World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund http://www.prototypecarbonfund.org
The World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF) is currently one of the largest brokers and promoters of carbon sequestration and sinks plantation credits. Its project portfolio includes the controversial Plantar carbon sequestration project in Brazil. In 2002, the World Bank launched two additional funds, the BioCarbon Fund http://www.biocarbonfund.org and the Community Carbon Fund http://communitycarbonfund.org , which are both modeled on the PCF. Investors in the fund receive pro rata credits from projects associated with the funds.

The World Bank estimates that the BioCarbon Fund will generate emission credits equalling around 4Mt CO2e during the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period 2008-2012. In other words, the entire portfolio of BioCarbon Fund projects is expected to generate fewer credits than the carbon sequestration component of one single project involving industrial tree plantations - the controversial Plantar project claims 4.3Mt CO2e from its carbon sequestration component alone. To add to the controversy, the Biocarbon Fund will also broker carbon credits originating from conservation / avoided deforestation projects, a project category, explicitly excluded from the Clean Development Mechanism due to the significant risks and dangers associated with granting credits to such projects.

Read CDM Watch's latest report The World Bank and Carbon trading: Rhetoric and Reality for a thorough analysis of the World Bank's role in carbon trading as a means to camouflage ongoing fossil fuel subsidies on a massive scale. Broken Promises documents how the World Bank has failed forests and forest peoples in the past decade.

World Bank's plantations agenda exposed at Carbon Expo trade fair in Cologne, Germany
On 09 June 2004, SinksWatch, CDMWatch and International Rivers Network published two new briefings showing that projects promoted through the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund subsidise industrial tree plantations and large hydropower projects.
Report How Plantar sinks the World Bank's rhetoric
Report CDM Large Hydro Status Note

SinksWatch joins Brasilian Movement against the Green Desert in demand that World Bank drop Plantar from PCF portfolio
Protesters greeted visitors to the world's first carbon trade fair opening in Cologne, Germany on 09 June 2004 with a banner reading 'Stop Plantar'. The groups, including SinksWatch call on the World Bank to drop the Plantar monoculture plantation project from it's Prototype Carbon Fund Portfolio due to its negative environmental and social impacts and the unproven benefits of the project to contribute to slowing climate change. Press Release

FACE Foundation http://www.stichtingface.nl
The FACE Foundation provides consultancy services and is directly involved in several carbon sequestration projects described in the 2000 joint WRM, FERN and Friends of the Earth report Tree Trouble. In 2002 the FACE Foundation set up Business for Climate http://www.bfclimate.nl. One of the activities of Business for Climate is to sell the CO2 credits from FACE Foundation forest and plantation projects. Business for Climate entertains the notion of 'carbon neutrality' and developed several product labels intended to greenwash continued excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Amongst these are labels such as 'COOL Driving, COOL Flying, COOL Building and COOL Dining'.

SGS http://www.sgs.nl/agro/pages/cov_en.asp
SGS is one of the main validators of CDM projects. SGS has been involved in several of the projects documented in the 2000 joint WRM, FERN and Friends of the Earth report Tree Trouble.

Submissions on projects that SGS is validating can be found at their website.

Det Norske Veritas http://www.dnv.com/certification/ClimateChange
Det Norske Veritas (DNV) is one of the main validators of CDM projects, and has validated the controversial Plantar carbon sequestration project as well as the V&M do Brasil Fuel Switching project, which also involves a large-scale industrial tree plantation.

Projects which DNV are currently validating and comments made on the projects can be found at the DNV website.

T†V Rheinland Berlin Brandenburg http://www.chn.tuv.com/eclimate
T†V is a validator of CDM projects. Project details including submissions on projects that T†V is validating can be found at their website.

Ecosecurities http://www.ecosecurities.com
EcoSecurities is one of the main carbon consultancies involved in carbon sink projects. They undertook the baseline study and the monitoring and verification protocol for the controversial Plantar carbon sequestration project in Brazil and provided consultancy services to the V&M do Brasil Fuel Switching project.

Point Carbon http://www.pointcarbon.com
Point Carbon was founded in May 2000 by a group of Norwegian researchers and consultants to 'provide focused information and analyses of key factors influencing the present value of carbon permits.' The December 2002 Market Overview of Point Carbon commented on the prospects of the carbon sinks market as follows: "The strong NGO resistance towards sinks projects (especially those linked to plantations) and large-scale hydropower projects will likely make such projects less attractive for CER buyers."