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In 2013, the No REDD in Africa Network began building a database on REDD-type projects in Africa to start to compile a panoramic view of what was happening with REDD in the continent.

The initial findings of the database research served to inform the Network’s first workshop held in Maputo in August of 2013 and to prepare the No REDD in Africa Network’s summary of The Worst REDD type projects in Africa. 26 (An excerpt follows. All the pertinent references can be accessed at http://no- redd-africa.org/index.php/16-redd-players/84-the-worst-redd-type-projects- in-africa-continent-grab-for-carbon-colonialism).

This summary has proven to be important for illustrating the nature and gravity of the human rights abuses and the scale of the repression resulting from REDD-type projects. It was also helpful for beginning to sketch the scale of the land grab and coining of the term “Continent Grab” to describe the amount of African land at risk of REDD+-ication.

UGANDA: Massive repression: 22,000 evicted

Over 22,000 peasants, some with land titles were violently evicted from the Mubende and Kiboga districts in Uganda to make way for the UK-based New Forests Company to plant trees, to earn carbon credits and, ultimately, to sell the timber. According to The New York Times, “New Forests Company (NFC), grows forests in African countries with the purpose of selling credits from the carbon dioxide its trees soak up to polluters abroad.” The New York Times also reports that “…[V]illagers described gun-toting soldiers and an 8-year-old child, [Friday Mukamperezida], burning to death when his home was set ablaze by security officers. New Forests Company is 20% owned by the HSBC bank, and investors in the project include the World Bank. Evicted successful farmers are reduced to becoming poorly paid plantation peons on the land they were evicted from. “Homeless and hopeless, Mr. Tushabe said he took a job with the company that pushed him out. He was promised more than $100 each month, he said, but received only about $30.” NFC has been certified under the Forest Stewardship Council since 2009.

KENYA: Threats to cultural survival

Despite Amnesty International’s recommendation to “stop immediately the practice of forced evictions,” as Kenya’s Mau Forest was made “ready” for a UNEP-funded REDD+ project, members of the Ogiek People suffered violent evictions, and Ogiek activists were attacked for protesting land grabs. Minority Rights Group International includes the Ogiek People in their list of “Peoples Under Threat” from genocide, mass killings or violent repression and this latest wave of evictions threatened the cultural survival of the Ogiek People. In March 2013, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued provisional measures to ensure that the Ogiek cannot be evicted while the case is before the court.

MOZAMBIQUE: Carbon Slavery

Envirotrade’s N’hambita Community Carbon Project, a REDD project in Mozambique, constitutes multi-generational carbon slavery. For seven years, farmers receive an annual payment for as little as $63 per family to plant and tend trees to offset pollution in Europe and the US, but the contract stipulates that they must continue to do so for 99 years. In the event that the farmers die, their children and their children’s children have to continue to take care of the trees for free. The Africa Report calls the N’hambita project “a clear case of carbon slavery.” Furthermore, farmers are “growing” carbon instead of growing food. According to Via Campesina, this can undermine food security in the area, as farmers will dedicate time, labor and land to trees instead of sustenance. According to REDD Monitor, one of the two founders of Envirotrade, Robin Birley, was denounced by the South African Truth and Conciliation Commission “for arming and training a paramilitary group that was involved in destabilizing South Africa’s first democratic election.” A warrant for his arrest was issued in relation to a stockpile of weapons obtained from Eugene de Kock, a colonel in the apartheid-era South African police. Birley was also “president of the Mozambique Institute in the early 1990s, which supported RENAMO, the South African-backed force that systematically committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Mozambique.” The other founder of Envirotrade, Phillip Powell bankrolled the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s luxurious bail residence while his extradition from the United Kingdom was pending for charges of crimes against humanity. Nonetheless, the N’hambita Project has not been sanctioned but hailed as an inspiring model on the United Nations Rio+20 website and certified under the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance Standard’s Gold Level standard.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Servitude

According to “The DRC Case Study: The impacts of carbon sinks of Ibi-Batéké Project on the Indigenous Pygmies of the Democratic Republic of Congo” published by the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, Batwa Pygmies suffer “servitude” on the World Bank Ibi-Batéké Carbon Sink Plantation. An employee of the project says “this must not be understood…as if it were slavery.” This REDD-type forest carbon plantation for fuel wood and charcoal is the DRC’s first Clean Development Project and claims to contribute to sustainable development and climate change mitigation. The World Bank hails it as a model for all of Africa. However, Pygmy leaders have repeatedly denounced the World Bank for funding deforestation of their ancestral forests, which not only releases emissions but also violates their rights, leads to the destruction of their livelihood and causes social conflict. Furthermore, according to “Advance Guard” published by the United Nations University, “Indigenous Peoples’ rights, experiences, and cultural and spiritual traditions are being ignored. Nothing to ensure the Pygmy’s preliminary consent, which was mandated within the framework of the project, has been done since consultation began.”

