Comments

I read with interest your blog as it mentions our project. Somewhat like tilting at windmills. The 4 Corners program had a pre-conceived agenda that did not really incorporate what is actually happening on the ground in PNG. We have 18 major discrepancies with their program (all sent to them before they aired their show). It is interesting that the show on carbon credits didn't mention the Forcert REDD + Project verra.org project number 2483. They only interviewed people that Ivy from Forcert presented to them - not one person in favor of the project, not one positive comment. Now let's debunk what you have stated. 1. Wish we would have made $8m USD from the initial sales, we sold worldwide and our gross revenue was closer to $5m and net revenue closer to $3.5m. 2.There were no upfront payments as it is against FREE PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT 3.All of our contracts are with Incorporated Landowner Groups as required by PNG law. 4.The process for a carbon credit project is that the initial area of 11,000 ha stands in for the entire area of 330,000 ha of which 110,000 ha are utilized to create the carbon credits. Based on the 11,000 ha if the entire area has the same carbon stock, then the credits are what we were issued. The 2020 vintage added the Sor ILG which has higher carbon stock which increased the number of credits, because of logging in the Nanio PAI instead of getting an additional 600,000 credits for 2020, we were issued 119,000 for the Nanio area. 5. The PAI for Nanio has 972 people living their and the entire area was over 15,000. We also paid 20% of the funds to the project accounts of the ILGs. We also paid some clan members from ENBP. 6.The 47,000 clan members comes from the original plan that was determined by the people who live in ENBP. Forcert determined to stop the project and assisted the people from Kait to sue in Namatanai district court to take control of the ILG. The management of the ILG lived in Kait, which is in Ward 14, however not within the boundary of the Nanio ILG. The Nanio people had lived on the land for over 65 years. The court ruled in June of 2021 that the ILG management if they didn't live in the project area could not dictate to the customary landowners as to what to do with their land. That court case changed the entire process as most of the people (almost 30,000 of them lived in ENBP and didn't live in New Ireland). 7.The large scale concession that you refer to was Forcert (remember the stars of the 4 Corners program - Ivy who accused us of using false information which was untrue - is the manager of Forcert) and that was in Kait and is about 3,000 ha. 8.None of our ILGs have thrown in with Forcert - again if they are a carbon credit project, why didn't 4 Corners speak about their project? 9. We have close to 80% support in New Ireland, have signed a contract with the New Ireland Provincial Government, the Climate Change Development Authority and the East New Britain provincial Government. Forcert isn't even registered with the New Ireland Provincial Government. 10.We have the signatures of the ILG Chairmen as listed with the lands department. 11. The CCDA visited the Nanio PAI twice, once after a letter from Forcert that went to Verra, the Prime Minister and anyone else that they could think of. Verra hired Baker McKenzie out of Australia to do their investigation and it was determined that NIHT had done FPIC correctly and Peter Dam and Forcert were competitors and not credible in this case. Letter from the CCDA to Peter Dam and Forcert from the Managing Director. Had sent a copy of that letter to 4 Corners also. 12. However at the Austrailian Institutes meeting in February titled Carbon Integrity - funny the name Integrity - in a panel discussion with the 4 Corners reporter sitting their - Forcert made the proven false accusation one more time that NIHT did not do FPIC correctly, which both Forcert and the 4 Corners Reporter knew was untrue.

Thanks Greg and Terence. A very balanced comment on China's engagement with the Pacific.

Article discusses electoral laws re: bribery, etc, by candidates. LPV, the conduct of the Electoral Commission is the biggest fraud since the inception of LPV. Very rarely is the biggest fraudster discussed

Thank you for sharing your views.

Thanks Greg and Terence. Apart from the piece Dame Meg Taylor co-authored, this is one of the best in my view.

No response that I'm aware of (I don't run the blog). But, to be fair to them, these sorts of debates may be the sort of thing they don't want to get entangled in. Most of their work is aid practice, after all.

A positive insight there. The underlying issues of violence in the country needs to be solved by the government. Violence is broad, the cause has to be addressed by the authorities, by then the epidemic be minised. Thanks for the information Mr Kingtau.

When the government provides (tax payer sources) funding support for any program it is guranteed that the government has the greater ability influence the program. Given the experience of the last three years President Ronald Reagan's words on the 9 most terrifying words in the English language ring loudly - https://youtu.be/nCedOQJ0ZEA

So Terence, no response from WV yet?

Hi Ravi, sadly that seems to be the case. I think that reflects US domestic political considerations but you'd know more about that than me! Other countries will likely continue to build alternatives where they are better represented. It is a long-term project, but these US-dominated international organisations will probably fade.

Great post, Susan. One point though: the US, as the largest share holder, will not tolerate a non-US candidate as President of the World Bank. It really is high time that this changed but it does not seem to be on the cards

Thanks Ryan! There's so much on microfinance it's hard to keep up with all the literature. There are indeed some interesting alternative models, still I don't find much evidence of those in the development bank funding I've studied. I've also written about the damaging effects of shame from microfinance, there's still pretty strong evidence that the impacts on interpersonal relations and psychosocial wellbeing are very problematic.