"RIO DE JANEIRO - A corporate conservation project in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has sold carbon credits from publicly owned land without state authorization, a Context investigation has found, highlighting concerns about the credibility of offsets from areas with disputed land ownership.
Analysis of land titles and court proceedings, and interviews with officials in Pará state, reveal how a carbon offset program continues to operate several years after the state registered most of the project area as public land - a landmark move that has triggered a complex legal battle.
The Jari Pará REDD+ Project in northern Brazil gained approval to issue carbon credits in 2020 from Verra, a leading organization that certifies offsets, and became Verra's biggest registered project in Brazil by area. It covers about 497,000 hectares (1.23 million acres), an area more than four times larger than Hong Kong.
In response to Context's investigation, Verra said it had launched a review of the Jari Pará REDD+ Project and suspended the issuance of new carbon credits from the project."
Andre Cabette Fabio reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation March 26, 2023.
SEE ALSO:
"Faulty Credits Tarnish Billion-Dollar Carbon Offset Seller" (Bloomberg Green)
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