BluEarth Carbon Development’s dodgy carbon deals in Liberia

No free, prior and informed consent. No government approval.

BluEarth Carbon Development Inc. is a US-registered carbon credit company that is developing REDD projects in Liberia. Earlier this week, the company announced a “strategic partnership with Ecological Carbon Offset Partners LLC (EP Carbon)”.

The press release provides no details about the REDD projects in Liberia, except that, “The collaboration between BluEarth and EP Carbon aims to accelerate the development of BluEarth’s REDD+ projects across three key project areas.”

So what do we know about BluEarth and its proposed REDD projects in Liberia?

BluEarth Carbon Development Inc.

BluEarth Carbon Development Inc. was incorporated in the tax haven of Nevada on 4 November 2022. The company was originally called Blue Earth Capital Inc. - the name was changed to BluEarth Carbon Development in February 2023.

In February 2023, BluEarth’s founder and chairman, Augustine Jarrett, took part in a meeting in Monrovia, titled, “Liberia Forest and Climate Resilience Forum”. The two-day meeting was organised by USAID, the Government of Liberia, the United Kingdom, the World Bank, Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, and the French Development Agency, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the European Union, and the UN Development Programme.

Just three months after the company was incorporated, here’s how the company, which was then still called Blue Earth Capital, described itself at the meeting in Monrovia:

a carbon trading company, that incorporates Liberia’s community forests in its carbon trading business by using cutting-edge technology to monitor, report, and verify carbon stocks, and adopting blockchain technology to record and trade carbon credits.

Augustine Jarrett, BluEarth’s founder was born in Liberia and moved to the US as a teenager. He worked for HSBC, several consulting firms, Booz Allen Hamilton, and at the US Department of the Treasury. He returned to Liberia at the end of 2004 to work at Global Bank Liberia, followed by working at an investment fund for mining, forestry, and agriculture called Excelsior Capital Partners.

On his LinkedIn page, Jarrett states that while working at Excelsior, he negotiated the first oil palm concession in the country as well as raising finance for another oil palm project.

From there, he moved to a company called Liberia Wood Industry, where he managed the largest timber operation in Liberia, covering an area of 400,000 hectares. Liberia Wood Industry was a parent company of International Consultant Capital (ICC), one of the country’s notorious logging companies.

He then moved to Natural Resource Development Corp, the owner of Liberia Wood Industry.

Then, after a year at a forestry consulting firm, he was appointed principal economic adviser to the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In 2017, while Jarrett was economic adviser, Liberia passed a new law that allowed logging companies to pay less tax.

“The Liberian government has secretly given the country’s loggers a US$13 million tax break, subsidising companies at the expense of the country and forest communities,” Global Witness and Tropenbos International wrote in a press release about the new law.

Until the end of 2022, Jarrett was CEO of EMLL, a mineral exploration company.

Similarly, David Kol, who is a board member of BluEarth is also CEO of Zodiac Gold Inc., a mineral exploration and development company.

BluEarth’s COO, Robin McWatt, is an investment banker.

The company has no experience with forest conservation or carbon projects.

(Sheldon Zakreski has worked in carbon offsetting for many years, and is listed on a BluEarth press release as working for the company, although he doesn’t mention BluEarth on his LinkedIn page. And BluEarth’s current website doesn’t list anyone working for the company.)

In September 2023, BluEarth put out press release, claiming that the company was “a leading U.S.-based carbon offset developer focused on avoided deforestation projects in West Africa”.

This claim comes in spite of the fact that the company had no carbon projects and had generated precisely zero carbon offsets.

BluEarth also claimed to be “partnering with local forest communities to develop REDD+ as a means of mitigating climate change through forest conservation”. But the press release gave no details about the project.

No free, prior and informed consent

In September 2023, The DayLight, a Liberian environmental news website, wrote about BluEarth’s REDD project in River Cess County. BluEarth is negotiating a carbon contract with Ziadue, a village in River Cess County.

The DayLight reports that a letter of intent has already been signed for an area of 55,000 hectares of forest. Under the agreement, BluEarth will pay land rental fees of US$82,684 for a one-year feasibility study. That’s US$1.50 per hectares. And after that, Ziadue will receive 10% of the sales of carbon credits.

The DayLight reports that,

BlueEarth Capital has been providing food and transportation fares for community leaders reviewing the agreement, according to the company itself and townspeople. Recently, the company gave the community cash for the same purpose.

Emmanuel Roberts, the chairman of Ziadue’s community land development and management committee, told The DayLight that BluEarth provided about L$25,000 (about US$130) for a meeting in Gbardiah. Roberts used the money to buy food and pay transportation costs.

Jarrett responded that the payments were not meant to influence villagers. “We did facilitate bringing people to areas,” he told The Daylight. “We don’t expect them to come with their lunches.”

Many of the people in Ziadue told The Daylight that they were unaware of BluEarth’s proposals, despite the fact that negotiations had been going on for more than six months. Just three out of 40 members of the community land development and management committee signed the letter of intent.

Jarrett told The Daylight that free, prior and informed consent was an ongoing process that “continues over the entire life of the project”. Jarrett’s comment makes a mockery of the process of free, prior and informed consent. The word “prior” leaves no doubt that the FPIC process must take place before any deal is signed.

In response to The Daylight article, BluEarth put out a press release stating that,

Ziadue Leadership and the Ziadue CLDMC have expressed full support for these community engagement efforts, which included providing comprehensive project information and receiving overwhelmingly positive community feedback.

But following the report by The Daylight, Liberia’s Environment Protection Agency put out a statement warning against villagers signing an unauthorised carbon credit deal with BluEarth:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is unequivocally warning the general public against the unlawful/illegal sale of carbon credits and the signing of any agreement without the prior written approval of the Government of Liberia through the EPA. This warning should claim the attention of residents of the Ziadue Clan, Rivercess County, and other forest communities against engaging in discussions with Blue Earth Capital, an American firm, regarding the potential sale of carbon credits. The EPA’s involvement and approval are non-negotiable prerequisites in carbon credit deals in Liberia.

BluEarth subsequently put out a press release arguing that:

• The EPA has no right to interfere in the negotiation and execution of private  contracts between BlueEarth and community landowners; and  

• Contrary to the EPA’s statement, BlueEarth has made repeated efforts to engage in a dialogue with the EPA however such efforts have been consistently rebuffed. 

In November 2023, Der Spiegel reported on carbon trading and Liberia’s forests. Heiner Hoffmann, Der Spiegel’s journalist, travelled to Ziadue.

Emmanuel Roberts, the village chief, told Der Spiegel that he had been assured that carbon trading was not harmful to the people and forests of Ziadue. Roberts is already looking forward to new schools and medical supplies for the clinic. He has also prohibited farmers in the village from expanding their fields in anticipation of the REDD deal with BluEarth.

“But we still have a lot of questions,” Roberts said.

“For example, where will the harvested CO₂ be taken? Where exactly is this carbon market? Will chemicals be used in the harvesting of the carbon dioxide?”

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