DRC carbon credit projects surge amid lack of regulation

Carbon markets are among the proposed solutions for financing the protection of forests that sequester carbon and hold biodiversity. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, carbon credit projects cover some 54 million hectares (more than 133 million acres), according to ongoing research by the British NGO Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and APEM, a Congolese advocacy group. However, the value of these projects rests on their ability to protect forests while also benefiting the communities that rely on them and are often their guardians. Forests cover 86% of the DRC, and the country’s nearly 200 million hectares (more than 494 million acres) of tropical forest are second only to Brazil globally. From a carbon standpoint, keeping that forest standing could provide a hedge against climate change. That potential has led to substantial interest in using carbon credits to finance conservation in Africa while providing a sustainable income to forest-dependent communities. The 2024 U.N. climate conference, COP29, began Nov. 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where financing to help protect the world’s forests — and the bulwark against accelerating climate change they represent — is a key topic. However, as long-promised funding from wealthy countries to less-industrialized countries like the DRC has failed to materialize at anticipated levels, leaders and communities say they have been forced to look for other sources of conservation financing. In the DRC, as in other countries, carbon credit projects are seen as “this sort of panacea … to attract all the finance needed,” Vittoria Moretti, a forest campaigner…This article was originally published on Mongabay