Bolivia's 2024 court ruling reopened the country to carbon credit projects, and outside groups are now moving quickly in the Amazon. In the Pando region, leaders of the Tacana, Ese Ejja and Cabineño nations say a 30 year contract with the Federico Hecker Foundation was signed without clear explanations, and that promises of food aid and housing never made it into the written terms. The Tacana refused the deal partly because of the Hecker family's history in the rubber trade. The story matters beyond Bolivia. It shows how carbon market integrity depends on free, prior and informed consent and on land rights that predate the projects. Buyers and verifiers need to check who actually signed, what they understood, and whether the contract gives the community real control over credits and revenue. Without that, carbon finance can repeat the pattern of extraction it is supposed to replace.
