Colombia’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday annulled a controversial carbon credit agreement in the Amazon rainforest that six local tribes said was signed without their consent.
Indigenous communities in the remote area of Pira Parana had accused US-based Ruby Canyon Environmental and Colombian company Masbosques, which acted as an intermediary, of illegally forcing the deal on them.
Carbon credits are purchased by companies – or countries under certain conditions – from forest conservation or other projects to offset or ‘offset’ their greenhouse gas emissions.
This money should go to local communities protecting their home regions from deforestation.
In Pira Parana, the credits – also known as green bonds – were sold for about $3.8 million to a Colombian data processing company called Latin Checkout.
According to EcoRegistry, which monitors the trade in carbon credits, Latin Checkout then sold the credits to US airline Delta, which is facing a lawsuit domestically for alleged greenwashing by claiming to be carbon neutral while buying questionable carbon offsets.
The agreement, signed in March 2021, meant that indigenous communities would retain an area of 7,100 square kilometers (2,741 miles) – about the size of Puerto Rico.
But the tribes said the deal was signed with false representatives of their communities.
They went to court claiming violations of their right to territorial autonomy and self-government.
On Monday, the court ordered the tribes’ legitimate representatives to meet within six months and decide whether to approve a new agreement.
If they don’t, authorities must “ensure” that the carbon credit project “is no longer implemented in the territory,” the judges ruled.
The concept behind carbon credits has taken a major hit recently, as scientific research has repeatedly shown that claims of reduced emissions are vastly overestimated – or even non-existent.
In late 2023, AFP walked, motorboated and flew over part of the Pira Parana area, an area so remote it can only be accessed by multimillion-dollar private flights or a boat trip of at least six days from the nearest town of Mitu.
There, local leaders said they wished they had never heard of the deal.
While it brought an economic bonanza, it also led to conflict in communities unaccustomed to handling large sums of money, and to a loss of indigenous autonomy, they said.
The project “pollutes mentally and physically, it destroys everything… in this area, for money,” indigenous leader Fabio Valencia said at the time.
Some experts have said there is no real deforestation threat in the area and therefore no “savings” on emissions can be achieved.
The case before the Constitutional Court was the first of its kind in Colombia.
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