Blood Carbon

Since the first National Park in the United States was established 150 years ago, “Protected Areas” have been created by colonizers and elites stealing land from Indigenous peoples and local communities – in the name of “conservation”. Today, despite widespread and horrific human rights abuses inside these areas, and without any solid evidence that they help stop biodiversity loss, Protected Areas are still being pushed by big conservation NGOs (like WWF and WCS) as the “solution” to our very real environmental problems.

Branded as innocuous-sounding “Nature-Based Solutions”, Protected Areas are now being proposed as a way to mitigate climate change. It is claimed that Protected Areas can “protect” against deforestation and other carbon-releasing activities, and thus could be used to “compensate” for carbon emissions elsewhere. In practice, this means that Protected Areas can be used to generate ‘carbon credits’ that polluting companies, governments or individuals can buy in the markets to “offset” their emissions. The theory goes that it’s a win-win: more Protected Areas, more climate change being mitigated. Both biodiversity and the climate are saved!

But the reality is far different.

“These people have sold our air”.  Emanuel, Rendille people, North Kenya.

What do we mean by "Blood Carbon"

Selling carbon credits from Protected Areas will be a disaster for people and the climate. It unites all the human rights abuses caused by fortress conservation, with all the environmental problems linked to greenwashing.

It kills people. The most common model of conservation is “fortress conservation”, and relies on the exclusion of Indigenous and local people from their land. Human rights organizations, independent investigations, and, increasingly, governmental inquiries have clearly documented over many years how the creation of Protected Areas, especially in Africa and Asia, are accompanied by increased militarization and violence. They are imposed without the consent of the original inhabitants, Indigenous or local communities, who lose their ancestral lands and are tortured, raped or killed simply if they try to access them. Protected Areas destroy the best guardians of the natural world, Indigenous peoples, whose lands are often rich in biodiversity and have lower rates of deforestation.

Experience shows that the millions made from carbon credits won’t go to the communities in whose lands that carbon is being absorbed or stored. Developing carbon projects in Protected Areas will massively increase conservation industry funding, likely to fuel a huge expansion and militarization of Protected Areas. In practice, money supposedly going to “climate mitigation” will be used to evict people from their lands and fund rangers’ salaries and military equipment used to commit human rights violations against Indigenous people.  

It kills the environment, and can actually worsen climate change: the majority of Nature-based schemes to offset carbon emission are just greenwashing scams. Numerous investigations into offset projects that claim to save forests or other ecosystems, have shown that in reality they do very little or even nothing to prevent carbon emissions or store additional carbon. The offsets sold in such schemes are created through fraudulent ‘carbon accounting’, for example by claiming that an area would have been very rapidly destroyed without the carbon-saving project, whereas in fact it was not really under threat. A recent scientific study stated that more than 90% of rainforest offsets credits do nothing to reduce carbon. In other cases, projects supposedly preventing deforestation in one area simply resulted in trees being cut down and carbon released elsewhere instead, with zero benefit for the climate. As with fortress conservation areas, the easiest targets for carbon projects are the lands of Indigenous and local communities, whose ways of life are, ironically, often blamed for exacerbating climate change. Polluting companies that buy worthless ‘hot air’ credits from such projects claim to be ‘carbon neutral’, while they carry on releasing carbon into the atmosphere. The public are told the problem is solved, that continued overconsumption can be climate friendly and no change is necessary. Meanwhile, global warming worsens, and forest fires and desertification spread.  

It kills justice. Big conservation NGOs which gain from these carbon credit projects are partnering with the most polluting companies in the world, who use these offsets to avoid having to reduce their emissions. Following international pressure, much of the public money going to the conservation industry is now under scrutiny. New legislation is being put in place to stop taxpayers’ money funding human rights abuses in the name of conservation. New money coming from carbon offsetting will not be covered under these new legislative standards. This will enable the conservation industry to carry on abusing the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities – those least responsible for climate change.

 

“Nature is being traded. Water now is being sold, as is the forest, the air and the Earth”, Ninawa Huni Kui, Huni Kui people, Brazil.

 

How a carbon credit offset scheme turned into a massive attack on Indigenous lands in Kenya

 

The Northern Kenya Rangelands (NRT) Carbon Project:

 

In northern Kenya, under the pretext of establishing a new type of Protected Area called ‘conservancies’, an organisation named the NRT has taken control of millions of hectares of land. This is inhabited by numerous Indigenous pastoralist peoples, such as the Samburu, Borana and Rendille. NRT is the initiative of Ian Craig, whose own ranch, now turned into a “conservancy” for rich tourists, is on land stolen from pastoralists. This land was given to his family, whose relationships with the British royal family is well documented, by the former colonial administration.

