Congolese farmers barred from own land for tree planting project by French oil giant Total Energies | Climate News

Farmers living in the Republic of Congo say they have been barred from accessing their land so French oil giant Total Energies and the Congolese government can use it for a popular carbon offsetting project aimed at growing crops. 40 million trees over the next decade.

According to an investigation shared exclusively with Sky News by Greenpeace UK Unearthed and the investigative team SourceMaterial, the Lefini land reserve project in the Bateke Plateau appears to have caused significant damage to around 400 farmers and their family.

In interviews with a SourceMaterial journalist, several farmers said that since starting farming last November, they have had their land blocked without advice or payment.

“We often go to pick Koko leaves [a Congolese vegetable]mushrooms,” said Natacha Enta.

“Now that they have banned us from entering, how will we deal with it?

“In the field, the white man bought the land, and we can no longer work in our field. And the people who sold our land now forbid us to go there.”

Clarisse Louba Parfaite said: “Now, if you’re seen with your tractor, you’re kicked out.

“The crops that we have planted inside, in the middle of the field, have not yet been harvested, they refuse to allow our tractors to come and work.

“It’s to kill us, to put us back into slavery as in the past.”

It leaves some worries about feeding their children.

‘They took everything away’

“We couldn’t get very far with our education, so we devoted ourselves to agriculture,” says Pulcherie Amboula.

“I was farming to feed my children. And one day, to our surprise, we were told that we would no longer be farming. If we see a tractor over there, we will send the machine. pull back.”

“I feel like these people came to kill us on our own land.”

Maixent Jourdain Adzabi said: “Today, people are crying and bitter. What about us, our children? We feed them off our fields. We work, we earn money to give them to them. going to school.

“Today, we didn’t have space to work, they took everything away.”

Some older families have been paid, but not very much – the equivalent of about 80p a hectare.

And some of those who received the money said there wasn’t much of a choice anyway.

People have little control

Olivier Calver Ngouba said: “In the village, I was accused of selling my ancestral land, when that was not the case. [Forest Economy] Minister Rosalie Matondo has arrived, she has never consulted before. She came with her delegation and said she came to pay us ‘a symbolic franc’.

“We told her that from dawn to the present, we have never sold our land, not even our ancestors. She replied that it was the state that had revoked the land. this land.”

Documents show that affected residents appear to have little control over what is happening to them.

At a time when some people accepted to pay to give up their land, the government changed the law, more than a year earlier, to become the private owner of the Lefini reserve.

That land was then quickly leased back to Total Energies by a French forestry consulting firm called Foret Resources Management (FRM), with assurances from the government that anyone else attempting to use it would I am kicked out.

Complaints admitted

Other documents seen by SourceMaterial show that after Total’s reforestation plan began in November 2021, the forest economics department acknowledged a series of problems with the project, including complaints from families unpaid families, confusion about land rights and limitations, and lack of leadership.

The Congolese government declined to comment.

Total Energies and FRM have defended what they describe as an “ambitious” and “pioneer” partnership.

But in a statement, they acknowledged problems with the plan, telling Sky News that over the past few months they had “launched an assessment to identify the potential project impacts and mitigate those impacts.” negative action cannot be reduced”.

“This will establish a complete picture of project-affected people in the entire project area… and will define a remedial action plan, including measures,” they said. livelihood restoration in compliance with international standards. Results will be completed and published in 2023.”

Example of a much bigger problem

For those trying to reform the rapidly growing and poorly regulated voluntary carbon market, this is an example of a much larger problem.

William McDonnell is executive director of the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Council, which is working to establish and administer a globally accepted set of standards for carbon credits.

He told Sky News: “The growing social impact over the years is seen as the real focus of the high integrity carbon credits.

“You don’t want to do one good thing and do another bad thing.

“Part of it is about justice and human rights and making sure that the interests of local communities are protected.

“But actually part of it is also a virtuous cycle.

“If local communities are involved, it’s more likely that those climate benefits will be there in the long run.”