By Chris Lang
A US-based company called NIHT Inc has big REDD plans for the provinces of New Ireland and East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. So far, the NIHT Topaiyo REDD+ Project covering an area of 10,443 hectares of forest, has been registered by Verra. The project is in the south of the island of New Ireland. NIHT Inc plans to expand its operations, as the project description on Verra’s website explains:
What began as a traditional timber operation has been recognized as an opportunity with enormous carbon sequestering potential, and has evolved into a forest protection project that will provide substantial economic benefits to the people of Papua New Guinea. Through the avoidance of carrying out exploitative industrial commercial timber harvesting in the project area, the project expects to generate nearly 60 million tons of CO2 emissions reductions across the 30 year project lifetime, depending on the number and size of Project Activity Instances (PAIs) added to the project.
NIHT stands for New Ireland Hardwood Timber.
NIHT Inc’s first “Project Activity Instance” is carried out with the Kamlapar Incorporated Landowner Group in the Konoagil Rural Local Level Government (LLG). Here’s a map from the Project Description Document with New Ireland outlined in green, East New Britain in red, and the NIHT Topaiyo REDD+ Project coloured in blue:
Babida David Sepmat Gavara-Nanu is a criminal defence lawyer in Port Moresby. His family is from New Ireland, and he belongs to the first generation that had been raised in the city. He worked for 18 years in Papua New Guinea’s justice system and came across REDD in the early 2000s. Earlier this year, he completed his PhD research at Flinders University in Australia: “Carbon Fraud & Illicit Networks: Risks in REDD+”.
His PhD includes a detailed look at NIHT Inc’s REDD plans on New Ireland. Gavara-Nanu’s interviews were not carried out in the area of NIHT Inc’s first REDD project in Konoagil. His interviews with villagers were in the Sentral Niu Allan Rural LLG. NIHT Inc is planning to expand its operations in this area. His research is extremely revealing of how NIHT Inc is persuading clans to sign up to the company’s projects. There is no process of free, prior and informed consent in NIHT Inc’s interactions with the New Ireland Indigenous communities.
Gavara-Nanu carried out his fieldwork on the island of New Ireland between 2017 and 2019. He interviewed customary landowners, members of the police, and forestry officers. He reports that “the collected data yielded significant results … that show how an illicit network takes advantage of indigenous communities”. He describes the members of this network as “carbon cowboys”.
No process of free, prior and informed consent
Gavara-Nanu found that when he started his fieldwork in 2017, most people he spoke to had not heard the terms “REDD+” and “carbon trading”. By 2019, he found that many people had heard of “carbon trading”, without knowing how it worked. The term “REDD+” was still not known.
Here’s how one of the villagers explained his understanding of carbon trading to Gavara-Nanu:
“Maybe they come, they put up something like [a] capturing umbrella or something, to capture the air from the big trees. Then they store them up in tanks and then they sell this as oxygen.”
Another version involved “four winds”. Gavara-Nanu summarised this as follows: “These winds are what the developed countries are after. They will remove these winds from the trees to give to the developed world who need it because these countries have almost no good wind left.”
Before interviewing villagers, Gavara-Nanu obtained their consent to be interviewed. That involved explaining climate change, which he did by giving example of changes in the weather, such as heat waves and droughts, and explaining how these were connected to climate change. He had more difficulty explaining carbon trading. “It was difficult to explain carbon strictly scientifically and to do so from English to Tok Pisin was near impossible,” he writes.
In fact, it seems that the villagers have a pretty good understanding of the carbon trading scam. Gavara-Nanu writes that,
It became more complicated when I had to explain how the ‘white man’ has devised a method to calculate one tonne of carbon that they can sell or trade in order to allow them to continue to emit carbon — basically, to allow them to continue putting bad smoke into the air. The irony was not lost on the villagers. Some would ask: why would someone pay another person to simply make more bad smoke again?
“Awareness” sessions
The villagers talked about “Awareness” sessions during which representatives of NIHT Inc supposedly explained carbon trading and the REDD project. In one awareness session at Konos, a fight broke out between villagers who supported logging and those who wanted carbon trading.
