The vast majority of credits are generated by avoiding emissions. In reality, however, there are no legal or contractual obligations for companies selling offsets to share revenues, which are often kept secret by project developers.Ĭarbon credits represent a ton of carbon dioxide or equivalent greenhouse gas that has been removed from the atmosphere, or whose release has been avoided. Under this kind of carbon offsetting scheme, communities are meant to be rewarded – via cash or investment in local infrastructure – for keeping trees standing. And after a year of controversies, the wider carbon market is in crisis – with some experts concerned other schemes around the world could be abandoned amid evidence that many projects are producing huge numbers of worthless credits that many believe do not mitigate global heating. The confusion leaves Kariba’s villages and forests with an uncertain future. The changes followed exposés by Follow the Money, Die Zeit and the New Yorker, which raised concerns about its financial transparency and undisclosed trophy-hunting activity in the project area. South Pole, the carbon scheme’s broker and technical lead, walked away from the Kariba scheme in October saying it was determined to learn from its experience on the project. The community is complaining because they are not seeing money trickle down,” Kavura says. “We hear reports that the company has been making lots of money, but we do not know where this money is going. View image in fullscreen Rogers Kavura, a forest ranger in Chikova village in Hurungwe, says the community would like to see improvements to roads, schools, health and irrigation. Proponents say these schemes are a quick way of transferring billions of dollars of climate and biodiversity finance to the developing world through company net zero pledges. Since 2011, this project alone has generated revenue of more than €100m (£85m) from selling carbon credits equivalent to Kenya’s 2022 national emissions to western companies, according to now-deleted figures published by the project developer. It is among the largest in a portfolio of forest offsetting schemes approved by Verra, the world’s largest certifier. These communities fall within the vast, lucrative Kariba conservation project, encompassing an area almost the size of Puerto Rico. Data on the region is patchy, but Hurungwe district, that covers a number of the villages has an average poverty rate of 88%. The gravel roads are full of potholes cars are infrequent, as are medical facilities and internet connections. Punctuated by straw-thatched mud houses, the Miombo woodlands on the edge of the enormous artificial lake are mostly home to smallholder farmers. In the districts surrounding Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, most people have little idea their villages were at the centre of a multimillion-dollar carbon boom.
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