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Dutch-Swiss man grants 47 million worth of Brazilian rainforest as collateral for solar project in Spain

 

Extraordinary announcement of the management of Genesis Energy Investment Plc

Based on the official information received from Genesis Solar España S.L., Genesis Capital Management Ltd. and Vital Source S.A on 6th of December 2010 the management announces the following:

“As it was already published on 3rd of August 2010 by Genesis Energy Investment Plc, Vital Source S.A. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide an additional contribution in-kind to GENESIS Solar España S.L. in the amount of € 47,000,000. The value of the asset would first be reviewed by appraisers and could be higher than € 47,000,000 and is subject to acceptance by the auditors of GSE.

Mr. Thomas Geraets, CEO of Vital Source S.A., stated at that time: “We are committed to contribute to the completion of the highly advanced thin film photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in Spain and we intend to close an agreement for the development of a further manufacturing plant in Brazil.”

On the 2nd of December 2010 Vital Source S.A. (Switzerland), entered into a legally binding agreement with GENESIS Solar España S.L. to additionally contribute an asset. Hereby GENESIS Solar Espana S.L. is enabled to complete its capital increase reaching the required level of capitalization and commence the final execution of the Business Plan.

Vital Source S.A. allows GENESIS Solar España S.L. to use the asset itself, or assign it to GENESIS Solar Corporation or GENESIS Investment Funds Ltd. with the aim to monetize the asset.

When Vital Source S.A. receives the stakes in Genesis Solar España S.L., according to the final audited value of the asset contributed, Vital Source S.A. must convert its investment in GENESIS Solar España S.L. into Genesis Solar Corporation shares at a set price of USD 10.00 per share before the date that GENESIS Solar Corporation will be introduced to any Stock Exchange in the United States.THE ASSET

The asset which Vital Source S.A. now has offered comprises of rights to 434,000 hectares of tropical rain forest in the Amazon in Brazil. The property can be used to generate the so called Carbon Credits (CO2 certificates), or use the property for continuing sustainable forest management.

Before accepting the property, external independent professional appraiser introduced by a reputable auditing company evaluated the asset and attributed a value of USD 66 Million excluding the value for the tropical hard wood.

To arrive at this prospective value once logging is permitted, certain public registrations must be obtained which is a lengthy process. To secure the property and immediately start obtaining the permits, Vital Source S.A. has offered the usufruct over the asset which has been accepted by GENESIS Solar España S.L. and will now be the part of the asset to be contributed to GENESIS Solar España S.L. or assignee.

GENESIS Solar España S.L. will proceed with its building and ordering process of the key equipment of the factory. Certain decisions will be made and published in the near future. As a result, the pending change of ownership of GENESIS Solar España S.L. to become a subsidiary of GENESIS Solar Corporation can now be implemented and these transactions will be made public upon completion.

6th december, 2010

Peter Jacobs/Damian Greco, managing directors of Genesis Solar España S.L.

Herald A.M.A. Janssen LLM, managing director of Genesis Capital Management Ltd.
Thomas Geraets, managing director of Vital Source S.A.

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Dutch Swiss guy offers $47 million Brazilian rainforest as collateral for Spanish solar panel project.

Dutch Swiss guy offers $47 million Brazilian rainforest as collateral for Spanish solar panel project.

Sometimes in your life you come across something that makes you rub your eyes. In my case, that happened in 2019. I met a Dutch gentleman with a Swiss-Brazilian past. It was in Rotterdam, on the Nieuwe Maas… It was a business proposal. Participation in a “global start up”, and it served a good cause. There was an ambitious plan. In a few years this should lead to worldwide expansion and listing on one or more international stock exchanges. The IPO would soon involve hundreds of millions of dollars.

During our conversation, my interlocutor made some startling statements. One of these concerned the rainforest in Brazil. He said he owned 435,000 hectares of tropical rainforest and three ethanol factories down there.

