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In the wake of the COP26 climate conference, businesses and wealthy governments are leaning more than ever on carbon markets and offsets to excuse pollution instead of pursuing real emissions reductions or forest protection. Carbon offsets are false solutions to the climate crisis, do not address the root causes of deforestation, and often cause conflict within and harm to Indigenous communities. However, this hasn’t stopped powerful actors from coming up with new ways to try to sell carbon offsets.
The LEAF Coalition is one such example. LEAF is a public-private carbon credit program spearheaded by the U.S., UK, and Norwegian governments and funded by some of the world’s worst corporate polluters, including BlackRock, Delta Airlines, Nestlé, and Amazon. Although it is being hailed as a major step for tropical forest conservation, our research warns that carbon market programs have frequently failed to protect forests and Indigenous rights, and on its current trajectory, the LEAF Coalition is likely to be more of the same: a greenwashed distraction from real solutions.
The new briefer from Amazon Watch, A Leaf out of An Old Book, explores the context of the LEAF Coalition in Ecuador, where its program will be implemented as part of the country’s REDD+ Action Plan. Many programs under this plan have failed to protect Indigenous rights and in fact overseen an expansion of the extractive frontier in Ecuador. The briefer specifically considers the experiences of the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) and the defenders of the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest.
The LEAF Coalition stands to continue this pattern of enabling extractive activity in Indigenous territories while also providing carbon offset credits for corporate polluters: a dangerous distraction from justice-oriented solutions.
In order to truly protect forests, advance Indigenous sovereignty, and halt climate change, governments and corporations must:
- Prioritize climate finance for community- and Indigenous-led programs. Wealthy countries must massively increase their climate finance contributions, and must ensure that such programs are unconditional and free of offset schemes or pay-to-pollute models.
- Refrain from promoting programs that create financial dependency among Indigenous peoples.
- Comply with Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) before any decision that affects the integrity and environmental or social balance of Indigenous communities.
- Rapidly draw down consumption of oil and gas, immediately cease exploration and drilling on Indigenous lands, and honor all Indigenous land rights.
- Massively reduce production of deforestation-risk commodities.