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Losing rights to forests

Even Mickey Mouse is getting in on REDD. According to the World Rainforest Movement, the Walt Disney Company, Conservation International and Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International are promoting a REDD pilot project on the Tayna Gorilla Reserve (RGT) and the Kisimba-Ikobo Primate Reserve (RPKI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Kisimba and Ikobo, the REDD project is being developed against a backdrop of social conflicts sparked by opposition to the creation of the Kisimba-Ikobo Primate Reserve itself. The establishment of the reserve stripped local communities of their customary rights over the land and forests within its borders. Local communities such as the Bamate, Batangi and Bakumbule communities are losing their rights and control over their ancestral forests. Decisions related to the project are being made almost entirely without the knowledge of the local communities, who are supposedly meant to be the primary beneficiaries. Despite their right to free, prior and informed consent, communities may play only a marginal role in the decision-making process of the REDD project. The situation of women is even more troubling, because they are even less informed than the men and therefore cannot express any opinions or demands.

LIBERIA: Billion Dollar Carbon Scam

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf established a commission to investigate a proposed forest carbon credit deal between the West African nation’s Forest Development Authority (FDA) and UK-based Carbon Harvesting Corporation, which aimed to secure around a fifth of Liberia’s total forest area 400,000 hectares in a forest carbon concession. Police in London arrested Mike Foster, CEO of Carbon Harvesting Corporation. Global Witness said the project potentially exposed the Liberian government to more than $2 billion in liabilities.

CHEVRON SUED FOR MURDER: REDD with armed guards

Chevron was sued for participating in the murder, shooting and subsequent torture of Nigerian villagers engaging in environmental protest against the oil giant. For its destruction of the Amazon, Chevron was recently ordered by an Ecuadorian court to pay $19 billion in damages. Now, Chevron uses armed guards for a REDD-type project in Brazil. Chevron, The Nature Conservancy, General Motors, American Electric Power and the Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education have implemented the Guaraqueçaba Climate Action Project in the ancestral territory of Guarani People with uniformed armed guards called “Força Verde” or “Green Force” who intimidate and persecute local communities; jailing and shooting at people who go into the forest as well as forcibly entering and searching private homes without due authorization “…[T]he project has caused devastating impacts on the local communities…” and raises the specter of REDD militarization.

GREENWASHING SHELL’S ATROCITIES

Two of the biggest greenhouse polluters on the planet oil giants, Gazprom and Shell, infamous for the genocide of the Ogoni People and environmental destruction in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, bankroll the Rimba Raya REDD project in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The project is also supported by the Clinton Foundation and approved by the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VSC) and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). Nnimmo Bassey, the former Director of Environmental Rights Action (FoE-Nigeria) and Winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, says, “We have suffered Shell’s destruction of communities and biodiversity as well as oil spills and gas flaring for decades. Now we can add financing REDD for greenwash and profits to the long list of Shell’s atrocities.” Oilwatch recently denounced that Shell is trying to use REDD to “roast the planet.” The Rimba Raya REDD project is more controversial than ever – even REDD promoters are fighting among themselves. Meanwhile, Shell is buying up and renaming forests in Canada as “Shell Forests” and pretending to offset its pollution for its refinery in Martinez, California with forests in the state of Michigan.

NIGERIA: Persecution and criminalization of activists

REDD is already contributing to the persecution and criminalization of activists, including in Cross River State, Nigeria where the World Bank, UN-REDD and the State of California intend to do REDD projects. Odey Oyama, Executive Director of the Rainforest Resource and Development Centre (RRDC) in Cross River State, Nigeria suffered harassment and intimidation from state security agents and had to flee his home for several weeks in the months of January and February 2013 for opposing REDD activities (aimed at extracting more forest estates from indigenous communities) and other similar land grab operations (e.g. for large scale plantation farming). “One of the activities placing me in confrontation with the Cross River State Government of Nigeria is my stand against the REDD programme. My reason for rejecting the REDD programme is because it is geared towards taking over the last vestiges of community forest that exist in Cross River State of Nigeria,” denounced Mr. Oyama.

