Carbon Credit Schemes Exploit Amazon Indigenous Communities in Failed “Green Gold Rush”

A Mongabay investigation has uncovered how carbon credit companies exploited Indigenous communities in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest through deceptive contracts that promised financial benefits but delivered nothing. In December 2022, both Brazil’s largest and smallest Indigenous territories signed identical 118-page, 10-year agreements that granted exclusive rights to trade their forest’s “ecosystem services” — including carbon sequestration and biodiversity credits — to foreign companies.

The scheme involved three interconnected entities: Biota, an Argentine family-run cooperative; Biotapass, a Spanish “climatech” startup currently facing criminal charges; and Comtxae, their Brazilian partner that had previously provided internet and solar services to Indigenous villages. Together, these companies secured contracts covering more than 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres) of Amazon rainforest in the border states of Amazonas and Acre.

However, the promised projects never materialized. Indigenous communities, realizing they had been misled, began pleading to terminate their contracts. The situation became so problematic that one carbon certification program issued a cease-and-desist letter. Despite the failures in Brazil, the scheme’s organizers continued marketing these dubious deals online and expanded operations to Bolivia, where they signed at least two additional contracts without proper community consent.

The case highlights the dangers of the rapidly growing but poorly regulated carbon credit market, where Indigenous communities can become targets for exploitation. Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and Federal Police are currently investigating the matter, while Indigenous leaders remain concerned about the legal validity of the contracts they signed. This “green gold rush” demonstrates how environmental markets, despite good intentions, can perpetuate colonial-style resource extraction when proper safeguards and community protections are absent.