Beware of fake carbon brokers, says govt

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 10/25/2009 8:40 PM  |  National

The government has warned local authorities not to sign any agreements with fake carbon brokers who promise huge profits from carbon trading in the forestry sector.

Wandojo Siswanto, an expert working with the Forestry Ministry, said carbon brokers were approaching regents or mayors directly, asking them to sign MOUs to develop reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) projects.

“They are promising regencies or cities huge rewards if they commit to REDD projects, but in fact are not offering any concrete programs,” he said.

“It has already happened, in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Brokers claiming to be carbon developers have launched mass campaigns by showing regents films to convince them to sign MOUs, but local administrations have not seen a single rupiah in return yet.”

He said brokers sold the MOUs in international markets to enrich themselves, not regencies or cities.

Wandojo, who is also head of the country’s working group on the forestry sector at the international climate change conference, declined to name the brokers, saying there were at least 20 international carbon brokers in the forestry sector in Indonesia.

“There are misperceptions about REDD, particularly from local administrations who see it only as carbon trading that can be used as an extra source of revenue. It then makes it easy for carbon traders to convince regents or mayors to trust them,” he said.

Wandojo said his office could not do much to resolve this issue since the local authorities were granted the power - through regional autonomy - to manage their forests.

Many are hoping that REDD, an alternative scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions to deal with climate change, will be part of the post-2012 global climate agreement.

Indonesia was the first country to issue a regulation on REDD, allowing indigenous peoples, local authorities, private organizations and businesspeople, both local and foreign, to run REDD projects.

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Henrymanoe (not verified), Kupang — Mon, 10/26/2009 - 11:10am

I hope that Kabupaten in NTT take notice of not dealing with fake carbon brokers. I recall that East Nusa Tenggara started introducing the cultivation of jatropha by small-holders after Kupang's administration gave the green investment light to the Israeli-based international project development company Merhav Group. The Kupang regental administration provided facilities and gave a license to PT Manhattan Capital, a local broker which will cooperate with the firm. Merhav did indeed promise regencies and cities huge rewards if they committed to REDD projects, but in fact were not offering any concrete programs at all! It is sad to note that most jatropha planted did not produce the amount of seeds that was expected. In fact most seedlings died. This has also been the experience in India, the Philippines, Brazil among others. Of course much money has been spent, however, the so-called main beneficiaries, the thousands of small farmers, are now suffering because their land has been tied-up in a crop that is not a food crop and had no value. Even the meager harvest of jatropha seeds could not find any buyers. There is no market! The NTT government has been mostly silent about the issue except to tell farmers that they did not use the proper cultivation practices, or there was not enough rain etc. I am sure that a lot of money has changed hands and that Merhav has indeed used the scam to fraudulently trade in fake carbon credits from a jatropha crop that never produced except more poverty and hardship! Beware of the wolf in sheep's cloths!!

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