In an offset project in the area, started in 2013 with the help of the US-based Nature Conservancy, NRT claims to be storing millions of additional tons of carbon in the soil by reducing grazing pressure from the pastoralists’ herds. The claim is that the NRT stops the pastoralists from “overgrazing” and helps them to graze “sustainably”, so the vegetation can grow and more carbon can be stored. The resulting carbon credits have been sold to large companies including Meta (Facebook) and Netflix.

 

The Samburu are one of the Indigenous peoples affected by NRT's "Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project." © Fiore Longo / Survival International

But the reality is that pastoralists have been grazing in sustainable ways for generations. New herding practices imposed by the project are arguably worse than the traditional grazing. There is no evidence that any additional carbon is being stored; in fact, the project depends on destroying the close relationship between the Indigenous communities, their herds and the environment, that same relationship that has allowed them to thrive in, and nourish, the wildlife-rich rangeland landscape. NRT’s armed rangers, who patrol the conservancies, limit the grazing areas of the pastoralists, which undermines their resilience to the impacts of climate change. The rangers have already been responsible for dozens of horrendous human rights abuses, including murder. No proper consent for the carbon project was given by the communities. The millions of dollars already earned from the sale of carbon credits will be used to reinforce NRT’s control over the area – to the great cost of tens of thousands of Indigenous people: those least responsible for climate change.

With your support, we pushed Verra, the organization that has certified NRT’s scheme, into suspending the project and conducting a review. But this review is a shocking whitewash, and Verra is allowing NRT to keep on selling Blood carbon credits. Read our response to Verra and help us keep up the pressure!

 

• Read more here in an article by Gatu wa Mbaria + take action
• Read the executive summary of the report here
• Read the whole report here

 

How carbon offset schemes are devastating Indigenous peoples and their forests in Cambodia

Deforestation rates in Cambodia are among the highest in the world. Yet ironically, the country is leading the carbon offsetting gold rush in Asia.

41% of Cambodia’s is under a Protected Area of some kind. The government and conservation organisations like Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International and others are turning many of these into carbon offset schemes. They argue that the projects will keep the forests standing and benefit the local communities who live in them – funding roads, wells and forest patrols. But for the Indigenous people living in Cambodia’s carbon offset project areas the reality is very different.

Survival has visited Kuy and Bunong Indigenous people in three different carbon credit project areas – Prey Lang, Northern Plains and Keo Seima. So far credits have only been sold from Keo Seima, the other two projects are yet to reach that stage. However, the story about Protected Areas and carbon projects was the same everywhere we went: injustice and greenwashing. Indigenous peoples who for generations have been practising sustainable farming and collecting items such as honey, mushrooms and medicines from the forest are being criminalised, while corrupt rangers and big logging companies are allowed to continue destroying the forest.

In practice, conservation NGOs, who support the Protected Areas and implement the carbon projects, make (or are set to make) millions of dollars with the sale of carbon credits to polluting corporations. Credits from Keo Seima have been sold to Disney, giving it a green light to keep producing emissions. Incredibly, Disney’s annual emissions in 2023 were higher than those from the fossil fuel emissions from the entire country of Cambodia. Part of the money from the carbon projects goes to support government rangers who harass Indigenous people and other small farmers, banning them from their subsistence activities. Meanwhile, Ministry of Environment (MoE) officials routinely accept bribes to turn a blind eye to rampant logging by outsiders.

Conservation NGOs, governments, and big corporations are making millions from carbon offsets while failing to tackle the root causes of deforestation. Meanwhile, Indigenous and local people’s lands are stolen from them – and the polluters get to greenwash their pollution. 

 

Bunong woman returning home from harvesting vegetables from her forest farm. Bunong women report that rangers often destroy the crops they grow in their small forest plots." © Fiore Longo / Survival International

 

In the Prey Lang and Northern Plains carbon offset projects, there are long established Kuy Indigenous networks which had been patrolling the forests for years in a desperate attempt to stop the massive deforestation that is threatening their lands. Instead of working with these existing Indigenous forest defenders, the conservation organisations (Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International) have partnered with the Ministry which is allowing the destruction to continue and has banned local patrols.

