A company called Carbon Done Right claims to be doing the right thing in Sierra Leone. It isn’t
“Carbon done wrong” according to a report by Swiss Church Aid and Sierra Leonean NGOs.
Kevin Godlington is a former soldier, TV presenter, campaigner against toxic masculinity, and the director of several companies. His latest venture is called Carbon Done Right.
But recent investigations into Carbon Done Right’s tree planting operations in Sierra Leone reveal a series of red flags.
In May 2024, Swiss Church Aid HEKS/EPER’s published a report titled “Carbon done wrong: Controversial carbon credit project in Sierra Leone threatens people’s land rights”. The report reveals that many families who own the land have apparently not agreed to the project as required by the law in Sierra Leone.
Another report by The Times and SourceMaterial raises further questions about the project.
This REDD-Monitor post focusses on land rights and whether the communities in Sierra Leone gave their free, prior and informed consent to Carbon Done Right’s carbon project on their land.
The HEKs/EPER report was carried out between March 2023 and March 2024 by a team of NGOs. In addition to HEKS/EPER, the team included Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food, United for the Protection of Human Rights, Women’s Network against Rural Plantation Injustice, and Green Earth Sierra Leone.
The project started in 2021, carried out by a Sierra Leonean company called Rewilding Maforki. The tree planting carbon credit project covers a total area of 25,000 hectares in Port Loko district, in the northwest of Sierra Leone. A second phase of the project covers another 32,000 hectares.
Also involved in the project is Carbon Done Right Developments Inc, a company that was incorporated in British Columbia on 7 February 2018 under the name Klimat X Developments Inc. Carbon Done Right is the “implementing partner” of the project. A future post will look in more detail at the corporate structure of Carbon Done Right, which includes a series of companies incorporated in the UK.
US$2.5 million from BP
In December 2023, BP Carbon Trading Limited announced that it would fund US$2.5 million of the company’s Sierra Leone project. Under the deal, BP Carbon Trading has the option to buy carbon credits from the first 5,000 hectares of tree planting - anticipated to be somewhere between 1.6 and 1.9 million carbon credits.
Carbon consulting firm Ecosecurities prepared the project documents for certification under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard.
An NGO called Namati is also involved. According to a June 2023 Klimat X press release, Namati’s role was to monitor a “transparent Free Prior and Informed Consent process”.
By the end of 2023, 1,400 hectares had been planted.
Free, prior and informed consent?
The HEKS/EPER report states that,
People in affected communities in Port Loko allege that they did not consent in the required form to the planting of trees. Many of them neither know what carbon credits are, nor that their land will be forest-locked for decades. Moreover, little do they know how much money the companies will be making with their land.
The NGOs that carried out the research in Port Loko district question whether the project meets the standards required for Verra certification. In addition, they question “the legality and integrity of the project”.
Ecosecurities claims in the project documentation that,
The project activities are based on a robust FPIC strategy, employing a participatory, inclusive, and collaborative approach recognizing the relevance of the local communities’ role in successfully achieve project objectives.
Sierra Leone’s Customary Land Rights Act states that at least 60% of the adult members of land-owning families must give their consent before any land transaction. Women enjoy the same rights to land as men under the Customary Land Rights Act. The consent must be informed, in writing, witnessed by the Paramount Chiefs, and registered with the authorities.
The HEKS/EPER report states that,
The interviewees all state that while Rewilding Maforki did invite some members of land-owning families, these were predominantly elderly men, and the meetings were mostly around negotiations about the price of the land and period of use. While there were few meetings in the communities, most were organized in a clustered manner, bringing selected landowners from several communities to one community for meetings, also attended by Paramount Chiefs and the international legal NGO Namati, which accompanies the project.
The company did not verify that these few selected landowners involved their families in the decision-making process. Neither did the company verify that families gave their consent in an informed manner in writing. The research team tried to find consent documents in relevant offices and in the communities. They did not find any documents.
Neither did any of the companies provide documentation that would prove that proper free, prior and informed consent had been obtained.
The communities reported that with few exceptions, women were either not involved at all, or took part in meetings as observers and were not asked for their consent.
Project started two years before documents signed
The first agreements were signed in September and October 2023, with individual landowners. In October 2023, Kilmat X announced the completion of its second year of tree planting in the project area. It seems clear that land surveying, clearing activities, and tree planting in Port Loko must have started before any documents were signed, in breach of the Customary Land Rights Act.
To make matters worse, landowners told the research team that they signed documents at a meeting during which Rewilding Maforki paid out land rents to individuals from landowning families. The landowners were shown a document and asked to sign.
The HEKS/EPER report states that, “This setting may suggest that the consent was not entirely free.” That’s something of an understatement. The report continues to explain that,
Most interviewed landowners reported that they did not know or understand what they were signing. They neither received an explanation, nor were given a copy of the document. Many of the landowners cannot read English documents (as English is not the local language), which significantly raises the importance of a proper explanation. Some landowners understood that what they signed was a land lease agreement but had little knowledge of what exactly the terms were.
One of the landowners said, “For the payment, they asked us to sign a document without clearly explaining it. We assumed it was for the money, not realizing it was an agreement.”
The research team consulted two Sierra Leonean lawyers. The report notes that they had slightly different interpretations of the document that landowners had signed. But both were “very concerned that the Customary Land Rights Act was not respected”.
The report concludes that, “It appears very likely that Rewilding Maforki started its business activities without respecting Sierra Leonean land laws, including FPIC.”
I passed this on to my 2 connections in Sierre Leone..
Great Post, thanks! If any participants in these land-grabs truly understood the implications that their land would now be FOREST, forever, for someone else's profit, would they ever sign it? NO! Therefore obfuscation and manipulation are essential parts of the cash grab. With the proliferation of carbon credit schemes for just about everything, it won't be long before plastic bag manufacturers are selling carbon credits for not cutting down trees. (I hope they aren't reading this)