I refer to an article titled "Beware of fake carbon brokers, says govt" (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 25).

I hope that regencies in East Nusa Tenggara take notice of the consequences of ignoring fake carbon brokers. I recall that East Nusa Tenggara started introducing the cultivation of jatropha plants by small-holders after Kupang's administration gave the green investment light to an international project development company.

The Kupang regental administration provided facilities and gave a license to a local broker, which was meant to cooperate with an international firm, The international company 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 and 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 by 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 the international company 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 clothing!

Henrymanoe
Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

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