ABSTRACT

In this article I argue that generating carbon credit value centres on a double movement of first naming something as waste and then removing it, a movement entangled with imagined pasts and futures. I explore this through the transformations that TAMS, a project to restore fallows from slash-and-burn agriculture in Madagascar’s rainforest, underwent through its engagement with carbon markets. TAMS initially aimed to benefit both forest and local farming communities. Its objective was then shifted to using the forest for carbon credits. I argue that the ‘calculative logic’ of carbon offset production drove this move by first identifying the fallows as waste and then removing them; other forms of understanding and using these fallows were systematically ‘unknown’: debased and forgotten. Reformulating the fallows as waste excluded local farmers from their livelihood. The promise of carbon value was never realised, but the effects of its anticipation were wasted present livelihoods.

摘要

在本文中，我认为产生碳信用值的中心是双重运动，首先将某些东西命名为废物，然后将其清除，这是一个与想象的过去和未来纠缠在一起的运动。我通过 TAMS（一个旨在恢复马达加斯加雨林刀耕火种农业休耕的项目）通过参与碳市场所经历的转变来探讨这一点。TAMS 最初的目标是让森林和当地农业社区受益。随后其目标转向利用森林获取碳信用额。我认为，碳补偿生产的“计算逻辑”推动了这一举措，首先将休耕地确定为废物，然后将其清除；其他形式的理解和使用这些休闲方式是系统性的“未知”：被贬低和被遗忘。将休耕地重新规划为废物，使当地农民无法谋生。碳价值的承诺从未实现，但其预期的影响却浪费了当前的生计。