IN THE MIDDLE OF PROTECTED AREA IN AMAZONAS STATE

The southern part of Brazil's largest state - Amazonas is one of the most deforested regions in the entire Amazon. In the vicinity of the town of Apui (22,000 inhabitants), with an area of 5.5 million hectares 30% larger than the whole of the Netherlands, lays the "Fazenda Boa Fé". Not a farm, as you might think, but a tropical rainforest. It covers a large part of the forest between two rivers: the Guariba and the Aripuana, 435,000 hectares in total. It includes the “Sustainable Development Reserve” on the banks of the Aripuana river, destined for sustainable development, focusing mainly on opportunities for the original inhabitants of the area.

regenwoud in het amazonegebiedThe Fazenda Boa Fé is part of the "Mosaic of Apui", a protected area of 2.5 million hectares just north to the state of "Mato Grosso", and is regulated in a management plan that took shape under President Lula in the first decade of this century. The establishment of this zone was mainly aimed at stopping the advancing cattle- farming from Mato Grosso.

Despite this, 150,000 hectares of Apui Municipality's rainforest has been lost to – largely – illegal logging and arson in the last 10 years. Before that, the area had suffered a number of serious incidents such as the violent expulsion of the uncontacted Kawahiva tribe from their natural habitat, the destruction of copaiba trees around the Aripuana, depriving the inhabitants from their main source of income (copaïba resin, and the oil extracted from it), the construction of illegal roads by loggers, and the placing of signs denying residents access to their natural habitat.

LARGE-SCALE ILLEGAL LAND TRADE IN THE APUÍ MOSAIC

Originally, 40% of the entire mosaic was claimed by a cooperative of 1,036 members. They operated from the town of Colniza in Mato Grosso, just south of the Mosaic. Colniza is the most violent city in all of Brazil with 50 murders per year on just 25,000 inhabitants, and almost all of those murders are related to "land issues". The cooperative was involved in almost all abuses in the Mosaic in those years.

In addition, the cooperative was guilty of illegally selling lots in the protected area. Members paid dues, that were used to cover fees for lawyers who “legalized” land in the Mosaic on demand. And that is not possible… Although "squatting"" unoccupied land in Brazil is allowed, and you can also officially register it (in the so-called CAR registration), the land does not become property in this way. Moreover you may not utilize the land - in any manner - without licenses, granted by authorized government organizations.

HOW THE FAZENDA BOA FÉ LANDED IN DUTCH- SWISS HANDS

When the management plan for the region was drawn up, the land was redistributed. The Fazenda – which was part of the former grounds of the cooperative – came into the hands of a small company “Boa Fé Participacoes Ltda”, (Boa Fé) in a suburb of Sao Paolo, 4,000 kilometers from the location of the Fazenda. That happened on the basis of an old property document from 1912.

Ownership of the lands, however, was not clear from the document. It is quite common in Brazil that lands are allocated on the basis of such a kind of old - often manipulated - document. The Brazilians have a word for it: “GRILAGEM”, and see it as a form of land grabbing.

At that time, that small company (Boa Fé) is almost 50% in the hands of the Liechtenstein company “Natural Resources Development” (NRD), which is under Dutch management. The remaining 50% is indirectly controlled by a Brazilian lawyer who was previously associated with the cooperative and who represented it in the negotiations with the Municipality of Apuí. The same lawyer was indicted in 2007 for building an illegal road in the Mosaic and was involved in several incidents involving logging activities in the Barreirinha municipality in the northeast of the state.

Later on, NRD would also get hold of almost the entire remaining half. The “property” is valued at tens of millions of dollars, and transferred to a Caribbean tax haven.

A WEIRD DESTINATION FOR THE FAZENDA IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

In August 2010, the same land was offered by another Dutchman through a Swiss company as collateral for a solar panel project in Cadiz (Spain). Thanks to an ingenious construction, through a Hungarian listed fund, that project is also controlled by the fund in the Caribean, with a few Dutch businessmen in charge.