Kuy and Bunong people report that they are harassed and fined large amounts (often hundreds or even thousands of dollars) or arrested for using the forest which they have been prevented from defending. Meanwhile, resin trees, vital to these communities, are being cut down with the complicity of rangers. The boundaries of the Protected Areas and carbon offset projects are either not yet mapped out or are unknown to the communities – adding to the confusion and fear.

Bunong women in one village in Keo Seima told Survival that they are so scared of the rangers that they can’t go and do their traditional farms, adding:

 

“We are stuck like chickens in a cage. When they see us on our farms they demand money from us, if we are not there, they will destroy our crops. If they keep oppressing us what will happen to us?”, Bunong women, Cambodia.

There is very little understanding by the communities of the carbon offset schemes, let alone any evidence they have given their Free Prior and Informed Consent to these projects. People also reported that the projects undermined their efforts to have their land rights recognised. 

The communities in Keo Seima typically welcome the small amount of finance or other benefits, such as toilets or wells, that they do receive. But we have found that this represents a tiny fraction of the money raised by Wildlife Conservation Society from selling the carbon credits. The Bunong and Kuy who spoke to Survival had no idea just how many millions of dollars these credits could be sold for, nor that they would be “compensating” for the destruction of the environment elsewhere.

These three carbon offset projects are shining examples of how NOT to protect the forest. The conservation organisations and the carbon offset projects, through their support of the often-corrupt MoE rangers, are actively harming both the forests they are supposed to be protecting, and the lives of the people who live in them. Given the ongoing rampant deforestation in Cambodia, including in Prey Lang where the highest increase in deforestation coincided with the implementation of the carbon project, it’s hard to imagine that even the conservation organisations believe their carbon offset projects can do anything other than bringing cash into their offshore accounts, funding the MoE guards and providing a green veneer for companies like Disney who buy the credits.

Survival is campaigning against false solutions to the climate crisis that violate the rights of Indigenous peoples. We are lobbying the conservation organisations implementing these projects, the companies buying their credits and, most vitally, the accrediting bodies which approve and legitimise them.

If you want to know more read our report here.

 

 

More information:

• Jack Brook, Can a carbon offset project really secure Indigenous rights in authoritarian Cambodia?, Mongabay.
• Jack Brook, In Cambodia, Indigenous villagers lose forest & land amid carbon offset project, Mongabay.

Carbon credit offsets are part of a new push for the commodification of nature. These projects put a price on nature, treating Indigenous and local communities’ lands as a carbon stock to be exchanged in the market so polluters can keep polluting, the conservation industry can get its hands on billions of dollars, and speculators can profit. This leaves Indigenous peoples and local communities dispossessed and stripped of their livelihoods. “Nature-Based Solutions” offset schemes are carbon colonialism and won’t stop the climate crisis.

Survival is campaigning to end carbon projects in Protected Areas where the rights of Indigenous peoples are violated. 

Help us to stop Blood Carbon projects on Indigenous lands. Carbon colonialism is killing people and the planet.

The best way to protect our planet is to recognize and respect Indigenous peoples’ land rights.

Survival International is at the forefront of the fight against false and distracting solutions to climate change that violate Indigenous peoples’ rights and allow multinational corporations to greenwash their image, while doing nothing to stop the climate crisis. We are also opposing nickel extraction in Indonesia for electric car batteries that will destroy the lives and lands of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa.

More information:

• Fiore Longo, Why Nature-Based Solutions Won't Solve the Climate Crisis--They'll Just Make Rich People Even Richer.
• Stephen Corry, Are Kenyan Conservancies a Trojan Horse for Land?
• Simon Counsell, The Authoritarian Corporatocratic Commodification of Nature.
• The Oakland Institute, Stealth Game. “Community” conservancies devastate land and lives in Northern Kenya. 
• Conrad Schetter, Kennedy Mkutu, Marie Müller-Koné, Frontier NGOs: Conservancies, control, and violence in northern Kenya. 
• Simon Counsell, Blood Carbon explained
• Simon Counsell and Survival International, Cambodia carbon offset project briefings

Indigenous voices videos:

• “It's a con aimed at tricking everyone”
• “They are harassing us saying "this land doesn’t belong to you anymore"
• "They're invading our home, with all these false promises"
• "Projects like REDD+ are destroying us Indigenous people"