Seminar: Tropical forest carbon markets and the Indigenous critique

More than one-third of the world’s remaining intact tropical forests lie within territories claimed by Indigenous Peoples. Since 2021, Indigenous leaders have raised concern about a new international carbon trading architecture, financed by Norwegian aid, which aims to generate billions of dollars in forest financing and slow tropical deforestation.

This seminar focuses on the certifier of tropical forest carbon credits, ART (Architecture for REDD+ Transactions), the currency in this nascent trading system. The idea is that tropical country governments would sell credits approved by ART to multinational companies like Amazon, Nestlé and BCG. Rather than focusing on small project areas, each sale would cover the forest carbon held in vast administrative areas (provinces or even whole countries) – known as “jurisdictional REDD+.”

These proposed sales will in many cases include carbon stored in Indigenous forests. Indigenous leaders warn of an inherent risk with the ART mechanism: that governments will sell off Indigenous carbon without the communities’ knowledge or consent.

This seminar gives space for the emerging Indigenous critique of ART and provides an opportunity for the Norwegian International Climate Forest Initiative (NICFI), ART’s principal funder, as well as a representative of the ART Board, to respond to the concerns raised by indigenous leaders. ART is currently revising its standard. The discussion can hopefully provide inputs into that process.

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The seminar will be streamed live and a recording will be sent automatically to registered participants afterwards.

Please use this link to register for in-person or online: Tropical forest carbon markets and the Indigenous critique Litteraturhuset, Oslo, August 20, 2025, kl. 13:00 – 15:45 - Nettskjema

Programme:

13:00 – 13:30 Introduction

• Arild Angelsen, professor of economics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences – background on REDD+, forest carbon trading, and ART
• Ann Danaiya Usher, journalist with Development Today – status on ART certifications and the indigenous critique of ART over the past four years

13:30 – 14:10 Indigenous critique of the ART standard

• Levi Sucre Romero, Mesoamerican Alliance of People and Forests (AMPB) and former co-coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) - pioneered the dialogue with ART since 2021
• Mario Hastings, former Toshao (indigenous leader) and President of the Amerindian People’s Association, which lodged a formal complaint and then an appeal to ART about credits issued to the Guyanese government
• Julia Naime, Senior Advisor, Rainforest Foundation Norway - coordinated the latest international letter from indigenous organisations to ART calling for reform of the standard

14:10-14:30 Break

 14:30-15:15 The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) carbon standard

• Andreas Dahl-Jørgensen, head of the Norwegian International Climate Forest Initiative (NICFI), member of ART’s first interim board. NICFI has financed the ART standard since its establishment in 2018
• Christina Voigt, professor of law at University of Oslo and member of the ART Board – formerly with NICFI, Norway’s REDD+ safeguards negotiator over several years
• Darragh Conway, senior programme officer with Tenure Facility, who coordinates the organisation’s work to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities in understanding and navigating carbon markets and REDD+.

15:15-15:45 Panel discussion – ART in theory and practice:

• Mario Hastings, Anders Dahl-Jørgensen, Christine Voigt, Darragh Conway. Ann Danaiya Usher moderates