More than one-third of the world’s remaining intact tropical forests lie within territories claimed by Indigenous Peoples. This seminar focuses on ART (Architecture for REDD+ Transactions), the certifier of tropical forest carbon credits, part of a new international carbon trading architecture initiated and financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. The system aims to generate billions of dollars in forest financing and slow tropical deforestation. ART-certified credits would be sold by tropical country governments to multinational companies like Amazon, Nestlé and BCG. Rather than focusing on small project areas, each sale would cover the forest carbon held in vast administrative areas (provinces or even whole countries) – known as “jurisdictional REDD+.”
These proposed sales will in many cases include carbon stored in Indigenous forests. Since 2021, Indigenous leaders have been warning of an inherent risk with the ART mechanism: that governments will sell off Indigenous carbon without the communities’ knowledge or consent.
This seminar gives space for the emerging Indigenous critique of ART and provides an opportunity for the Norwegian International Climate Forest Initiative (NICFI), ART’s principal funder, as well as a representative of the ART Board, to respond to the concerns raised by indigenous leaders. ART is currently revising its standard. The discussion can hopefully provide input into that process.
The seminar will be streamed live and copies will be automatically available for registered participants afterwards.