The affair prompted me to write my book “The Tocantins Forest". If you want to know how this goes on, and what's going on today in the Fazenda Boa Fé and the rainforests of Liberia, you can read it there. You can read the press release announcing the transaction here... - ENDS -

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LANDGRABBING DUTCHIES OF THE 3D MILLENNIUM

LANDGRABBING DUTCHIES OF THE 3d MILLENNIUM

illegal logs

From 1998 to the present, the Dutch have owned extensive land holdings in Amazonas. Brazil’s largest state is home to much of the region’s tropical rainforest. The claimed land ownership went with land grabs (Portuguese: “Grilagem”), crimes against humanity and illegal logging. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of virgin wilderness fell prey to the ruthless greed of adventurers and creative financiers from the lowlands.

Sao Paulo, 28th of Januari 2001.  A parliamentary commission charged with investigating the occupation of public land in Amazonas state reports on its findings. One chapter is devoted to the role of foreigners in the region.

The Committee concludes that by far the most important foreign landowner in the state is the Dutchman Gerardus Laurentius Joseph Bartels, who – together with Ms Monica Janette Bartels – acquired various plots of land in the region. In total, this concerns a staggering 367,000 hectares. The land is partly registered in the region around the city of “Barreirinha” on the banks of the Andirá River, and is part of Bartels’ company “Eco Brasil Holanda-Andirá Ltda“. The remainder is located near the town of Itacoatiara, and is owned by “Reflorestadora Ltda“, a subsidiary of Eco Brasil.

The committee points out that under Brazilian law Bartels, as a foreigner, may not own more than 2,750 hectares. His land ownership is largely illegal…

At that point in time, Bartels is honorary consul for the Netherlands in Belèm, the capital of the adjacent state of “Para”. In previous years he has taken over the land for pennies on the dollar from indigenous residents and poor farmers in the area.

By then – in 2001 – things had turned bad in the region around Barreirinha for several years. In March 1999, the governor of the state of Amazonas authorized the president of IPAAM to take action against Dutch people who were logging illegally at a 50-minute boat ride from the city of Barreirinha. IPAAM is the state agency that deals with logging licenses and enforcement thereof. The governor – Amazonino Mendez – did so after he received alarming signals from Thiago de Mello, an internationally renowned poet, who lives in Barreirinha; an ex-exile from the military dictatorship that reigned Brazil between 1964 and 1985.

IPAAM chief Vicente Nogueira visited the city, imposed an embargo on all logging activities in the region, and dispatched military police to the scene. They met four Dutchmen, who introduced themselves to him as owners of “Eco Brasil Holanda-Andirá”. On presentation of Nogueira’s enforcement request, the Dutch said they would continue their activities. When they then announced their intent to evict 2,000 indigenous families working in the area from their land, the governor announced that he would deploy military police to enforce the embargo. In the worst case, he would proceed to imprison the Dutch.

The latter did not happen. What did happen however, is that the military police, in a joint action with the

Indigenous “Sateré Mawé” population swept the area in a 10-day operation. 5 logging locations were closed. Environmental inspectors found 3,000 tree trunks submerged in tributaries of the Andira River. An apparent attempt to escape the watchful eye of the environmental inspectors.

250 loggers lost their jobs. They directed their anger at the poet Thiago de Mello; threatened to ambush and kill him. De Mello was placed under protection.

These incidents are the prelude to 20 years of land occupation and illegal deforestation by Dutch residents and Brazilian associates. You can read more about it in The Tocantins Forest.

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Liberia sighs under Dutch rule in Liechtenstein logging company

Liberia sighs under Dutch rule in Liechtenstein logging company

land rental protest

The Liechtenstein company under Dutch leadership “NRD Natural Resources Development’ exploits part of the rainforest in Liberia. The two operating companies”International Consultant Capital” (ICC) and “Geblo logging”, acquired logging concessions on 398,000 hectares of land in the “Grand Gedeh”, “Sinoe” and “Rivercess” districts in 2009.

NRD owes a number of fees for the exercise of that right. For the land rental, taxes and a number of social obligations stipulated in the contract between the Liberian government and the logging companies. 

NRD and her subsidiaries never met their financial obligations toward Liberia since their inception, and in doing so they seriously failed the country and its people.

