Jean-Pierre A.
Private companies and foreign investors are carving up vast areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for carbon offset projects, amid concerns over the legality, transparency and human rights impacts of a rapidly expanding carbon market, reveals an investigation by Rain Forest Foundation UK, an organisation that advocates for human rights and environment protection.
The report titled ‘ The Great Green Rush: The Exponential Rise and Social Impacts of Forest Carbon Offset Projects in the DRC’, released recently, has identified 71 carbon projects, covering approximately 103 million hectares, or nearly half of the country’s total surface area.
The report alleges that this ‘carbon gold rush’ is unfolding largely “outside” legal frameworks, with private companies and foreign investors claiming rights to manage carbon stocks on Congolese land, often without community consultation or consent, or government oversight.
“Carbon markets in the DRC are expanding at an alarming pace without the safeguards needed to protect people and forests,” said Joe Eisen, RFUK’s Executive Director. “Indigenous peoples and local communities, the true custodians of the Congo Basin, are yet again being pushed aside while powerful interests cash in.”
According to Rainforest foundation UK’s research, many carbon offset deals mirror the extractive patterns of logging and mining that have long plagued the DRC. “This includes dozens of conservation concessions, many of which were illegal converted or are being run by logging companies,” reveals the study.
A series of non-area-based carbon deals, covering more than 80 million hectares, have been signed between state institutions and private firms.
The new report states “these contracts often lack clear boundaries or oversight, effectively granting companies sweeping control over the country’s forests on paper.”
The report’s authors argue that while carbon markets are being promoted as a climate solution, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they risk becoming a new frontier for exploitation.
The report notes that local communities are being side-lined while the promises are not being fulfilled.
The report documents exclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities from decision-making. In several cases, communities report losing access to ancestral lands or being fined and/or threatened for entering newly designated project zones.
“Because of all these carbon market players, our villages have become like airports, with lots of people arriving, taking our resources and leaving without leaving us anything,” an Inhabitant of Ekele community, Equateur province, DRC was quoted as saying.
The report also challenges the climate integrity of carbon offsets themselves citing what it terms “phantom credits” and “false climate solutions”.
While most forest carbon projects fail to prove additionality; this means they may not prevent deforestation that wouldn’t have happened anyway, notes the recent study on carbon markets in the DRC.
Researchers argue that “by relying on these ‘phantom credits,’ risks corporations using carbon markets to delay real decarbonisation and greenwash continued fossil fuel use.”
A call for reform
The ‘Great Green Rush’ calls for a moratorium on new carbon projects in the DRC until “transparent governance systems” and “legal safeguards” are in place to protect communities and forests.
The report also recommends rights-based alternatives — such as community forestry and direct, non-market payments for environmental services — as fairer, more effective ways to protect forests and reduce emissions.
“Climate solutions must not come at the expense of those who have protected these forests for generations,” said Vittoria Moretti, RFUK’s DRC-based Forest Campaigner and lead author of the report. “Without community leadership and proper safeguards, carbon markets risk doing more harm than good.”
