THE CARBON MARKET AND CALIFORNIA-ACRE-CHIAPAS COOPERATION

This report by Friends of the Earth International analyzes the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between California, Acre (Brazil), and Chiapas (Mexico) to create a REDD+ carbon credit system. The author argues that these market-based mechanisms, including jurisdictional REDD+ programs and cap-and-trade offsets, facilitate the commodification of nature and lead to human rights violations, land dispossession, and the marginalization of indigenous and traditional communities.

• The 2010 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between California, Acre, and Chiapas aimed to establish a REDD+ carbon credit system allowing California to compensate for its emissions using funding channeled into Acre and Chiapas. However, as of June 2017, the cooperation had not progressed beyond discussions and publications, and California's carbon trading program did not yet allow corporations to buy credits from these states.
• California's cap-and-trade system, part of Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32), requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. While it allows domestic offsets for up to 8% of obligations, the inclusion of international sector-based REDD+ offsets was not approved in August 2016, though officials indicated they might be regulated in future legislative sessions for the 2018-2020 period.
• The jurisdictional REDD+ program in Acre, known as the Environmental Services Incentives System (SISA), is criticized for methodological flaws in its emission reduction baselines. The report claims the government received payments from the KfW German Development Bank for reductions that were achieved before the 2012 contract was signed, meaning payments could be guaranteed even if deforestation increased, provided it stayed below a historical average.
• In Acre, both jurisdictional and private REDD+ projects are linked to significant social conflicts and human rights violations. Reported issues include the lack of land titles, threats of expulsion, the criminalization of traditional subsistence activities, and the manipulation of information and contracts by project proponents.
• REDD+ initiatives in Chiapas have been denounced for causing the expropriation of territories through the promotion of private property and the displacement of communities practicing collective forest coexistence. The report notes that some 'Payment for Environmental Services' (PES) schemes created an elite group of landowners while criminalizing small producers.
• The implementation of REDD+ in Chiapas is associated with an increase in public debt and the promotion of industrial monocultures, such as African oil palm. These plantations are described as destroying biodiversity and forcing peasants into debt and off their land, while the Mexican government owed over US$678 million to the World Bank and IADB for REDD+ programs as of 2013.
• The report argues that 'socio-environmental safeguards' in REDD+ programs are merely rhetorical tools used to neutralize criticism and obtain financing, rather than enforceable protections. Evidence from Acre and Chiapas suggests that these safeguards are frequently ignored in practice.
• The author contends that the logic of REDD+ transforms indigenous and traditional peoples into 'service providers' of 'avoided deforestation,' which commodifies their relationship with nature and subordinates collective rights to market laws and capital accumulation.

APA

Furtado, F. (2017). THE CARBON MARKET AND CALIFORNIA-ACRE-CHIAPAS COOPERATION. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/REDD_The-carbon-market-and-the-California-Acre-Chiapas-cooperation.pdf

Chicago

Furtado, Fabrina. THE CARBON MARKET AND CALIFORNIA-ACRE-CHIAPAS COOPERATION. Friends of the Earth International, 2017. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/REDD_The-carbon-market-and-the-California-Acre-Chiapas-cooperation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Furtado |first1=Fabrina |title=THE CARBON MARKET AND CALIFORNIA-ACRE-CHIAPAS COOPERATION |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=June 2017 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/REDD_The-carbon-market-and-the-California-Acre-Chiapas-cooperation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{furtado2017carbon, author = {Furtado, Fabrina}, title = {{THE CARBON MARKET AND CALIFORNIA-ACRE-CHIAPAS COOPERATION}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2017}, month = jun, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/REDD_The-carbon-market-and-the-California-Acre-Chiapas-cooperation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }