Palm Oil Predators ..... UN backed Carbon Credit schemes linked to violence in Honduras.

[Judi Lynn]

Palm Oil Predators
Apr
12 Written by: ECRA Bloggers
12/04/2011 14:07

UN backed Carbon Credit schemes linked to violence in Honduras.

There have been calls for the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change to withdraw from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) schemes linked to Honduran Palm oil company Grupo Dinart after allegations of links to the murder of peasant farmers.

Grupo Dinant is looking for funds from the CDM despite being implicated in 25 assassinations, violent attacks, and kidnappings since 2010. During the last year, 35 peasants from the Aguán region have been killed by paramilitaries and private security contractors working for corporations like Grupo Dinant.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), is a controversial carbon offset scheme set up by the United Nations under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. Under this scheme, polluting companies in the North – in this case the French energy company EDF Trading - can avoid having to reduce their own carbon emissions by buying certificates from projects in the South which are supposed to reduce carbon emissions there.

The company are also supported by the World Bank who last year gave them a of $30 million loan to grow African palms in Aguán. However their plans were thwarted by the actions of the Unified Campesino Movement of Aguan (MUCA) who squatted the land.

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