Kamlapar Clan files legal case against NIHT Holdings to revoke the sale of 1.3 million carbon credits in Papua New Guinea
The Kamlapar Clan wants to reclaim almost US$25 million from NIHT
The Kamlapar Clan has filed a legal case against US-based company NIHT Inc. The traditional land owners want to revoke the sale of 1.3 million carbon credits, and reclaim almost US$25 million that NIHT made from the sale of the carbon credits.
REDD-Monitor first wrote about NIHT and its NIHT Topaiyo REDD+ Project in Papua New Guinea in November 2020. My headline was “The return of the carbon cowboys: How NIHT Inc failed to get free, prior and informed consent for REDD in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea”.
The Kamlapar Clan are traditional customary owners of the land on which the REDD project is operating. In June 2021, the Kamlapar Clan’s legal entity, the Kamlapar Incorporated Land Group, wrote to the Climate Change and Development Authority and to David Antonioli the CEO of the standards organisation Verra.
The letter requested that the Climate Change and Development Authority order NIHT Inc “to halt all its operations on our land”. And the letter asked Verra to stop “all credit sales from the project”. Neither happening.
More letters followed from NGOs and communities in Papua New Guinea in support of the Kamlapar Clan, in September 2021, and March 2022.
Earlier this year, a Four Corners Investigation for ABC Television revealed the fact that benefits from the project had not reached the communities living in the area of the project. The documentary also uncovered commercial logging was taking place inside the project boundary.
The legal case
The Kamlapar Incorporated Land Group’s lawyer, George Akia, of Akia & Associates Lawyers, has filed legal proceedings in the National Court against NI Holdings, the Papua New Guinea registered subsidiary of NIHT Inc. The claim aims to revoke the sale of 1.3 million carbon credits which the claim argues were sold illegally by NIHT Inc.
In addition, the claim seeks to:
Nullify the Carbon Credit Contract with NI Holdings/NIHT for lack of free, prior informed consent and breaches of the law;
Reclaim the potential value of almost US$25 million for the carbon credits that were lost because they were sold by NIHT;
Obtain an injunction against NI Holdings Ltd and NIHT from:
Accessing the funds paid to them;
Selling or disposing any of their properties and assets or that of their subsidiary company; and
Accessing, entering, or conducting any work, audit or business such as remote sensing, land use change analysis, VCS validation and verification support services on the subject land belonging to the Second Plaintiff in person or by the use of drones.
The next hearing for this case is today, 8 June 2023, at the PNG National Court in Waigani. REDD-Monitor will try to find out more about this legal case, and will post more information as it becomes available.
May I suggest crowd-funding to support this legal case?