This conflict concerns the population of Bapinang Hilir and the Indonesian company Rimba Makmur Utama (RMU). The village of Bapinang Hilir is located in the South of the island of Borneo. Despite Bapinang Hilir village being situated outside of the 149,800 hectares concession area, Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) have identified the village within the verified project zone that extends 305,669 hectares, hence the impact on Bapinang Hilir [2]. Concession owners have subsequently profited from this inclusion at the cost of the Bapinang Hilir villagers.

The Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project (Katingan REDD+ project) was set up by Rimba Makmur Utama (RMU). RMU was founded in 2007 with the intention of profiting from forest conservation activities through carbon trading [3]. The Katingan REDD+ Project collaborates with 34 Indonesian villages to avoid emissions approximately equivalent to 7,451,846 tons of CO2 per year by preventing deforestation, forest degradation, wildfires and peat drainage [4]. As the area is rich in biodiversity and home to some of the world’s most endangered species, such as the Bornean Orangutan and Proboscis Monkey, the project boast about the benefits for the flora and fauna of the region brought by protecting their ecosystems and promoting sustainable development within the local community [6].

As the World Rainforest Movement report [2] states, the project proposal was initially rejected by the village governments - made up of the coconut elites. The rejection was based on rumours circulating that other villages were gradually losing access to their land and forests. RMU then opted to bribe the village governors by providing funds and the decision was subsequently overturned in 2017. A majority of villagers then signed the cooperation agreement with RMU as they were tempted by the financial rewards they assumed would follow as it had done for neighbouring villages [2].  

Carbon trading commodifies the vast carbon landscape, but it does not stop there. It creates new spaces where ecology itself becomes a commodity. Carbon credits are calculated based on the scenario of the threat of deforestation from industrial plantation concessions, community cultivation rights and forest encroachment by the community [2]. Hence, the emergence of carbon as one more capitalist commodity dramatically affecting labour and productive relations in the countryside. 

The project claims to be designed to ensure that all benefits are real, long-lasting, and passed on to local communities [5]. Despite the success that the project was expected to reap, it took the project ten years to obtain its Verified Carbon Standards Certification and social conflict has surfaced as the Katingan Project manages the land and the government owns it [3]. Land that was once ‘rightly’ owned by villagers according to traditional land tenure systems has been repossessed and people have been cut off. 

Elite farmers have thrived through the expansion of their coconut plantations and middle class farmers cultivate palm oil.  The many marginal rice farmers are left to use herbicides because they are forbidden to use fire, significantly increasing the costs of growing rice and damaging the soil and water sources [2]. Hence, peasants who once boasted a certain level of autonomy and self-sufficiency have become petty commodity producers. 

Furthermore, regardless of promises concerning peat preservation, a large oil palm plantation lies east of the project area contributing to draining the peat [3]. In the long term, this will lead to wildfires, and herein lies the controversy. In the case of wildfires, the carbon credits sold remain valid, hence polluting the atmosphere twofold. As the responsibility to decrease emissions shifts to rural areas, carbon concessions do not reduce overall emissions but simply compensate for pollution elsewhere. Some say that this is better than nothing, but others believe it is worse than nothing as carbon credits enable companies that claim to be ‘carbon neutral’ to continue business as usual [3]. For instance, Shell lures consumers with advertisements promising they can "drive carbon neutral with Shell" because the company contributes to projects like Katigan [6].

In fact, this case demonstrates the commodification of nature and human beings in addition to the vast carbon landscape [2]. This is achieved at the expense of local communities, their ecosystems and their traditional ways of life. The REDD+ project’s positive impact is therefore questioned with regards to natural factors such as the reduction of the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, and the rate of deforestation, but also with regard to the marginalized local communities restructured at the expense of the Global North and its greatest polluting multinationals such as Shell and KLM.

It is estimated that RMU has the potential to generate around US1.7 billion dollars for the 60-year concession period, without taking into account the grant funds that they are also obtaining.

RMU started interacting with communities through the Puter Foundation in 2012, using USAID funds, for mapping the communities’ resources and livelihoods and preparing them to collaborate in the carbon business.[2].

Katingan Mentaya Project is currently the biggest Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) approved REDD+ project in the world, it generates an average 7.5 million "triple gold certified carbon" tons annually; equivalent to taking 2,000,000 cars off the road each year. The project zone located between Mentaya river to the west and Katingan river to the east.

Over 90% of the carbon in Katingan Mentaya Project is in the underlying peat soils. The area was under threat of conversion to an industrial acacia plantation. This would have resulted release of carbon through forest clearance, draining and burning of the underlying peat.

Large actors such as oil palm and mining businesses influence land-use decisions at the district level. These dynamics have affected the Katingan initiative. For example, the district head allocated parts of the initiative area to nine mining and six oil palm companies, which delayed the ERC license process (Hartono 2011). Prior to proposing its project area, PT.RMU excluded 2000–3000 ha of land allocated to an oil palm concession at the request of the Katingan district head.