Indigenous Peoples and Environmentalists denounce Shell for Financing the Program REDD

Servindi, september 11, 2010 - Indigenous and environmental leaders denounced the oil company, Shell, for entering the carbon market with the objective of cleaning up its image and gaining huge profits as part of a false solution to global climate change.

The Nigerian environmentalist, Nnimmo Bassey, Chairman of Friends of the Earth International; Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network; and Teguh Surya, Campaign Director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (WAHLI) - Friends of the Earth Indonesia, among others, have all denounced Shell.

They indicate that the oil company, Shell, is internationally censured for having committed genocide against the Ogoni people and environmental destruction in the Niger Basin of Nigeria.

Now, Shell has begun to finance mechanisms to reduce emissions due to deforestation and degradation (REDD), which is being denounced as "the largest land grab of all times", as per the environmental leaders.

REDD allows polluters such as Shell, the mining company, Rio Tinto and the oil company, Chevron-Texaco to purchase carbon credits originating from the alleged conservation of forests and to thus avoid reducing their greenhouse emissions where they originate.

Nevertheless, as per the Indigenous Environmental Network, REDD is full of "perverse incentives" to convert natural forests into monoculture tree plantations, and REDD is actually increasing deforestation and logging.

Shell, the natural gas company, Gazprom, and the Clinton Foundation finance the REDD-type project, Rimba Raya, on 100,000 hectares in the Province of Central Kalimantan in Indonesia. According to Reuters, the Rimba Raya project marks a "milestone" in the development of a global market of forest carbon credits.

This REDD project sponsored by Shell could make considerable profits. Reuters calculates that "at a rate of US$ 10 per carbon credit, you could earn up to US$ 750,000,000 over 30 years."

Nnimmo Bassey states that "Shell has brought us pure suffering, the destruction of communities and biodiversity, as well as oil spills and illegal gas flaring for decades. Now, we can add REDD financing to clean up its image and make profits to the long list of Shell's atrocities."

Tom Goldtooth noted that "Shell already committed genocide against the Ogoni people of the Niger Basin. REDD allows Shell and other multinational companies to expand fossil fuel extraction and continue destroying the climate and violating the rights of the indigenous peoples worldwide."

"As we speak", continued Goldtooth, "Shell is trying to drill off the coast of Alaska despite protests by Alaskan natives."

"Shell is not only harming Mother Earth and the indigenous peoples, but it is currently financing REDD, which may result in the largest land grab of all time, as well as more genocide against the indigenous peoples," Goldtooth warned.

According to Goldtooth, "most of the world's forests are on the land of the indigenous peoples. REDD-type projects have already resulted in land grabs, human rights violations, threats to cultural survival, militarization, scams and servitude."

For Teguh Surya, REDD is simply "a blatant and pathetic eco-business". "Shell must not use our beautiful jungles to greenwash the environmental crimes and human rights abuses it has committed in Nigeria and elsewhere.”

Furthermore, the international organization, Vía Campesina, which represents 300,000,000 farmers, rejected REDD and denounced that forest conservation should not be used as an "excuse" for "countries and corporations to continue polluting."

Vía Campesina also stressed that "carbon trading has proven to be extremely lucrative in terms of generating profits for investors. However, it has failed miserably in reducing greenhouse gases."