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The Tanzania Park Service and local communities will receive a share of the proceeds from the sale of carbon credits
Tanzania has signed an agreement for one of the largest carbon credit projects in East Africa.
The project covers six national parks, spanning 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres).
Tanzania, which has nearly 48 million hectares of forest resources, has emerged as one of the leading African players in global carbon credit trading.
It comes as world leaders are in Dubai for the COP28 summit aimed at finding ways to tackle climate change.
Carbon credits work like this: a polluting organization can buy a credit worth one tonne of carbon dioxide.
The money paid by the agency is intended to go towards carbon reduction programs, so for every tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, the credit represents one tonne of CO2 sequestered.
In this way, the total amount of (CO2) and other pollutants produced is supposed to remain the same or even decrease.
The new deal is an alliance between Tanzania’s national parks management agency, Tanapa, and Carbon Tanzania, a local company.
Some of the proceeds from the sale of carbon credits will go to Tanapa and local communities, Carbon Tanzania said on Thursday.
In addition to facilitating trade in carbon credits, the project will also focus on the protection, conservation and improved management of these national park areas, protecting their natural ecosystems and vital wildlife resources,” the company added.
The six national parks designated for the project are Burigi-Chato, Katavi Plains, Ugalla River, Mkomazi, Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains.
The project will receive additional funding from Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited, an agricultural and processing company owned by prominent Tanzanian businessman Mohammed Dewji.
In February, Tanzania entered into a preliminary agreement on an even much larger carbon credit agreement, covering 8.1 million hectares, nearly 8% of Tanzania’s total land.
The February deal was with Blue Carbon, a UAE company that says it provides nature-based solutions and carbon removal projects using modern approaches.
In recent years, there has been an increase in carbon offset companies taking control of land in sub-Saharan Africa for multi-year carbon credit projects, which some critics say is a form of neo-colonialism.
Blue Carbon has been highly criticized by environmentalists.
The company says its projects are done under strict regulations and benefit local communities. It also says that countries cooperate with it voluntarily.
The Emirati company has also signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on carbon credits with other African countries including Liberia, Kenya, Zambia and Angola.
If finalized, these proposals could create deals that would give Blue Carbon control of vast tracts of land in these countries for use in producing carbon credits.