Based on a September 2018 interview with a villager in Dampet, Gavara-Nanu describes the “requirement for carbon trading membership” as follows:
[A]t the awareness session it was announced that villagers who signed up to the carbon trading scheme must organise 50 or more of their own clan members to join. They must then organise each clan members’ identification photos to be taken, in order to apply for their national identity cards. Thereafter they must open bank accounts, then have their land surveyed and finally incorporate their land groups. This all had to be done within two weeks as the documents were to be submitted to the group to take to Kokopo, in the East New Britain Province where they would meet with the American. The villagers were then told that the American would fly back to America with their documents but that he would return ‘soon’. Upon his return to PNG, all the villagers’ bank accounts would be credited with large sums of money.
The villager’s clan had spent about US$1,500 in total, including for travel to Kavieng and arranging for the bank to send four representatives to the village to open bank accounts for the villagers. That’s a large sum of money for the villagers.
Gavara-Nanu returned to New Ireland in January 2019 and met the same villager, who told him that her clan had decided to go ahead with registering for carbon trading with NIHT Inc. At this point, they had still not met anyone from the US-based company NIHT Inc.
February 2019: NIHT Inc turn up in Konos
In February 2019, three representatives of NIHT Inc gave an awareness session in Konos: Phil Baquie; Steve Strauss; and Bob Strauss.
This was NIHT Inc’s first visit to the area, according to Gavara-Nanu’s research. Many villagers told him “they had never heard of nor seen NIHT before that day”. The three men from NIHT Inc did not explain REDD+. Neither did they hand out any brochures or leaflets to explain the scheme.
Instead, they had brought a printed list of the names of all the clans in the area. NIHT Inc said that they only needed two senior clan members to sign the form to bind the entire clan to the agreement.
Gavara-Nanu interviewed the chairman and vice-chairman of the landowner group that was partnering with NIHT Inc. They had been carrying out the awareness sessions for carbon trading in Sentral Niu Allan Rural LLG.
“Ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly,” Gavara-Nanu writes, “after almost two years of promoting carbon trading to other villagers, they were waiting for the carbon trading concept to be properly explained to them by the Americans.”
The chairman of the landowners group told Gavara-Nanu that NIHT Inc had explained to him that there are four types of wind: green, blue, red, and yellow. The blue wind was the most valuable and was only found in the forests of central New Ireland.
Rumours of carbon riches
“NIHT has made large promises to the villagers and fuelled huge expectations about the supposed windfall,” Gavara-Nanu writes. Most villagers wanted to believe they could earn large amounts of money without damaging their natural environment. Rumours were circulating about clans getting as much as US$30 million from carbon trading.
Villagers in Dampet have heard rumours about villagers in the south of the island becoming rich from carbon trading. One story was about a man who stopped working at the Simberi gold mine and instead went back to his village to collect his monthly carbon payment.
The chairman of the landowners group told Gavara-Nanu that in February 2019 Strauss and Baquie told him they had a cheque for him and his clan for US$4 million. But the clan had not yet completed the 14 steps needed by NIHT Inc “for acceptance as a viable carbon project”. So NIHT Inc would take the cheque back with them to the US.
Strauss and Baquie claimed to have given US$13 million to clans in Konoagil in the south of the island, and US$8 million to landowners in Bougainville. NIHT Inc also claimed to have given a cheque for millions of dollars to the Laragat clan. (Gavara-Nanu spoke to the Konos Police Station Commander, who told him that a Laragat clan member said they did not receive any money from NIHT Inc.)
Meanwhile the chairman of the landowners group said that NIHT Inc was promoting logging the landowners’ forests, promising that royalties would be paid before the logs are shipped overseas. The landowners were quite happy about the logging because NIHT Inc had promised they would get 70% of the money from the sale of the logs. And NIHT Inc promised that it would provide chainsaws and portable sawmills for the villagers to saw the logs into planks.
NIHT Inc would ship containers to central New Ireland. The villagers would load the containers with planks in their own time, then NIHT Inc would export the containers. All expenses would be paid by NIHT Inc.
NIHT Inc also said it would buy a hotel in Rabaul in East New Britain. That would be the company’s PNG headquarters. NIHT Inc would open an office in Konos and employ local people. And NIHT Inc would open a bank in Rabaul – to facilitate the transfer of huge sums of money from the US.
