The Shihuahuaco is an ancient tree that grows in the Amazon, used for the production of wood in Madre de Dios, Peru. IÑAPARI, Peru — At the entrance to its sprawling tract of virgin Amazon rainforest, the Peruvian timber company Maderacre turns ancient hardwood trees into flooring on an industrial scale.
The stark contrast between Maderacre’s lush concession and the barren land around it makes the benefits of offsets seem obvious. Pressing up against the forest’s perimeter is a patchwork of dusty fields cleared by unregulated deforesters in a chaotic rush to settle this remote region.Southwest stressed that it offered credits to passengers on an optional basis but was not using them as part of its net zero strategy. Shell declined to comment.
Barbara Haya, who heads the Carbon Trading Project at the University of California at Berkeley, said REDD+ projects around the world are generating “phantom” credits. “Maybe they’re deliberately exaggerated,” said Erin Sills, an environmental economist at North Carolina State University. “But it’s also perhaps because project developers are trying to predict the future. That’s never possible.”
That analysis is backed by Soares. “Since it’s already a concession and they have the obligation of conserving it,” he said, “there’s no additionality at all.” “The science 15 years ago was very different to the science now,” Finkelstein said. “At every point, we’ve been aiming for the best standard.”