{"id":3223,"date":"2024-06-19T09:16:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T12:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:41:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:41:02","slug":"uber-and-audi-used-carbon-credits-generated-in-a-farm-that-employed-slave-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/uber-and-audi-used-carbon-credits-generated-in-a-farm-that-employed-slave-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber and Audi used carbon credits generated in a farm that employed slave labor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Workers rescued by the Brazilian government were found clearing 477 hectares of forest within a project paid by companies to preserve the Amazon<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
BY ISABEL HARARI AND POLIANA DALLABRIDA<\/div>\n
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\u00a019\/02\/2024<\/h4>\n

Audi, Uber, and 20 other companies offset greenhouse gas emissions using carbon credits from an area where the Brazilian authorities identified deforestation and the use of enslaved workers. In June 2023, 16 workers were rescued from the Sipasa Farm, owned by the company Sipasa, in Moju, northeastern Par\u00e1.<\/p>\n

The workers had been hired to clear 477 hectares of forest within an area of the farm belonging to the\u00a0Maisa Project<\/a>, which was rewarded for keeping the forest standing. In the carbon market, companies and individuals buy credits from projects that prevent deforestation to offset the emissions from their daily activities.<\/p>\n

Uber, for example, used these credits to offset emissions from its operations in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, while Audi Sport offset emissions from its participation in the Dakar Rally competition.<\/p>\n

\"\"Private companies seek the voluntary carbon credit market to offset their emissions. Projects of this kind are advancing in Brazil, especially in areas of the Amazon. In the image above, an aerial view of Nova Trair\u00e3o village on the banks of the Tapaj\u00f3s River (Par\u00e1 State). (Photo: Fernando Martinho\/Rep\u00f3rter Brasil)<\/h6>\n

The carbon credits generated by the project and used between 2020 and 2023 amounted to approximately USD 6 million according to an estimate by the London-based consultancy\u00a0AlliedOffsets<\/a>, whose methodology is based on market prices. The area to be protected encompassed a total of 26,000 hectares in the Amazon \u2013 including the Sipasa Farm, where the workers were rescued.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe Ma\u00edsa Project (in blue) comprised 26 thousand hectares in the Amazon, including the area of Sipasa Farm (in red), where workers were rescued. (Sources: Verra, Rural Environmental Registry, and Google Earth)<\/h6>\n

According to Jos\u00e9 Weyne Nunes Marcelino, a labor auditor who coordinated the inspection operation, they were housed in a wooden shed \u201cin extremely precarious conditions, with a collapsing floor and parts of the roof missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inspection report, accessed by\u00a0Rep\u00f3rter Brasil<\/strong>, also indicates that the dormitory rooms were so hot that the employees preferred to sleep in hammocks in the open air. \u201cAt Sipasa\u2019s lodging, we slept in hammocks, there were no beddings, only what I brought. A fan? That never existed where I worked,\u201d confirms Francisco*, a 70-year-old chainsaw operator and one of those rescued in the operation.<\/p>\n

There was also no water in the bathrooms \u2013 built outside the shed. According to the inspection, the workers showered with a hose and relieved themselves in the bushes. The cook, the only woman among the rescued, had to improvise a bathroom inside the wooden room to shower with some privacy.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWorkers at Sipasa Farm slept in hammocks installed on the porch. Due to lack of maintenance, the accommodation had broken tiles and a bathroom without running water. (Photo: MPT)<\/h6>\n

In response to the report, Uber stated that it only invests in projects that are \u201ccertified, traceable, and auditable\u201d by internationally recognized organizations. Audi stated that it will \u201cseriously follow up on the information\u201d sent by\u00a0Rep\u00f3rter Brasil<\/strong>\u00a0but could not provide further clarification at the moment.<\/p>\n