When the “Liberia Forest Initiative” (LFI) was launched in 2004, its intent was that the reforms of the Liberian forest sector after the end of the civil war would benefit the Liberian people. It was an initiative of the United States Department of State (via USAID), and was supported by a number of international organizations, including the World Bank.

By mid-2020, the arrears in the financial obligations of ICC and GEBLO jointly amount to over twenty-five million dollars. Money, which largely had to benefit local communities in Liberia. For the construction of infrastructure, schools and hospitals. The contracts were intended to lead to employment for the bitterly poor inhabitants of local communities. About 5,000 jobs were envisaged in the forestry sector. With decent housing, food and a safe working environment. Very little – if at all – has come of this. Today, the forestry sector employs 1,500 people. Of those, about 500 are employed by the two companies. Under poor working conditions; with meager wages, no housing. With irregular food rations and without job security. Little or nothing came of the initial promises.

The article below is a poignant example of how companies deal with their social responsibility. It is not a story in itself, there are numerous similar examples. The saga of the forest sector in liberia after Taylor and Kouwenhoven is endless and steeped in a large number of incidents and gross abuses. My book “The Tocantins Forest’ takes you along into the sad details.

ICC LOGGING EMPLOYEES THREATEN WITH HUNGER STRIKE OVER SALARY DELAY

Afbeelding met persoon, grond, groep, menigte Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving

Grand Bassa County- About 250 workers from the “International Consultant Logging Company” (ICC) have threatened to go on hunger strike if they fail to pay five months’ wages owed to them by the company’s management.

According to Mr Emmanuel Somah, a representative of the disadvantaged workers, no more timber shipments will take place from the ICC facilities in Big Joe Town, just outside the port city of Buchanan, until the issue is resolved. The boycott will last until the arrears have been paid in full.

The injured workers’ action follows management’s plan to pay two months of their five-month arrears and the balance three months later. The workers reject this and demand that all five months be paid in full.

According to them, in order to calm the prevailing situation, the government must intervene quickly and ensure that they get their money, otherwise they will embarrass the company’s operation by blocking the main entrance until their demands are met.

Mr Somah said; “We came here on Monday to get our money and the management told us to go home and come back on Tuesday as they were not willing to pay our five months backlog.

However, when we arrived on Tuesday, management begged us to settle for two months from our five months backlog and showed us a later date for the balance to be paid. But we say no to that, we want all our money because we don’t trust the company. If not, the company will not operate in peace.”

The five month backlog is equivalent to USD$1,000 to USD$1,800.

“We have our wife and children at home, and there is no food. We work for this company and every month we have to apologize because we don’t get paid. Some of us have been abandoned by our wives and children because we cannot provide for their daily needs.

This company really pushes us to cause trouble and we’re not going home. We prefer to sleep at the company’s concession yard until we get our money,” said Mr. Somah.

The workers feel that the government of Liberia, including Grand Bassa County labor commissioner Mr Johnson Quaqua, does not represent them well, but speaks in the public interest of the company just because of the taxes they pay to the government.

Mr Somah added. “The president told us in his inaugural address that we wouldn’t be spectators of our own province’s economy, but now it’s even worse than that; we toil for nothing on our own land as if we were outsiders.

Cutting a log is no easy task. When we have a hard time in the bush, the government cannot provide protection, but there is now time and money to send a huge team of officers from the Police Unit (PSU) today to calm the situation and also to company and its management. This Is So Sad For Our Democracy”

When asked, Mr. Johnson Quaqua, the Grand Bassa County labor commissioner, condemned the company’s move to export the county’s resources while unable to pay its employees their wages.

Despite his disappointment, Mr. Quaqua thanked the aggrieved workers for their peaceful protest, assuring them that he would continue to pressure the management of the logging company until the money was paid in full.

Furthermore, Mr Quaqua said that the company’s management had told him that the slowdown in workers’ salary is caused by the fall in prices in the global market and the effect of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“Because of my intervention, the workers have kept so quiet and I say it is not ‘good practice’. That’s why we’re urge anyone who owes workers a salary to make sure these people get their money, because that’s what they work for.”

