.”
FAKT’s journalists put up a drone and film illegal gold mining within the REDD project area, where the forest is supposedly protected:
PHOTO Credit: Screenshot from FAKT’s documentary – illegal gold mining inside the REDD project.
“After all this, the question remains,” FAKT’s voice-over says, “has this type of so-called climate neutrality and CO₂ reduction, has this type of voluntary trading with certificates helped us?”
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