UGANDA: Carbon colonialism

In Uganda, a carbon credit tree plantation project in the Mount Elgon National Park to absorb European pollution may have violently evicted as many as six thousand people, including the Indigenous Benet People, and destroyed crops and homes. The project entailed the Dutch FACE Foundation and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) proposing to plant 25,000 hectares of trees to supposedly offset emissions from air travel and a 600 MW coal- red power station in the Netherlands. By 2006, only 8,500 hectares had been planted. Despite promises of employment, only a few seasonal jobs were created. Evictions occurred both for the national park and for the carbon offset project. After one of the evictions, “the evicted people were forced to move to neighboring villages where they lived in caves and mosques.” According to a report in a local newspaper, in 2004, “Park rangers killed more than 50 people.” Local communities have suffered evictions, human rights violations, loss of land, food, (including the traditional fare malewa (bamboo shoots)), income and livelihood. In 2002, the contracted assessor of the carbon offset project, Société Générale de Surveillance Agrocontrol (SGS), stated that in order for the tree-planting project to continue, “more people will have to be evicted.” They even recommended that “more speed may be required to ensure the evictions are carried out successfully.” The evictions from the National Park continued while the project was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. According to World Rainforest Movement, “Villagers… have been beaten and shot at, have been barred from their land and have seen their livestock confiscated by armed park rangers guarding the ‘carbon trees’ inside the National Park… The ‘offset’ project sold carbon credits to Greenseat, a Dutch company with clients including Amnesty International, the British Council and the Body Shop.” “[C]ommunities deliberately destroyed the trees – for them a symbol of their exclusion from land that was once theirs” and planted corn to eat. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of communities vindicating their rights to live on their land and continue to farm.

TANZANIA: Conflict and corruption

The Tanzanian government has been “called to resolve land quarrels between two villages of Muungano and Milola Magharibi in Lindi District after their residents threatened to fight each other over benefits from forests. Speaking to The Guardian in Lindi recently, the villagers said their land disputes erupted after the Tanzania Community Forest Conservation Network (TCFCN) introduced a project on forest conservation in the area. The misunderstanding came to the surface after the organizers of the project announced that the village that will conserve a large area of the forest will get more money for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).”

REDD AGRICULTURE: SOIL CARBON – Selling the Earth

REDD+ is not just done with forests and plantations, but with soils, fields and agriculture as well. Agricultural carbon offsets also called Climate Smart Agriculture could threaten communities, farms and food security, cause hunger and even make climate change worse. According to La Via Campesina, the world’s largest peasant movement, “soil carbon markets could also open the door to offsets for genetically modified crops and large-scale biochar land grabs, which would be a disaster for Africa. Africa is already suffering from a land grab epidemic – the race to control soils for carbon trading could only make this worse.” “The voluntary soil carbon market will be just another space for financial speculation, and while farmers receive pennies, speculators will make any real profits. This is just another way for polluting industries and countries to evade real reductions in emissions. If we as farmers sign a soil carbon agreement we lose autonomy and control over our farming systems. Some bureaucrat on the other side of the world, who knows nothing about our soil, rainfall, slope, local food systems, family economy, etc., will decide what practices we should use or not use. It is inseparable from the neoliberal trend to convert absolutely everything (land, air, biodiversity, culture, genes, carbon, etc.) into capital, which in turn can be placed in some kind of speculative market.”

According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, “Forests cover some 635 million hectares in Africa, accounting for 16 per cent of the world’s forests. Over 70 per cent of Africa’s population depends on forests.” Given the central importance of forests to Africa’s wellbeing, it is urgent that more comprehensive research be done on the implications of REDD for the vast majority of the population. Although the database has data from only a sampling of 118 projects from 23 countries, it is possible to begin to detect some important trends.
The NRAN database identified the following types of REDD-type projects in Africa: forest carbon, afforestation and reforestation (with native or exotic trees), monoculture tree plantations, official REDD, Blue Carbon or Wet Carbon (for example in wetlands or mangroves), Climate Smart Agriculture (for example, with farming, fruit or nut trees, fuel wood, soil carbon, biochar), Gourmet REDD, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, PES (Payment for Environmental Services), jatropha plantations (possibly for agrofuels), biomass, fair trade frameworks and feasibility studies, among others.

Land tenure arrangements of the projects in the database include collective community or private land tenure, protected areas, national parks, regional biospheres, multinational conservation areas and biological corridors. Projects are being done in a diversity of land and water ecosystems including forests, mangroves, wetlands, farms, orchards, coasts, plantations and arid areas. Project scale varies from small plots to very large regional initiatives. It is noteworthy that a number of the projects use sophisticated surveillance technology and remote sensors. Satellite technology is also probably used for carbon inventory and accounting. Funding for the projects tends to be from private and foreign bilateral or multilateral sources.