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Soil Carbon Credits – CIDSE
Policy paper

Soil Carbon Credits

Another Wave of Land Alienation in Northern Tanzania?

A research report by the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA), March 2025.

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The Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) conducted an in-depth investigation into the emerging soil carbon credit schemes in Northern Tanzania, highlighting their potential for land alienation and adverse impacts on Maasai pastoralist communities. The report critically examines two major soil carbon projects — The Longido and Monduli Rangelands Carbon Project (LMRCP) by Soils for the Future Tanzania Ltd (SftFTZ) funded by Volkswagen ClimatePartners and The Resilient Tarangire Ecosystem Project (RTEP) by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) – targeting Longido, Monduli, and Simanjiro districts.



Key Findings:

  1. Lack of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC): The FPIC process is deeply flawed, with limited community participation, exclusion of women and youth, and non-transparent agreements. Community members often lack basic knowledge of carbon markets, contract terms, and their implications.
  2. Disruption to Pastoralism and Mobility: Carbon projects introduce rotational grazing practices that will restrict traditional Maasai grazing patterns, undermining pastoral mobility — a cornerstone of Maasai culture and rangeland sustainability. These changes risk compromising food security and adaptive strategies against climate change.
  3. Regulatory Gaps and Corruption: Tanzania’s carbon trading regulations lack provisions to adequately protect our human rights as Indigenous Peoples in soil carbon projects. The absence of a binding and clear legal framework has led to community misinformation, corruption (e.g., pre-payments or “dowry money”), and legal ambiguities, especially regardingcontract termination and benefit-sharing mechanisms.
  4. Regulatory Gaps and Corruption: Tanzania’s carbon trading regulations lack provisions to adequately protect our human rights as Indigenous Peoples in soil carbon projects. The absence of a binding and clear legal framework has led to community misinformation, corruption (e.g., pre-payments or “dowry money”), and legal ambiguities, especially regarding contract termination and benefit-sharing mechanisms.
  5. Community Concerns: Maasai communities are under strong pressure to enter into deals, because the two competing carbon project proponents are racing to submit their respective projects to validation by international standards. For this, they must sign with a minimum number villages, complete their project document and show evidence of consent. Communities fear long-term land use restrictions, loss of communal grazing areas, intra- and inter-community conflicts, and cultural erosion. The prospect of 40-year carbon contracts has raised alarms about locking future generations into potentially harmful agreements.
  6. Land Alienation Threats: Soil carbon projects risk repeating historical patterns of land dispossession for the Maasai, with community land being controlled by foreign investors and grazing areas being privatized for false climate solutions.


For more information:
Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA), maasaiinternationalsolidaritya(at)gmail.com

Additional Resources:
– “Tanzania: Carbon Projects Development Undermines Maasai Human Rights“, CIDSE press release, 11 March 2025.

Cover photo credit: PWC.

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