Verra, the certifying organization of the project, stated that after being contacted by\u00a0Rep\u00f3rter Brasil<\/strong>, it decided to \u201cimmediately deactivate the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the publication of this article, the lawyer of the farm\u2019s owner, Sipasa Seringa Industrial do Par\u00e1, Adalberto Silva, sent a statement. In it, he states that \u201cduring the period of the contract, Ma\u00edsa has strictly complied with the rules laid down in the contract and with the recommendations of the auditors, and that there is no reason to speak of regular or irregular deforestation within the framework of the project\u201d. It also sets out the reasons for disagreeing with the inspection, which classified the situation found as work akin to slavery.<\/p>\n

Read the full statements\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nike, iFood, and Giorgio Armani were also clients<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Audi used carbon credits from the Maisa Project in July 2023, a month after the workers\u2019 rescue, to offset the emissions from its race cars in the 2022 Dakar Rally. Uber\u2019s use of credits occurred in August 2023, also shortly after the Brazilian authorities\u2019 action on the farm.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAudi pilots in front of the car used in the 2022 Dakar Rally. The carbon emissions from the company at the event were offset with credits from the Ma\u00edsa REDD+ Project one month after the exposure of slave labor. (Photo: Disclosure\/Audi)<\/h6>\n

Other companies also used credits from the Maisa Project last year, although before the rescue. iFood offset the carbon emissions from carnival events sponsored by the company, and Giorgio Armani Spa used Maisa Project credits to neutralize emissions from a\u00a0fashion show in Dubai<\/a>. Nike also used credits from the area in its operations.<\/p>\n

The integrity of the Maisa Project had been questioned since 2021 when\u00a0deforestation was identified<\/a>\u00a0within the area, according to reports from the Unearthed and Climate Home News. However, since the project was only definitively terminated now, credits generated in 2020 and purchased until 2022 remained active and were used to offset later emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the company buys [the credit], it also contributes to the violations within this property and is fostering slave labor,\u201d points out Andr\u00e9ia Barreto, from the Public Defender\u2019s Office of the State of Par\u00e1. For the defender, the flagrant \u201d demonstrates that the project lacks social sustainability.\u201d Last year, the DPE\u00a0requested the suspension<\/a>\u00a0of carbon credit projects in five traditional territories in the state due to indications of land grabbing.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Rep\u00f3rter Brasil, iFood emphasized that \u201cthe amount [of credits used by iFood] related to the mentioned project represented less than 0.002% of its total issued,\u201d and stated its commitment to conduct its business with responsibility, ethics, and integrity. Read the full statements from the companies\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Giorgio Armani and Nike did not respond Rep\u00f3rter Brasil\u2019s requests for comments. The space remains open for their comments.<\/p>\n

Lack of regulation concerns social movements<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Projects like Maisa are advancing rapidly in the Amazon, but still without established rules. However, Brazil has been moving towards regulating the market.<\/p>\n

In June 2023,\u00a0the government resumed the National Commission for REDD+<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, which includes the so-called voluntary carbon market projects, where companies and individuals can operate. This is the profile of the Maisa Project, whose full technical name is\u00a0Maisa REDD+ Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Catholic Church\u2019s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) views the advance of REDD+ projects with concern. In a note sent to Rep\u00f3rter Brasil, the executive coordination of the campaign against slave labor states that it is necessary to \u201calert and seek to hold accountable the buyers of these carbon credits about the real situation from which these new \u2018commercial products\u2019 arise.\u201d The full note can be read\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last December, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies\u00a0approved a bill<\/a>\u00a0that provides for the implementation of a regulated carbon market in the country \u2013\u00a0a different modality from the business<\/a>\u00a0involving governments, not the private sector. The initiative was also criticized by civil society organizations. \u201cThe project formalizes the forest carbon Wild West in Brazil,\u201d said Stela Herschmann, deputy coordinator of International Policy at the Climate Observatory\u00a0in a press release<\/a>\u00a0issued by the organization at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Workers rescued by the Brazilian government were found clearing 477 hectares of forest within a project paid by companies to preserve the Amazon BY ISABEL HARARI AND POLIANA DALLABRIDA \u00a019\/02\/2024 Audi, Uber, and 20 other companies offset greenhouse gas emissions using carbon credits from an area where the Brazilian authorities identified deforestation and the use of enslaved workers. In June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3236,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions\/3236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxxy2.com\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}