In July 2017, a group of over 150 people who had been scammed into buying “carbon benefit units” got in touch with REDD-Monitor. Several London-based boiler room operations, including Industry RE, had sold them the “carbon benefit units”, supposedly as investments. Unfortunately they were worthless.
The “carbon benefit units” came from the April Salumei REDD project in Papua New Guinea.
In October 2017, REDD-Monitor sent 14 questions to Stephen Hooper, the director of Pacific Forest Alliance, the company running the April Salumei REDD project in Papua New Guinea. As Hooper has not yet replied, I re-sent the questions today.
After posting the questions for Hooper, REDD-Monitor received an email (from someone who requested to remain anonymous) with two more questions for Hooper:
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1. How much money has been paid to the umbrella Land Owner Company of the April Salumei project?
2. What kind of benefits have the communities living in the April Salumei REDD project area received? What is the total value of these benefits?
I sent these questions to Hooper today.
Earlier today, I checked the Pacific Forest Alliance website and got the following error message:
UPDATE – 12 December 2017: The Pacific Forest Alliance is back up.
So, I sent Hooper two more questions:
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3. I note that the website www.pacificforestalliance.org is down. The website displays an error message: “500 Internal Server Error”. What happened, and are you planning to get the website back up at some point?
4. Does the April Salumei REDD project still exist?
I look forward to posting Hooper’s response in full and unedited when it arrives.
UPDATE – 22 December 2017: I wrote to the four key contacts listed on UN-REDD’s website for Papua New Guinea: Ben Vickers; Celina Yong; Joel Scriven; and Stefano Giaccio. I had two questions:
- Could you please confirm the current status of the April Salumei REDD project?
- Does the project still exist?
I asked for an on-the-record response. On 21 December 2017, I received the following response, from the UN-REDD programme’s Global Communications and Knowledge Management Coordinator, Florian Eisele:
From: Florian Eisele
Date: 21 December 2017
Subject: RE: April Salumei REDD project in PNG
To: REDD-MonitorDear Chris,
Thank you for your message which my colleagues forwarded to me and apologies for taking so long to respond.
However, the April Salumei REDD Project is not part of the UN-REDD Programme.
All my best,
Florian—————
Florian Eisele
Global Communications and Knowledge Management Coordinator
UN-REDD Programme
Is it my imagination, or does Stephen Hooper closely resemble the disqualified Ian James Hamilton? Perhaps it’s time to report Stephen Hooper’s activities to the authorities?
Hooper has sold our credits so should pay us accordingly. I m happy to settle!!
I’m surprised that he hasn’t yet been reported to the authorities. Question is, would that be a ‘fraud squad’ in Papua NG or here?
@Mike Rochfort – It’s a good question. Hooper is Australian. The REDD project is in Papua New Guinea. The “carbon benefits units” were sold first to World Markets, a company in Switzerland. From there they were sold to boiler rooms like Industry RE in London. Earth Sky Limited and Rainforest Project Management are registered in the British Virgin Islands.
For UK citizens who were scammed into buying Hooper’s “carbon benefit units”, I would suggest talking to Action Fraud.
I did this when I first discovered we were scammed but received no response. I don’t know if the situation would be any different now
Excellent questions, sadly falling on deaf ears. We’ll never get justice on this matter.
My name is Joseph Sukwianomb from Ambunti in area where the April Salumei REED Project is located. About 7000 people are waiting for their benefits from the carbon trading made from their rainforests of about 522,000 hectares. The REED Project was commenced in 2011; Papua New Guinea Government approved a benefit sharing arrangements of 60% to landowners, 30% to Investor and 10% to the Government of Papua New Guinea. To date we have not heard anything. One Stephen Hooper from Australia did a lot of work for April Salumei REED Project through his company called Rainforest Project Limited. We want to know where all the monies made by selling our carbon gone to? My contact address is [email protected]