Top brands buy Amazon carbon credits from suspected timber laundering scam

[Judi Lynn]

by Fernanda Wenzel on 21 May 2024

• An analysis of two carbon credit projects in the Brazilian Amazon has found that they may be connected to illegal timber laundering.
  
  
• Prior to the analysis, forest management plans had already been suspended in the areas over the same issue.
  
  
• The projects belong to Ricardo Stoppe Jr., known as the biggest individual seller of carbon credits in Brazil, who has made millions of dollars selling these credits to companies like GOL Airlines, Nestlé, Toshiba, Spotify, Boeing and PwC; his partner in one of the projects was convicted of timber laundering six years ago.
  
  
• Their REDD+ projects were developed by Carbonext, known as the largest carbon credit provider in Brazil, and certified by Verra, one of the world’s largest voluntary carbon market registries.

Two major carbon offset projects in the Brazilian Amazon, whose credits have been sold to companies like GOL Airlines, Nestlé, Toshiba and PwC, may have been used to launder timber from illegally deforested areas.

The conclusion comes from an analysis by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), a Netherlands-based nonprofit founded by prosecutors and investigators that investigates emitters of climate-warming greenhouse gases. Brazilian authorities had already launched timber laundering probes in the areas covered by CCCA’s analysis, which resulted in the suspension of logging authorizations. The owner of a company responsible for one of these projects has a prior conviction for timber laundering.

CCCA made the analysis at Mongabay’s request after an anonymous source highlighted the participation of people convicted of timber laundering in the projects.

CCCA analyzed two REDD+ projects, called Unitor and Fortaleza Ituxi, in the municipality of Lábrea, in Amazonas state. The two projects cover a combined area of 140,862 hectares (348,078 acres) — twice the size of London — and aim to avoid 660,598 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year by preventing the spread of deforestation in one of the Amazon’s most under-pressure areas.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/top-brands-buy-amazon-carbon-credits-from-suspected-timber-laundering-scam/