Communal lands the combined size of Portugal have been taken over by corporate interests for carbon offsetting schemes across the Global South, according to a new report that warns of a “new form of land grabbing.”
The report by GRAIN, a nonprofit supporting small farmers, identified 9.1 million hectares (22.5 million acres) of land, more than half of it in Africa, that had undergone such a change since 2016.
In most of the 279 carbon projects surveyed, foreign companies acquired large tracts of land, traditionally used by local communities for grazing or farming, and converted them into plantations of fast-growing trees like eucalyptus, acacia or bamboo.
The idea is that these plantations then draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it in the vegetation and soil. For each metric ton of CO2 sequestered this way, the project managers issue a credit that other companies can buy to compensate for CO2 emissions in other parts of their operations.
While a touted benefit of carbon trading is to help fund projects like reforestation or renewable energy, ideally creating a financial incentive to reduce global emissions, the reality is that many of these projects are displacing local communities, leading to what the report’s authors say is a form of “carbon colonialism.”
“It’s a transfer of land that could be used for local livelihoods, but it’s now prioritizing the interests of corporations,” Devlin Kuyek, a researcher at GRAIN, told Mongabay by phone. “This is just the beginning of something much larger. The scale and spread we’re already seeing, with some major players involved, is a worrying indication.”
The study identified 279 large-scale carbon projects, half of them in China, India, Brazil and Colombia. However, Africa hosted the largest expanse of such projects, covering more than 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres).
The largest project identified, covering 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) in Niger’s semiarid Sahel region, also gave Nasdaq-listed African Agriculture Holdings the rights to local underground water.
Carbon markets have tripled in value over the past three years. However, Kuyek said these projects don’t offer real climate solutions. “It’s a solution in name only,” he said. “It’s just a transfer of pollution. It’s not actually doing away with emissions.”
Major players buying carbon credits to offset their emissions include Meta, Microsoft, Rabobank, Amazon, BP and TotalEnergies. The financial stakes are huge: just the Verra and Gold Standard carbon registries are expected to generate around $25 billion worth of carbon credits over the lifetime of projects.
As communities begin facing violence for resisting carbon projects, the GRAIN report sounds a warning: “It is therefore becoming increasingly urgent to share information and experiences about the carbon grabs … so we can put a stop to them,” it said, adding, “This is only going to escalate.”
Banner image: Land under community management is being transferred to large corporations for carbon credit projects. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.