CORRECTION – 17 November 2020: Changed the word “with” to “without” in this sentence: “Most villagers wanted to believe they could earn large amounts of money without damaging their natural environment.”
Added the word “promoting” to this sentence: “Meanwhile the chairman of the landowners group said that NIHT Inc was promoting logging the landowners’ forests…”.
Thank you David Sepmat Gavara-Nanu and Chris for exposing the fraudulent incursions on the sacred lands in PNG. The same tactics are at work in the Amazonian region. The world needs an international environmental criminal redress system ASAP. Until then, we need your tireless commitment.
Dear Mr. Lane-
I read with interest your post of 12 November 2020. As the founder of NIHT I was a little confused as to the purpose of the post. It is clear that your goal wasn’t to provide accurate information as if that was the case, you would have interviewed individuals with our company, the CCDA and the New Ireland Provincial Government who could provide more accurate information. In a country that is rife with rumors and inuendo, your post is both irresponsible and inaccurate. I appreciate the PhD person giving you his opinion, however, if he again were doing doctoral research on the project, including accurate information would have been required. The fact that the Free Prior Informed Consent hasn’t happened in Sentral Niu Ailan isn’t disputed, they also aren’t included in the initial project area and if they chose to be included we would spend a great deal more time providing the information required. However, the post does not provide any journalistic value or actual real information about the project. However, when I was a young boy I did want to be a cowboy.
As mentioned and highlighted, Mr. Gavara-Nanu did all his research in Sentral Niu Ailan. That area isn’t included in initial project area, which means, if the research had been done accurately, those ILGs in that area could be included in the project if the ILG management so chooses based upon the completion of FREE PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT. Currently only two ILGs have chosen to be a part of the project. However, as it clearly states in these excerpts from our contract, THE ILG agrees to the following
1. Agree to distribute all earnings from the project on a pro rata basis with each clan member. If the Distribution Committee determines to set aside certain fund for projects, to have an awareness program that allows for comment and discussion.
2. Keep records of all meetings, time and place and attendees where the project is discussed, what is discussed and questions and concerns that the community has, insure that all information is provided about the project, include women in all presentations.
3. Explain to all LAND GROUP ILG members that no funding is forthcoming until such time as these awareness presentations have taken place and are documented;
The trip that you refer to in your post did take place and was our first trip to the region. John Jack from the Laragat clan came to Rabaul in October of 2018 to hear about the project when we were meeting with the ILG members from the Konoagil area. Mr. Jack sat in on conversations and asked if his clan be included in the project. We explained that the Konoagil LLG area had to be registered and certified before we could start before we could include any other region. We were invited to visit his ILG in early 2019. Your cover photo is at the Laragat meeting that we had almost two years ago.
We also met with a group from Central that was organized by Beno Lubini to speak with the people in general about the project in Sentral Niu Ailan. This was the first step on meeting the requirements of free prior informed consent, that was never completed. We visited again in early 2020 to again discuss the project (follow up on Free Prior Informed Consent). We have no contracts with any ILGs in Central, other than John Jack’s clan and the Lot ILG both of whom have complied with the contractual agreements.
There are no other agreements or binding documents with any of the individuals that Mr. Gavara-Nanu is speaking with. They have a choice to be a part of the project or not and they have to comply with the process of getting full awareness to their people, which is Free Prior Informed Consent. We are in a partnership with the ILG and as such the ILG also has the responsibility to provide the awareness to their clan members and to ensure there is support for the project.
There are no contracts, so we agree 100% that there is no Free Prior Informed Consent as we are still in the initial stages. Our team had planned to be in Sentral Niu Ailan to provide more information about the project, answer questions and to document these meetings to ensure compliance with this requirement during the last half of 2020, however because of the Corona Virus, we have not had a team in PNG since May.
The photo of the team with the NIP government officials was taken in Kavieng, the other two photos were taken in Konoagil, the boat photo is us traveling to Silau and the second is the meeting with the clans in Ward 1, Konoagil to insure Free Prior Informed Consent for the Konoagil LLG.
