Dorjee Sun (born 1977) is a social entrepreneur based in Singapore. His work for Carbon Conservation was the subject of the international feature documentary '' The Burning Season'' in 2008. He currently serves as director of Who Gives, Carbon Agro, and Carbon Conservation.

Early life

Sun was born to a Chinese father and a Tibetan mother from

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He grew up in northern Sydney and attended

North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a government-funded, single-sex, academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2022, Nor ...

. He graduated from a combined Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Law, and a diploma in Asian studies (Mandarin) in 2001 from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. During his studies he spent two years on scholarship in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, studying Chinese and law at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

Career

Sun is the founder of a recruitment software company, as well as an award-winning education company that has mentored more than 150,000 students in Sydney and Melbourne. He has served as a

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

Asialink Asia Australia Leader, Youth Chair of the Ethnic Communities Council at both national and state levels, University Law Society president, and as a member of the Education Technology Advisory Board. Sun's company, Carbon Conservation, developed the Ulu Masen project in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2008, aiming to develop 3.3 million carbon credits a year. ''The Burning Season'' looks at the problems of

deforestation in Indonesia Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country; it has had massive environmental and social impacts. Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ra ...

, issues and challenges from the farmer's perspective, the plight of the

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s, and Sun on his quest to find a business solution. It follows him as he tries to convince potential investors from

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

, and

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

to invest in a carbon trading solution that will help avoid deforestation in Indonesia while at the same time provide a living for locals. In 2009, the

African Rainforest Conservancy The African Rainforest Conservancy (ARC), works to conserve and restore African rainforests, particularly focusing on the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania located about southeast of Mount Kilimanjaro. These lush mountains are among the oldest ...

named a newly discovered species of blue spotted chameleon from the rainforests of Tanzania after Sun. The species was named ''Kinyongia dorjeesuni''. This unique species, which lives in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, is currently consider a ''

nomen nudum In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...

'', and is pending its formal species description stating those characteristics that are purported to differentiate the taxon. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine recognised Sun as one of the

Heroes of the Environment (2009) Heroes of the Environment is a list published in ''Time'' magazine. The third list was published in September 2009.

for his work as a carbon-trade broker. In April 2009, he was honoured by the

for his work.

Carbon Conservation Controversy

After the failure of the 2009 Cop15 UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen to achieve a market for rainforest carbon credits, the

Waxman-Markey Bill The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) was an energy bill in the 111th United States Congress () that would have established a variant of an emissions trading plan similar to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. The bill ...

under President Obama also failed to be passed, resulting in a market collapse for the demand of rainforest carbon credits. Sun’s partner in the effort, former Aceh governor Irwandi, became involved in a fight for his political life, which he lost. The new governor went cold causing the project to come to a stop. In 2011, with no carbon credits generated, Carbon Conservation sold 50% of its shares to the Canadian mining company East Asia Minerals Corporation who aimed to develop inside the protected forest reserve. ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' has stated that "Environmentalists have accused Sun of allowing the company to improve its chances of gaining government approval by 'greenwashing' the venture." AsienHaus deemed the Ulu Masen REDD project, Indonesia as a failure.

Virgil Capital

In May 2017, Sun along with Taiyang Zhang and Stefan Qin cofounded Virgil Capital. Sun played an "instrumental role" in the fund raising for Virgil Capital and mentored his cofounder, Qin. Virgil Capital was subsequently determined to be a scam by Qin and Qin pled guilty to stealing US$90 million in investor money.

References

External links

Carbon Conservation

''The Age''.

''The Wall Street Journal''.
"Some Questions for Dorjee Sun"
REDD Monitor.

''Marketwired''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun, Dorjee 1977 births Australian chief executives Australian conservationists Australian people of Chinese descent Australian people of Tibetan descent Economics and climate change Singaporean LGBT rights activists Living people People educated at North Sydney Boys High School Sustainability advocates