The strange story of Sovereign Green Global Australia, Green Giant Venture Fund, Astra Resources and a REDD project in Papua New Guinea
Sovereign Green Global is, according to its website , running a REDD+ conservation project, “located primarily in the Milne bay province of Papua New Guinea”. The project covers “approximately 125,000 hectares of rainforest”. But details of the project are scant and the information that is available rings plenty alarm bells. The REDD project in Milne Bay province is supposed to reduce emissions from deforestation by protecting the forests from logging and conversion for agriculture. It will do so, according to Sovereign Green Global, “by offering the farmers financial incentive and intact forests rather than income received from deforestation”. Sovereign Green Global does not explain how this will prevent logging or palm oil companies from clearing the forests. Clean Development Mechanism or REDD? The project is listed on the CDM Bazaar , a website run by the UN Environment Programme as “a global ‘virtual information exchange place'” about the Clean Development Me