International Demand for Carbon Credits Generated in Africa could have Damaging Effects for Local Communities
A scenic view of a Kenyan tea farm with camels grazing in the arid landscape, highlighting agricultural growth.
Members of Kenya’s Maasai pastoralist community are clashing with managers of a major carbon project. The Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP), which describes itself as the world’s largest soil carbon removal project, has sold carbon credits to corporations including Meta, Netflix and UK bank NatWest. It restores and maintains grasslands to absorb carbon, including by managing grazing patterns of livestock herds on the 4.7 million acres it covers. Absorbing carbon allows it to generate carbon credits which can be purchased by corporations to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The project, however, continues to face significant opposition from many members of affected local communities, who say it is disrupting their ways of life and denying them access to their ancestral land.
SOURCE: SEMAFOR