Documentary: "How Big Tech’s Carbon Offsets Are Threatening Kenyans"

The documentary How Big Tech’s Carbon Offsets Are Threatening Kenyans broadcasted by DWin January 2025, highlights the worrying consequences of the carbon offset project initiated in 2013 by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) in northern Kenya.

The project, designed to retain carbon by limiting livestock movements through a rotational grazing method, aims to improve grassland regeneration and store more CO₂ in the soil. The carbon credits generated are then sold to major companies, such as Netflix and Meta, to offset their polluting emissions. However, behind this initiative, presented as ecological, lie alarming realities denounced by local communities.

Thousands of local livestock breeders explain that they are being deprived of their land, without having been consulted prior to the inclusion of their territories in the project. Local communities also denounce a lack of transparency, migrations forcées, loss of livestock, l’use of force, unequal distribution of income and nd intimidation of journalists..

These denunciations of human rights violations finally led to a landmark judgment on January 24, 2025. The court ordered the NRT's armed guards to leave two of the organization's largest conservatories, following a complaint filed in 2021 by 165 members of the affected communities. The decision was welcomed by human rights advocates, who have long argued for stronger protection of community land rights in conservation projects.

This documentary raises essential questions about environmental justice and corporate carbon-offset practices. The NRT project is not an isolated case: many programs claim to protect the environment while violating the rights of communities and generating profits. These abuses also call into question the responsibility of the companies that buy these carbon credits.