Indigenous partnership with crypto assets worries Funai – 07/18/2023 – Environment

A document from Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples), obtained by Sheet, points out the performance of a cryptocurrency market company in an indigenous land in Pará, which involved the elaboration of a contract draft for the generation of carbon credits in the territory. These credits would be converted into crypto assets to be offered for sale.

In the document, Funai recommended that the contract not be carried out and that the Aikewara Suruí, from the Sororó Indigenous Land, be guided on “the risks inherent in assuming such a commitment”, mainly due to “the history of the company and its legal representative “.

The company is Green Forever —with the corporate name Green Tecnologia Ambiental—, headquartered in Parauapebas (PA). It is part of the group Green Forever Coin, which operates in the cryptocurrency market, an asset restricted to digital environments.

Green Forever Coin launched a digital asset — a utility token, according to the company — called GFCO2, which was offered for sale both on the company’s website and in a fundraising campaign. This asset would serve to offset carbon footprints, according to the disclosure made.

After the contact made by the report, the Green Forever Coin website, with the GFCO2 offer, was removed from the air. The campaign for the sale of the asset, with a goal of raising R$ 1.5 million, remained on the air until mid-afternoon last Friday (14).

The contract with the indigenous people was suspended, according to João Álvaro Dias, one of the owners of Green Forever. The territory is in São Geraldo do Araguaia (PA), on the border with Tocantins. The city is 185 km from Parauapebas, where the company is located.

“The utility token is a ticket, a coupon. It only has exchange value. What would happen is a tokenization of the carbon credit. The token would be accessible to retailers, to individuals, who would buy to offset their carbon footprints,” he said. Days.

Under the contract discussed, the indigenous people would keep 50% of the sale of carbon credits; the company would keep 30%; and another 20% would be invested in social actions in the territory.

According to the businessman, the contract was presented to the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in Marabá. “We decided to stop the project at the request of the community last year”, said one of the owners of Green Forever.

Carbon credits are generated from activities that prevent deforestation and forest degradation. The instrument that allows this is REDD+, developed under the UN Convention on Climate Change.

One carbon credit equals one ton of CO_two which is no longer emitted into the atmosphere due to the deforestation that was avoided. Companies operate in the voluntary market, in which carbon credits are sold to companies that need to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.

What Green Forever intended was to sell these credits in the form of tokens, to individuals, with the announcement of offsetting carbon footprints.

“The company Green Forever maintains a web page where it offers what would be digital currencies, called Green Forever Coin, associated with the capture of crypto assets related to the carbon credit market”, cites the Funai document, from March 2022, still in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. The document was forwarded to the MPF in March this year.

The carbon credit market is still not regulated in the country. Funai pointed to this fact as another reason why the contract between Green Forever and the aikewaras was not carried out.

“We held several meetings to explain the tokenization of carbon credits to the indigenous people. And public consultations were held. What happens is that the certification of this credit takes a long time”, said Dias, one of the partners.

The Lula government (PT) is preparing a regulation, a proposal that already exists in projects being discussed in Congress, and wants to create a national measurement system to issue its own carbon certificates, currently in charge of foreign entities.

While rules are yet to be defined, several companies have multiplied their efforts to generate carbon credits in traditional communities.

A Funai document from March of this year, revealed by the Sheet in an article published on the 28th, it pointed out a significant increase in carbon credit trading processes in the voluntary market from 2022 onwards.

“Indigenous communities and leaders from various parts of the country have been sought out by companies and law firms interested in presenting projects and, in some cases, even sign contracts”, the document cites.

On the last 7th, the MPF and MP (Public Prosecutor’s Office) of Pará prepared a technical note in which they affirm that the carbon credit market changes the way of life of traditional communities. The text mentions “illusory” proposals to improve life, abusive or illegal clauses and the negotiation of credits on supposedly illegal lands.

Fifteen federal prosecutors and seven prosecutors recommend “necessary state intervention” in contracts involving traditional communities, such as extractive reserves and indigenous lands. At least 14 procedures in the MPF and MP investigate partnerships of this type.

In the Kayapó Indigenous Land, for example, the territory with the most illegal mining in Brazil, the company Carbonext promised “millions of reais” to the indigenous people in a carbon credit generation contract.

The company then signed a contract, which frustrated the indigenous people. According to Carbonext, there were no promises and free consultations were assured, “with the most absolute respect for native peoples and the laws”.

Companies in the carbon credit market continue to seek out traditional communities. In São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), in the border region with Colombia and Venezuela, the municipal secretary for the Environment, Cleudimar Saldanha, convened an assembly to present a carbon credit project this Saturday (15).

The presentation would be made by “Eduardo representing the Bank”, according to the invitation made by the Oca Verde Indigenous Association, chaired by Saldanha. According to the secretary, the meeting will no longer take place. He couldn’t say which “bank” would undertake the project.

In the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira there are 23 indigenous groups. “It doesn’t have a company yet. The association will manage it. We will postpone the meeting”, said Saldanha. “We are informing ourselves so that there is no violence against the indigenous people.”