Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office files lawsuits against three of Ricardo Stoppe Júnior’s REDD projects in Amazonas
MPF is calling for the cancellation of all carbon credits from the Evergreen REDD project, the Fortaleza Ituxi REDD project, and the Unitor REDD project.
Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed civil lawsuits against three REDD project in Amazonas for violating the rights of Indigenous and traditional communities. The three projects are the Evergreen REDD project, the Fortaleza Ituxi REDD project, and the Unitor REDD project.
All three projects are on the Verra registry, listed as “On hold”. Verra suspended all three projects eight days after the Federal Police launched Operation Greenwashing, launched in June 2024.
MPF is seeking the cancellation of the carbon credits from the projects. The Evergreen project has sold 766,356 carbon credits, the Fortaleza Ituxi project 1,255,055 credits, and the Unitor project, 2,314,892 credits. That’s a total of more than 4.3 million carbon credits.
MPF is calling for the money from the sales of carbon credits to be refunded to the communities affected by the projects. In addition MPF is seeking the compensation payment for “moral and material damages to Indigenous peoples and traditional communities”.
MPF calculates that the projects generated more than US$19 million from sales of carbon credits. MPF states that,
[T]he original ownership of carbon credits belongs to the indigenous and traditional communities responsible for the occupation and preservation of these areas. According to the MPF, the Unitor, Fortaleza Ituxi and Evergreen projects were implemented in areas of traditional use, including Indigenous territories and other protected areas, without conducting free, prior and informed consultation with the affected communities, as required by Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
MPF’s lawsuits target companies involved in developing, consulting on, and certifying the projects. These include Ituxi Administração and Participação Ltda, Carbonext Consultoria Ltd, and Verra.
The man behind all three of these projects is Ricardo Stoppe Júnior, the largest individual seller of carbon credits in Brazil. He is also the leader of the criminal organisation at the centre of the police’s Operation Greenwashing.
In July 2025, Reuters carried out an investigation that exposed widespread illegal logging in REDD projects in the Brazilian Amazon. Reuters reported that Stoppe and his partners had been fined by IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, for illegal deforestation on several occasions.
The illegal logging took place inside the Fortaleza Ituxi REDD project and the Unitor REDD project. When Verra wrote to Stoppe suspending the Evertreen, Fortaleza Ituxi, and Unitor project, it stated that,
Verra understands that the Brazilian Federal Police investigation has targeted the project as part of “Operation Greenwashing.” The allegations and information collected so far are new to Verra and raise concerns about the project's adherence to the VCS Program rules.
A police investigator told Reuters that Stoppe was involved in an illegal logging scheme inside the Kaxarari Indigenous Reserve which is next to the Unitor REDD project.
Evergreen REDD project
The Evergreen REDD project covers an area of 130,554.8 hectares in the municipalities of Apuí and Novo Aripuanã. According to MPF, the project area completely overlaps the Aripuanã-Gauriba Agro-Extractive Settlement and the buffer zone of the Campos Amazônicos National Park. These are not private properties and therefore cannot be used for a private company’s REDD project.
The project was developed by Ituxi Administração e Participação and Carbonext.
MPF argues that no adequate process of free, prior and informed consent was carried out before the project started.
Traditional communities in the Aripuanã-Gauriba Agro-Extractive Settlement use the forest in the project area for collecting Brazil nuts, açaí, copaiba oil, and andiroba oil.
The money from the sale of carbon credits was divided between the companies involved, with no money going to local communities. The vast majority of the money went to Ituxi Administração e Participação. MPF argues that “this constitutes an unlawful act that resulted in the Illicit enrichment of the defendants” and the “original ownership of the credits belongs with the communities that have the right to collective use of the area”.
According to MPF the companies made R$11.9 million from the sale of carbon credits. MPF is calling for the entire amount to be returned for the benefit of the Aripuanã-Gauriba Agro-Extractive Settlement community. MDF is also calling for the carbon credits generated by the project to be cancelled.
Fortaleza Ituxi REDD project
The Fortaleza Ituxi REDD project covers an area of 110,372 hectares in the Fazenda Nossa Senhora das Cachoeiras do Ituxi, close to the Extractive Reserves (Resex) Ituxi and Médio Purus. MPF states that, “The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) pointed to indications of land irregularities, in addition to partial overlap with the Iquiri National Forest.”
The project was developed by Ituxi Administração e Participação and Carbonext.
Local communities use the forest in the project area for extractive activities and for traditional economic and cultural uses. However there was no adequate process of free, prior and informed consent before the project started.
The money from the sale of carbon credits was divided between the companies involved, with the vast majority going to Ituxi Administração e Participação.
The project earned about R$26.5 million from the sale of carbon credits. MPF is calling for the payment of R$96,000 in moral damages to the communities of Resex Ituxi, the Iquiri National Park, and Resex Médio Purus, for the failure to carry out a process of free, prior and informed consent. MDF is also calling for the carbon credits generated by the project to be cancelled.
Unitor REDD project
The Unitor REDD project covers an area of 99,035.2 hectares in the municipality of Lábrea. The project area is next to the Iquiri National Forest and the Kaxarari Indigenous Territory. The project also overlaps the traditional territory of a Kaxaxiri Indigenous community.
Once again, the project was developed by Ituxi Administração e Participação and Carbonext.
Indigenous Kaxarari communities use the forest in the project area for collecting Brazil nuts, açaí, copaiba oil, and andiroba oil, as well as subsistence fishing and hunting. The forest is important culturally and economically to the Indigenous communities.
Once again, MPF argues that no meaningful process of free, prior and informed consent was carried out before the project started. The project developers state that the project was presented to Indigenous communities (in Portuguese) in March 2021. But they have not explained the methodology for consulting the community and there are no records of the presentation, no reports, no materials, and no interview forms.
The sale of carbon credits from the project earned the companies involved R$62,074,091. Most of the money went to Ituxi Administração e Participação. MPF is calling for 87.3% of the money to be returned to the Indigenous Kaxarari and extractivists from Iquiri National Forest. And MDF is calling for the carbon credits generated by the project to be cancelled.