Posted on

Liberia sighs under Dutch rule in Liechtenstein logging company

Liberia sighs under Dutch rule in Liechtenstein logging company

land rental protest

The Liechtenstein company under Dutch leadership "NRD Natural Resources Development’ exploits part of the rainforest in Liberia. The two operating companies”International Consultant Capital" (ICC) and "Geblo logging”, acquired logging concessions on 398,000 hectares of land in the “Grand Gedeh”, “Sinoe” and “Rivercess” districts in 2009.

NRD owes a number of fees for the exercise of that right. For the land rental, taxes and a number of social obligations stipulated in the contract between the Liberian government and the logging companies. 

NRD and her subsidiaries never met their financial obligations toward Liberia since their inception, and in doing so they seriously failed the country and its people.

When the “Liberia Forest Initiative” (LFI) was launched in 2004, its intent was that the reforms of the Liberian forest sector after the end of the civil war would benefit the Liberian people. It was an initiative of the United States Department of State (via USAID), and was supported by a number of international organizations, including the World Bank.

By mid-2020, the arrears in the financial obligations of ICC and GEBLO jointly amount to over twenty-five million dollars. Money, which largely had to benefit local communities in Liberia. For the construction of infrastructure, schools and hospitals. The contracts were intended to lead to employment for the bitterly poor inhabitants of local communities. About 5,000 jobs were envisaged in the forestry sector. With decent housing, food and a safe working environment. Very little – if at all – has come of this. Today, the forestry sector employs 1,500 people. Of those, about 500 are employed by the two companies. Under poor working conditions; with meager wages, no housing. With irregular food rations and without job security. Little or nothing came of the initial promises.

 

The article below is a poignant example of how companies deal with their social responsibility. It is not a story in itself, there are numerous similar examples. The saga of the forest sector in liberia after Taylor and Kouwenhoven is endless and steeped in a large number of incidents and gross abuses. My book "The Tocantins Forest’ takes you along into the sad details.

ICC LOGGING EMPLOYEES THREATEN WITH HUNGER STRIKE OVER SALARY DELAY

Afbeelding met persoon, grond, groep, menigte Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving

Grand Bassa County- About 250 workers from the "International Consultant Logging Company" (ICC) have threatened to go on hunger strike if they fail to pay five months' wages owed to them by the company's management.

According to Mr Emmanuel Somah, a representative of the disadvantaged workers, no more timber shipments will take place from the ICC facilities in Big Joe Town, just outside the port city of Buchanan, until the issue is resolved. The boycott will last until the arrears have been paid in full.

The injured workers' action follows management's plan to pay two months of their five-month arrears and the balance three months later. The workers reject this and demand that all five months be paid in full.

According to them, in order to calm the prevailing situation, the government must intervene quickly and ensure that they get their money, otherwise they will embarrass the company's operation by blocking the main entrance until their demands are met.

Mr Somah said; “We came here on Monday to get our money and the management told us to go home and come back on Tuesday as they were not willing to pay our five months backlog.

However, when we arrived on Tuesday, management begged us to settle for two months from our five months backlog and showed us a later date for the balance to be paid. But we say no to that, we want all our money because we don't trust the company. If not, the company will not operate in peace.”

The five month backlog is equivalent to USD$1,000 to USD$1,800.

“We have our wife and children at home, and there is no food. We work for this company and every month we have to apologize because we don't get paid. Some of us have been abandoned by our wives and children because we cannot provide for their daily needs.

This company really pushes us to cause trouble and we're not going home. We prefer to sleep at the company's concession yard until we get our money," said Mr. Somah.

The workers feel that the government of Liberia, including Grand Bassa County labor commissioner Mr Johnson Quaqua, does not represent them well, but speaks in the public interest of the company just because of the taxes they pay to the government.

Mr Somah added. “The president told us in his inaugural address that we wouldn't be spectators of our own province's economy, but now it's even worse than that; we toil for nothing on our own land as if we were outsiders.

