Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Rini Astuti, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs, or blockchain) rely on cryptographic protocols and a distributed network of users to store and transfer data. These DLTs enable direct and anonymous transactions without central oversight, with the potential to subvert traditional government controls, and minimising opportunities for state-backed corruption and fraud. Commonly linked to shady and/or radical platforms, like The Silk Road and TOR, and originally used as the technology to underpin cryptographic currencies, like bitcoin, DLTs are being increasingly hyped as applicable for a whole range of industries, social service provisions, and environmental management concerns. This includes the facilitation of natural capital asset market mechanisms, like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). The original aim of REDD+ was to make tropical forests more valuable standing than cut down. However, for many REDD+ projects in Indonesia, the flagging carbon market and government licensing obstructions stalled progress. This year, Veridium Labs, a financial-technology (fintech) company, have created a digital marketplace that uses DLTs as the transaction mechanism for trading and verifying REDD+ carbon credits. The exchange is currently trading credits related to the Indonesian Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve in Central Kalimantan. Some have argued that REDD+ is dead; “it’s time to cut our losses and move on” (p673). However, linking DLTs with REDD+ in this way offers opportunities to circumvent past obstacles. Earlier REDD+ interventions failed to overcome fraud and corruption issues, which remain as pivotal factors in the political economy of forest use and deforestation in Indonesia. Despite the radical libertarian roots of blockchain technologies, social equity and environmental justice concerns might not prove the primary concern of those participating. This paper focuses on the Rimba Raya project, to consider the potential environmental and social applications (and implications) of DLTs for REDD+ in Indonesia, and questions the radicals’ case for blockchain as a solution to human-induced climate change.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Pete Howson is a human geographer based at Northumbria University Newcastle. His research broadly explores forest and marine conservation, international development, ecotourism, globalisation, climate change, resistance movements, and non-state forms of governance in the Asia-Pacific region. He uses a feminist approach to geopolitical enquiry and political ecology to explore the intersections of conservation and development, as well as responses to these interventions from below.

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