Brazilian prosecutors are calling for the cancellation of the largest carbon credit deal in the Amazon Rainforest, saying it breaks national law and risks harming Indigenous communities. The 1 billion real ($175 million) contract, signed last year by the state of Pará, promises to sell up to 12 million metric tons of forest-based carbon credits to the LEAF Coalition, comprised of the U.S., U.K. and Norwegian governments, and companies like Amazon, Bayer, H&M and Walmart. Prosecutors allege that the deal violates a law passed two months after its signing that bans the future sale of carbon credits, characterizing it as “an extractive and colonialist” form of negotiating and privatizing traditional territories. “Countries of the Global North and their megacorporations … are setting the price of carbon from Pará’s forests, disregarding the social cost to public welfare and ecosystems,” federal and state prosecutors wrote in a formal recommendation issued April 15. The deal sets a fixed price of $15 per metric ton of carbon, which would come from avoided  deforestation between 2023 and 2026. “The contract is a promise to sell something that does not yet exist and is not guaranteed as state property,” prosecutors wrote. “This speculation may lead to harassing approaches and considerable pressure on Indigenous and traditional communities.” Both parties to the contract deny that the deal violates the law. In response to Mongabay, the Pará government said the contract is not a final sale, but a preliminary agreement based on future emissions reductions. It says there’s no…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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