Wildlife Works Conservation Agriculture, Credit Filip Agoo.jpg
Bonface Orucho, bird story agency…
A new short documentary film, ‘Black Water’, released on December 3, is the latest showcase of how carbon credit initiatives are being harnessed to heal landscapes, support livelihoods, and reshape climate action in Africa.
In the film, Wildlife Works, the organization behind the documentary features the success of a community-led conservation initiative within the Mai Ndombe ecosystem, at the heart of the Nile Basin. Sustainable fish nurseries are helping locals revive Lake Mai Ndombe’s ecosystem, securing fish populations and their livelihoods.
The documentary highlights the contrast between past abundance and the transformative impact of these nurseries in easing pressure on the lake.
“Fish are now scarce because of the widespread use of mosquito nets,” said Pong Paul, an elder of the community. “When I was young, we caught big fish, but now it’s incredibly difficult to find any.”
The fish nursery program is one of the initiatives that have been borne as a result of the carbon credits model being implemented in the broader Mai Ndombe ecosystem by Wildlife Works. It also points to the difficulties in measuring the full value of carbon credits sold in the open market. Africa stands to benefit substantially from the credit system but measurement issues have become a hot topic with concerns that the entire market is being negatively impacted after reports discredited some valuations.
The UN defines carbon credits as “tradeable permits” that represent a tonne of CO2 or its equivalent that has been reduced or avoided by a certain emission-cutting project. These credits can be bought and sold in carbon markets allowing entities such as corporations to offset their emissions by supporting the emission-cutting projects in another location.
According to Jean-Robert Bwangoy, Wildlife Works’ country director for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and one of its founders, the projects in Mai Ndombe span sectors such as education, health, and agriculture, all of which are community-driven and funded through the sale of carbon credits.
“We wanted to take a different approach — one that didn’t rely on foreign aid. Often, projects funded by external sources are unsustainable. We’ve seen numerous great initiatives fail because funding stopped midway when donors pulled out,” he explained in an interview.
The initiative, which spans approximately 300,000 hectares encompassing the Mai Ndombe forest, Lake Mai Ndombe, and other ecologically rich ecosystems within the broader Nile Basin, is generating significant value for communities in exchange for a halt on logging, which enables the company to sell to carbon credits.
“It wasn’t easy. Logging in our area dates back to 1923. Communities were used to seeing forests exploited for profit since colonial times. However, the benefits never went to the local people,” Bwangoy shared.
“Today, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together. First, in education: when we arrived, schools were almost nonexistent. Now, we’ve built 30 schools, and children in this region attend school for free,” he added.
Other projects include drilling wells to address water scarcity in the region and advancing agriculture through the introduction of more resilient cassava varieties capable of withstanding diseases and climate fluctuations.
“We got verification from Verra in 2012. We have more than 2.5 million pounds of credits since the beginning of our activities. Our agreement with the government and local communities is that when we sell carbon credit in the market, the community gets 25% of the wholesale. We use this for building schools and carrying out all the activities. We share the revenues with the Government, 50%-50%,” he explained.
The carbon financing model in Mai Ndombe showcases Africa's vast potential to harness its rich forests and peatlands to combat climate change. By offsetting massive carbon emissions and generating tradable credits for global markets, the continent can unlock significant economic and environmental benefits while leading the way in sustainable development.
The ratification and operationalization of Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement at last year’s COP 29 marked a critical step forward. It established standards for calculating emissions reductions from carbon credit projects, aiming to ensure more transparent and verifiable results. This framework lays the foundation for a robust global carbon market that drives measurable climate action.
The need for a more verifiable system is evident considering the controversy surrounding existing methods.
A 2023 research article in The Science Journal examined REDD+ projects across six countries, including the DRC, Tanzania, and Zambia. The study highlighted potential discrepancies between reported and actual impacts, raising crucial questions about the effectiveness of these initiatives.
“We found that most projects have not significantly reduced deforestation. For projects that did, reductions were substantially lower than claimed,” the authors reported.
However, according to Bwangoy, the researchers’ lack of firsthand experience with tropical ecosystems fuels these claims.
“The lack of direct experience with tropical ecosystems is at the root of many misconceptions. For example, critics claim a tropical forest plot cannot yield 300,000 kilograms of biomass, concluding boreal forest data. However, our inventories in regions like Kivu have revealed even greater productivity than the renowned Mai-Ndombe forest—double the biomass in some cases,” he explained.
Despite the challenges, past and ongoing successes in projects across various countries on the continent cast even more hope in the potential to leverage this financing model to fund climate action initiatives and improve communities.
In June last year, Côte d’Ivoire became the third African country to receive US$35 million in payments for verified carbon emission reductions under the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Earlier in 2023, Ghana received US$5 million, while Mozambique has also benefited from the program in the past.
The initiative is a global program that involves governments, businesses, civil society, and indigenous peoples. At least 15 African countries are signatories in the program.
In 2024 alone, FCPF’s annual report shows payments for high-integrity emission reductions more than tripled to US$164.5 million from about US$50 million by the end of 2023. Over the period more than 35 million emission reductions were made over this period. The bank projects it will cut more than 80 million emissions in 2025.
Several countries are seeking to expand beyond the program. At COP 29, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar announced plans to monetize their FCPF excess credits and engage with carbon markets by June 2025, signaling the potential for increased revenue through global carbon credit sales.
Experts believe pan-African initiatives like the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), launched at COP 27 in Egypt, could accelerate the continent’s efforts to tap into the vast potential of carbon finance.
“The awareness of the potential is growing. Initiatives like ACMI will play a key role in fostering collaboration among African countries in the global carbon market… It’s only a matter of time before we see results,” said Mukonji Sebastian, a policy analyst at the African Climate Center, an Arusha-headquartered think-tank.
Existing players are optimistic about the future of carbon markets in Africa. Bwangoy from Wildlife Works points to the growing recognition of their work’s impact on community development and local budgets.
However, he admits the journey is “far from easy,” as operations remain in the voluntary market, leaving players reliant on foreign companies and industries.
“The real shift will come when African companies step up and begin paying their fair share of the climate bill. Once that happens, the market will grow right here in Africa, reducing our reliance on foreign players,” he explained.
The African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) aims to expand Africa’s carbon credit market 19 times by 2030, targeting the production of 300 million carbon credits annually by then, and 1.5 billion credits by 2050, according to the ACMI website. This growth is projected to unlock over US$6 billion in revenue, creating 30 million jobs by 2030.
