Some questions for ONE Amazon, about their deeply inequitable Agreement with the Shuar Federation in Ecuador
Some questions for ONE Amazon, about their deeply inequitable Agreement with the Shuar Federation in Ecuador
Needless to say, the company did not reply.
Earlier today, REDD-Monitor wrote about an Agreement between a company called ONE Amazon and the Shuar Federation in Ecuador. The Agreement is heavily biased in favour of the interests of ONE Amazon and would involve an extraordinary level of surveillance and data collection on Shuar territory.
The Shuar Federation held an Assembly in early February 2023 during which the Federation decided to cancel the contract with ONE Amazon.
REDD-Monitor sent the following questions to ONE Amazon and looks forward to posting the company’s response when it arrives.
1. Could you please briefly describe your project in Ecuador. Is this a forest carbon project or a forest conservation project? Or both?
2. How long has ONE Amazon been working with the Shuar Federation to develop this project? Has the project started on the ground in Shuar territory?
3. Could you please describe the process of free, prior and informed consent that was carried out before the contract with the Shuar Federation was signed.
4. Please describe exactly what the “digital asset Valores” are that are mentioned in the Agreement and that will be issued under this project. Are these NFTs of areas of the Amazon rainforest? Or are they tokenised carbon offsets bridged onto the blockchain? Or are they NFTs of carbon offsets?
5. Why does the Agreement fail to explain, in simple language that the Shuar Federation (and others) could understand, exactly what these “digital asset Valores” actually are?
6. The Agreement between ONE Amazon and the Shuar Federation states that it does not “constitute appropriation of any environmental service”. But if the Valores are based on carbon or biodiversity in the rainforest, this is clearly not the case. And if there is no environmental service involved, why would anyone buy the Valores? Who do you imagine would buy these Valores and why do you think they would buy them? Has ONE Amazon (or anyone else) produced a Project Design Document or White Paper about this project?
7. The buyers of the Valores will be given the possibility of “observing by satellite a specific hectare or hectares of the Amazon rainforest”. Could you please explain the mechanism through which buyers of the Valores will be able to observe specific hectare or hectares. Does this apply only to Shuar Federation territory, or to anywhere in the Amazon rainforest?
8. Please describe how the creation and trading of these Valores is intended to protect the rainforest in the project area, and how the rights of the Indigenous Shuar living in and around the project area will be protected. Why is there no mention, for example, of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the contract?
9. According to the Agreement, “The signing of this Agreement does not grant an exclusive right to ONE Amazon to observe or monitor the area to which this Agreement refers, nor in relation to the issuance of the Valores that this company intends to make for the financing of environmental preservation efforts. The Shuar Federation may enter into other agreements or agreements of the same or similar nature on any part of the territory of its communities, with other persons or entities that have an object or interest similar or equal to that of ONE Amazon.” If another company or organisation generated tokens or Valores from the Shuar’s territory, the same environmental service could be sold twice. What mechanism is in place under this Agreement to prevent this sort of double counting?
10. The Agreement mentions a company called ONE Amazon Impact Fund O.A.I.F. USA LLC which will receive 70% of the money from sales of Valores. Where is this company registered (searches on Open Corporates and Google revealed nothing)? Who owns this company?
11. ONE Amazon and O.A.I.F. will take 85% of the income from this project, while the Shuar Foederation will receive only 15%. How do you justify this inequitable distribution of money? To make matters worse, the Shuar Federation will only receive 50% of the money within 30 days. The rest will be paid annually over the next 30 years. Please explain the thinking behind this clause in the contract?
12. What area of land, in hectares, is O.A.I.F. planning to “reforest”? What is the current use of this land?
13. The area covered by this project is vast (831,130.71 hectares). Does anyone involved with ONE Amazon or O.A.I.F. have any experience of working with Indigenous Peoples in conserving a comparable area of forest? If so, please provide examples.
14. The project area specifically excludes areas affected by oil exploration, mining, industrial forestry operations, and “exploitation in general”. The Mirador Copper Mine is on Shuar territory, which is also threatened by oil exploration. These are precisely the areas where the forest is most threatened. Won’t the project simply protect forest that is not under threat? How does ONE Amazon justify excluding these areas from the project?
15. Two payments have been made to the Shuar Federation so far. US$10,000 as an advance payment and a further US$90,000 at the signing of the Agreement. What was this payment for, and what has the Shuar Foundation done with this money?
16. What sort of legal advice did the Shuar Federation have before signing this contract? Was a lawyer for the Shuar Federation present at the signing?
17. The contract states that there is no developed market for the valores produced under this project. In this case how do you know that anyone will be interested in buying them, and how have you estimated the value of the valores for the funders of this project, for example?
18. Currently there is no approval from the SEC for trading of these valores. Wouldn’t it have been better to obtain regulatory approval before signing a contract with the Shuar Federation? What happens to the Agreement and the project is the SEC does not approve trading of valores?
19. The contract allows for ONE Amazon to monitor and verify the use of the money received by the Shuar Federation. However, there is no clause in the contract that allows the Shuar Federation (or anyone else) to monitor and verify how ONE Amazon and O.A.I.F. spends the funds it gains from this project. Why not?
20. A confidentiality clause in the Agreement prevents the Shuar from disclosing any information about the digital assets before they are launched. Why is this clause included in the contract? Why does ONE Amazon see the need for secrecy about the valores on the part of the Shuar – but not on the part of ONE Amazon, which is allowed “to disclose any information necessary . . . to promote the Project to potential investors and to obtain the necessary authorizations”?
21. ONE Amazon can terminate the Agreement if it decides that the Shuar Federation has not complied with its obligations under the Agreement. However, there is no clause in the Agreement allowing the Shuar Federation to terminate the Agreement if ONE Amazon does not comply with the Agreement. Why not?
22. ONE Amazon has made a trademark application for “I.O.F. Internet of Forests”. Please explain what this “Internet of Forests” is and what it might imply for the Shuar and other Indigenous Peoples and their territories. Why is there no mention of “Internet of Forests” in the Agreement with the Shuar Federation?
23. Is ONE Amazon aware of the fact that the Shuar Federation held an Assembly in early February 2023 at which the Federation decided to cancel the contract with ONE Amazon? Does ONE Amazon intend to follow and respect the Shuar Federation’s decision?
24. What are the implications of the Shuar Federation’s decision to cancel the contract on the SEC approval process for the Valores? Has that process already started? Will ONE Amazon inform the SEC about the fact that the Shuar Federation has cancelled the contract?