Harry Keene

[kahr-buh-loh-nee-uh-liz-uh m]

noun

1. the act of an organisation investing in the control of a forest to offset greenhouse gas emissions. 

How do we define a forest in a time when financial systems increasingly seek to exploit them? 

According to the UN, a forest in Kenya is “an area of 0.1 hectares, with a minimum 30% canopy cover with trees over 2 meters at maturation” which equates to an area roughly 30 by 30 meters, containing one large tree.  This surprising definition forms the basis on which a new financial system is being built at the cost of forest-reliant populations’ way of life.  By proposing a forest infrastructure, the project will challenge the current legal parameters being used to serve corporations for financial gain, questioning what a forest is in the era of carbolonialism.

Under mounting pressure for countries to meet global targets in climate change mitigation, Kenya finds itself at the frontier of this new system – and it’s being made possible, by a UN framework called REDD.  Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) is a clean development mechanism providing incentives for the protection of tropical forests deemed to be at risk of destruction.  It allows companies based in high-carbon emitting nations to invest in the protection of carbon in forests in low-carbon emitting nations. In return, investors receive carbon credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.  The result is the same level of polluting with no change to shareholder return despite increasing levies.

Carbolonialism researches how a carbon forest enterprise in Kenya is using satellite imagery, tape-measures and algorithms to reduce the forest to numbers. In doing so it is reinforcing past colonial land injustices, oppressing indigenous land use practices and creating an increased dependency on capital markets. The project exploits the same technical and visual methods used to construct the current financial architecture of the forest to provide a way of living within the REDD system, challenging the current notion of a ‘forest’.