ABUJA, Nigeria — Matthew Walley's eyes sweep over the large forest that has sustained his Indigenous community in Liberia for generations. Even as the morning sun casts a golden hue over the canopy, a sense of unease lingers. Their use of the land is being threatened, and they have organized to resist the possibility of losing their livelihood.
A raft of agreements between at least five African countries and Blue Carbon could give the company control over large swaths of land on the continent. In Kenya, Indigenous populations already have been evicted to make way for other carbon credits projects, according to rights groups like Amnesty International and Survival International.
Cash-strapped governments in Africa are attracted to these kinds of conservation initiatives because they generate badly needed income despite concerns about human rights abuses and transparency. Communities only became aware after activists mobilized against the deal following a leak through a network of nongovernmental organizations. Although the agreement said talks with communities would be done last November, locals and activists reported that they did not happen.
The new director of Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency, Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, said the Blue Carbon deal was rushed through "a quick process that does not lend itself to a good level of transparency." “They are precisely the kind of opaque and inequitable arrangements that the U.N. should very specifically be guarding against as it continues to develop the rules for a global carbon market,” Counsell said in an email.
This, Walley said, is similar to the practice of communities in Liberia, where they have a duty to conserve forests under government rules. In addition, 40% of Liberia’s forestland is already protected. LANGLEY, B.C. — Mounties in Langley, B.C., say they are cancelling the Amber Alert issued for a four-month-old boy who was allegedly abducted by his mother on Thursday. Police say in a statement that the child was located and is safe and sound. The RCMP say they were notified by staff at Langley Memorial Hospital that the mother had shown up there with the child. When officers arrived, they confirmed both mother and her son were in good health.