Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and Indigenous ... - Amazon Fund

Legal Aspects of the Surui Carbon Project
Introduction
Rodrigo Sales 1
Viviane Otsubo Kwon 2
Patrícia Vidal Frederighi 3
This article summarizes the main legal aspects of Surui Carbon project 4 regarding whether
the Surui Indians 5 of Brazil may legally be entitled to transact carbon credits for (i) Greenhouse
Gas (GHG) emission reductions from reforestation and (ii) reduced emissions from deforestation
1 Rodrigo Sales is Partner of Trench, Rossi e Watanabe Advogados, Associated with Baker & McKenzie and Latin
America Coordinator of Baker & McKenzie Climate Change and Environmental Markets Practice Group; he holds a
Master of Studies in Environmental Law at the Vermont Law School, USA, and is currently a Visiting Fellow of the
University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, Sydney, Australia
2 Viviane Otsubo Kwon is Associate Attorney of Trench, Rossi e Watanabe Advogados, associated with Baker &
McKenzie International; she holds a Master Degree in International Business Law at Kyushu University, Faculty of
Law, Japan.
3 Patrícia Vidal Frederighi is former Associate Attorney of Trench, Rossi e Watanabe Advogados, Associated
with Baker & McKenzie International and is currently attending a Master of Science program in Environmental
Management and Economics, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Department of Economic, Business and Law.
4 The Suruí is a Brazilian Indian group that currently has approximately 1,300 members, comprising four clans –
Gamep, Gamir, Makor and Kaban (hereinafter referred to as Suruí Community) - in the Amazon Biome. According
to information provided by Forest Trends, the objective of the project is to restore 1,500 hectares of Amazon
Rainforest within the “Sete de Setembro” Suruí Indian lands, located between the municipalities of Cacoal
(Rondônia state) and Aripuanã (Mato Grosso state). The project activities will sequester carbon dioxide, while
protecting local biodiversity by restoring habitat, and contributing to the sustainable development of the Suruí
by building local capacity to manage forestry operations and through the establishment of an information
technology center within the Suruí land.
5 Please note that the use of the terms “Indians” (as defined in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,
Longman, 1987, pg. 533, to refer to the group of native inhabitants of North, Central and South America) and
“Indigenous Peoples” are indiscriminately used in several legal documents referred to in this work. However, this
distinction is extremely important under the Brazilian Constitution, which uses the term “Indians” to regulate
the protection of rights of the Brazilian Indians. See discussion in the decision (“Voto”) of the Brazilian Supreme
Court Judge Ministro Carlos Ayres Britto, in items 51-54 and 69, available at http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/
noticiaNoticiaStf/anexo/pet3388CB.pdf, where the term “Indians” is indicated as the appropriate one to reflect the
Brazilian Constitution’s principles regarding the unity of the Brazilian nation formed by three major ethnic groups
(Indians, White Colonizers and African-Americans). Whenever possible, we will use the term Brazilian Indians in the
course of our analysis.
Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t i o n (redd) A n d i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e s: experiences, chAllenges A n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s in t h e A m A zo n c o n t e x t 125