Carbon schemes in Congo: Who's really paying the price?

DW (English)

Half a million hectares of Congo’s rainforest vanish every year. Carbon credit projects were meant to fight deforestation—but locals say broken promises and fake credits are fueling corporate greenwashing.

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00:00Little Schweitz, Bonia Books, Roland Berger, and Bloomberg, big names, all now connected to carbon offset fraud.

00:08To understand how this scheme works, let's head to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

00:13American firm Jadora promised villagers in Isangu alternative livelihoods like this fish pond in exchange for protecting the forests.

00:24They told us we could end up living through fish farming and livestock.

00:27Look at these fish ponds. They're a mess.

00:30Pigs are walking around. Is this how you do projects?

00:36Jadora also pledged to build schools. Ten years later, that project remains incomplete.

00:44Just look at the building. It's not in good shape. They built it, but it's still unfinished.

00:50Yet, the company counts these projects to claim trees weren't cut, turning that into carbon credits sold to global companies.

00:58Jadora says it prevented 1.3 million tons of CO2 between 2009 and 2013.

01:07Credits sell for between $2 to $4 per ton.

01:11But with promises broken, many of the villagers went back to logging and farming.

01:16The forest was huge.

01:20From the main road to here, it was just forest, forest, forest.

01:25Who verifies these credits?

01:28US firm Vera told DW that it hasn't checked Jadora's projects for nine years.

01:35An investigation by The Guardian found 90% of rainforest offsets certified by Vera were worthless.

01:43Efforts by DW to contact Jadora, Ware, and Fruitful.

01:49Why does it matter?

01:51Fake credits allow big polluters to keep carbon emissions while communities lose trust and forest.

01:58So the question is, should the carbon credit scheme be reviewed and properly regulated?

02:04Let me know in the comments.

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