Cutting a log is no easy task. When we have a hard time in the bush, the government cannot provide protection, but there is now time and money to send a huge team of officers from the Police Unit (PSU) today to calm the situation and also to company and its management. This Is So Sad For Our Democracy”

When asked, Mr. Johnson Quaqua, the Grand Bassa County labor commissioner, condemned the company's move to export the county's resources while unable to pay its employees their wages.

Despite his disappointment, Mr. Quaqua thanked the aggrieved workers for their peaceful protest, assuring them that he would continue to pressure the management of the logging company until the money was paid in full.

Furthermore, Mr Quaqua said that the company's management had told him that the slowdown in workers' salary is caused by the fall in prices in the global market and the effect of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“Because of my intervention, the workers have kept so quiet and I say it is not 'good practice'. That's why we're urge anyone who owes workers a salary to make sure these people get their money, because that's what they work for.”

Posted on

LANGRABBING DUTCHIES IN THE 3D MILLENNIUM

LANGRABBING DUTCHIES IN THE 3D MILLENNIUM

illegal logs

From 1998  to the present, the Dutch manage sizable land holdings in Amazonas Brazil's largest province is home to much of the region's tropical rainforest. The claimed land ownership was accompanied by land grabs (Portuguese: “Grilagem"), crimes against humanity and illegal logging. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of virgin wilderness fell prey to the ruthless greed of adventurers and creative financiers from the lowlands.

Sao Paulo, 28th Januari 2001, A parliamentary commission charged with investigating the occupation of public land in the Amazonas state reports on its findings. One chapter is devoted to the role of foreigners in the region.

The Committee concludes that by far the most important foreign landowner in the state is the Dutchman Gerardus Laurentius Joseph Bartels, who together with Ms Monica Janette Bartels acquired various plots of land in the region. In total, this concerns a staggering 367,000 hectares. The land is partly registered in the region around the city of “Barreirinha” on the Andirá river, and is part of Bartels' company Eco Brasil Holanda-Andirá Ltda. Another part is located near the city of Itacoatiara, and is owned by Reflorestadora Ltda, a subsidiary of Eco Brasil.

The committee points out that, under the circumstances, Bartels as a foreigner may not own more than 2,750 hectares on the basis of Brazilian law. His land ownership is illegal…

Bartels is - at that point in time - consul honoraire for the Netherlands in Belèm, the capital of the adjacent state “Para”. In previous years he has taken over the land for pennies on the dollar from indigenous residents and farmers in the area. 

Then – in 2001 – things had been going on in the region around Barreirinha for several years. In March 1999, the governor of the state of Amazonas authorizes the president of IPAAM to take action against Dutch people who were reported to be logging illegally at a 50-minute boat ride from the city of Barreirinha. IPAAM is the state agency that deals with (among other things) licensing and enforcement of logging licenses. The governor – Amazonino Mendez – is doing so after he received alarming signals from Thiago de Mello, an internationally renowned poet, who lives in Barreirinha. He is an ex-exile from the military dictatorship that engulfed Brazil between 1964 and 1985.

IPAAM chief Vicente Nogueira visits the city, imposes an embargo on all logging activities in the region, and dispatches military police to the scene. They meet four Dutchmen, who introduce themselves to him as owners of “Eco Brasil Holanda-Andirá”. On presentation of Nogueira's enforcement request, the Dutch say they will continue their activities. When they then announce that they will be evicting 2,000 indigenous families working in the area from their land, the governor announces that he will deploy military police to enforce the embargo. In the worst case, he will proceed to capture the Dutch.

The latter does not happen. What does happen is that the military police, in a joint action with the Indigenous “Sateré Mawé” population, clean up the area in a 10-day operation. 5 logging locations are closed. Environmental inspectors find 3,000 tree trunks submerged in tributaries of the Andira River. An apparent attempt to escape the watchful eye of the environmental inspectors.

250 loggers lose their jobs. They direct their anger at the poet Thiago de Mello. They threaten to ambush and kill him. De Mello is placed under protection.

These incidents are the prelude to 20 years of land occupation and illegal deforestation by Dutch residents and Brazilian associates. You can read more about it in The Tocantins Forest.