We visited the Konoagil area, specifically the Project Activity Instance at least 2 times a year since 2015. We have had major meetings, smaller meetings, our team from NI Holdings has been to the Konoagil area over 50 times for meetings, discussions and question and answers. We have had meetings in Kokopo, Rabaul and other venues in East New Britain to explain and discuss our project to the people of Konoagil and the clan members that live in ENBP.
We have worked with the ILGs to form committees (which they all have) that are comprised of 40% women. We have worked with the clans that are part of the ILGs to provide good information, so each person receives their fair share of the distribution. We currently have 47,000+ people in a digital data base, most of them unbanked. The thought of having a clan ID card was floated so that the unbanked individuals could open a bank. We have found a different solution.
We have done a Zoom meeting with our partner ILGs from New Ireland where we discussed many aspects of the project including the distribution. The ILGs and their members have voted on the distribution process. The numbers are far more humble than what you profess is being said. I can assure you these numbers did not come from us. We ask you to wait for another few months to see what the distribution actually is as we are beginning the sales process now.
We have not paid anyone for their participation at any time during the 5 years of existence of the project. That is checked and double checked by epCarbon, Verra and Aenor.
The carbon credit project is a 27-year process and after the first issuance, there are 53 m carbon credits to be sold provided no illegal or non-sustainable logging takes place. If we look at todays price of $5.00 as reasonable, that is $265,000,000 USD. The ILG clan members as a group will receive k445,200,000. No one knows the future; however, the long-term value of the project is very real. This does not include the funds that NIPG will earn and direct towards Konoagil. More importantly the major step that conserving the 330,000 ha does to combat climate change on a global scale is something all the people of the Konoagil region should be proud of accomplishing. We anticipate the demand for credits will move the voluntary market to possibly two or three times higher than the number quoted above, however even using a low priced sales price, the project will provide substantive economic benefit for those who are participating.
Thankyou for your post but that is not substantive enough to draw any conclusion on what NIHT is doing. Many of our local people are banking on what NIHT is doing and many are against it calling it another cult. It will be great if the article is more providing views from other areas also.
Dear Mr. Poster,
Your comments together with your so called PhD Lawyer from Pinikidu and Rigo is of total bias and are not true in every sense.
Your views are of the same with the locals who refused to have Carbon Project (Sustainable Forest Management Approach) and went ahead accepting logging operations into their forest for lousy K30 per cubic and a total lost to the environment and in fact an opportunity for you both to do more research on the damage done by these loggers. You are drawing up conclusion to what you don’t have any idea about.
You should have obtained more balanced information about NIHT Inc operations in New Ireland through the office of Climate Change and Development Authority as they are the mandated Body in the country in charge of any Climate Change Projects or REDD+ related project instead of barking your void knowledge of the subject matter.
You can contact me for more discussion regarding this subject matter because I was the Team Leader, leading a group of REDD+ Officers from the REDD+ Division under Climate Change and Development Authority doing Carbon verification assessment and Inspection throughout New Ireland Province (Central NI and Konoagil LLG) making sure Free, Prior And Consent is adhere to including other REDD+ elements are acquired in order to establish any carbon project in PNG or elsewhere in the world.
Iam from Konoagil LLG, and a member of the Silbat clan, mother clan is Kamlapar clan, am interested in this project just by reading the articles from this website I want to know more about this REDD term and know so far how many clans apart from Kamlapar have registered their ILGs, and when axactly payments for the first extracted units of carbon from Konoagil be paid into recieving parties bank accounts.
Thank you.
Abel Ateu.
I am from Province Ihu RLLG Kikori District. I am interested in this Credit Carbon trading Project. I can be contacted on my email address – korepitz@gmail.com
Thank you for yourreply..
Peter Kore
We are following the carbon trading project in the Konoagil LLG , Namatanai District with great interest.
Our landowner company here in Amanab, Vanimo Green River District, Sandaun Province , is inviting NIHTInc. Representatives to get in touch through our email XXXX@XXX.XXX to further our discussions on work you have provided to the landowners of Konoagil LLG areas.
@Alfred Apunda – I’ve removed your email address from your comment. If you want to contact NIHT Inc you’re welcome to do so via their website.
You should also read these two posts about NIHT Inc’s operations in Papua New Guinea: