The Hidden Cost of Carbon Credits

Across Kenya, carbon credit projects are expanding rapidly, promoted as solutions to the climate crisis and tools for forest conservation. Yet behind this green promise lies a troubling reality: many of these projects are developed on Indigenous lands without proper consultation, consent, or understanding of the rights at stake.

The Ogiek community of the Mau Forest has become one of the most visible victims of this approach. Despite a 2022 ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights affirming their ancestral ownership and declaring past evictions illegal, the government continues to pressure them in the name of conservation and carbon trading.

The recent lifting of Kenya’s logging ban in October 2025 further exposes contradictions in policy and governance. The Ogiek’s struggle reveals a deeper truth that carbon markets built without Indigenous inclusion and respect risk repeating the very injustices they claim to solve.