Kinshasa, October 14, 2025 — The SILIKIN Village hall buzzed with an unprecedented debate on the future of the carbon market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Researchers, diplomats, government representatives, activists, and journalists gathered for the official presentation of the report “The Green Rush”, the result of two years of investigation conducted by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and its Congolese partner, Action for the Protection of Threatened Peoples and Species (APEM).
It was an intense morning, punctuated by emotional moments, passionate speeches, and a shared realization: behind the green promise of carbon lie real risks for forests and their inhabitants.
By 9:30 a.m., the large hall of SILIKIN Village was filled with a diverse audience of climate experts, ministry officials, civil society members, and forest communities ready to testify. The atmosphere was at once studious and tense, as if awaiting a revelation. The topic at hand, the voluntary carbon market (VCM), generates as much hope as controversy. The organizers opened by recalling the context: the DRC, which houses 60% of the Congo Basin and the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, is considered a “solution country” in the fight against climate change. Yet carbon offset projects are proliferating at an alarming pace, often without genuine consultation of local communities.
The event began with the screening of the documentary “The Green Rush”, a 30-minute film shot across several forest provinces. From the first images, the audience held its breath. On screen, grand landscapes, weathered faces, and poignant testimonies from communities dispossessed in the name of carbon.
“We were promised protection and development, but no one came to explain what we were signing,” says a woman in the film, drawing murmurs of compassion from the audience.
The screening revealed a brutal reality: carbon, intended to save forests, can also become a tool of exploitation, deepening inequalities and erasing customary rights.
Could the carbon market be nothing more than a green mirage? A carefully packaged illusion under the label of a “climate solution,” but on the ground in the DRC, it translates into land grabbing, opaque contracts, and betrayed communities. This is the shock revealed by the RFUK and APEM report, after two years of participatory action research across four provinces: Équateur, Tshopo, Mai-Ndombe, and Nord-Ubangi. The report dismantles the myth of a fair carbon market and calls for a suspension of carbon projects until a legal framework that is transparent and respectful of human rights is established.
The figures hit like a slap: 71 carbon and REDD+ projects recorded as of July 2025, up from 65 in 2024, covering more than 103 million hectares — almost the entire forest area of the DRC. These concessions are sometimes signed for 25 to 100 years, often without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of communities. Localities such as Lokolama, Penzélé, Banalia, Bafwasende, Bikoro, and Basankusu have become the stage for a new form of green colonization.
“People are still living in precarious conditions. A year after our first visit to Bikoro, the carbon promoters never returned,” laments RFUK researcher and campaign lead Vittoria Moretti, the report’s principal author.
“What is called the carbon market here is in reality a land rush in disguise,” explains Maître Willy Elua, representing APEM. The study documents over 65 forest offset projects in the country, of which only 15 are nationally validated and barely three truly certified: REDD+ Mai-Ndombe, managed by Wildlife Works Carbon (WWC) and certified by WERA; EkoMakala, certified by Gold Standard; and the now-defunct Isangi REDD+ project, currently suspended.
But behind these labels, the reality is grim. Companies such as WWC, KMS, Green Biodev, Watico, and Socodev are cited for opaque and illegal practices: contracts signed without translation, unmet financial promises, and concessions awarded in blatant violation of the Congolese Forest Code. “Logging companies like SAF Bois or TradeLink simply rebranded as ‘conservation operators’ without changing their destructive practices,” the report notes.
In the surveyed villages, anger simmers. “We were told carbon would build schools, roads, hospitals. Nothing has changed. We signed without understanding. Today, our lands are lost.” This testimony from Tshopo illustrates the silent tragedy experienced by millions of Congolese who depend on the forest for survival. Consequences are severe: interethnic land conflicts, human rights violations, loss of access to ancestral lands, and worsening poverty. In Opala, Tshopo, cases of violence related to the Green Biodiversity project were documented: “peaceful protesters beaten and arrested,” the report states.
In response to this green chaos, the research calls for freezing all new carbon projects until Congolese legislation guarantees transparency and community rights. Recommendations are clear: immediately publish the national carbon registry (now online but still incomplete), revoke illegal contracts, revise benefit-sharing agreements, ensure strict FPIC compliance in all projects, and suspend projects that fail to meet social and environmental safeguards.
Following the screening of the research documentary produced by consultant Franck Zongwe of KilaloPress, the debate opened frankly. Around the table, climate experts, forest community representatives, funders, and journalists exchanged views in a constructive yet tense atmosphere. José Tout Va Bien, chief of Penzélé village, visibly moved, spoke:
“We hear about millions of dollars from carbon, but in our villages, we see neither schools nor health centers. Where is all this money going? The forests of the DRC breathe and live thanks to us, their silent guardians. We, the forest peoples of Équateur, walk daily among the century-old trees, watching over them with hope and patience, while the world applauds a carbon market that has never truly touched us.”
This statement echoed the report’s central message: the carbon market must not come at the expense of local populations.
In a moment charged with emotion, one participant stood and declared with gravitas:
“I am proud to be here for the launch of this research on the carbon market. But you must know: we risked our lives defending our rights during consultations. Beatings, injuries, arbitrary imprisonment… nothing silenced us. They speak of millions of dollars from carbon, yet in our villages, schools remain closed, clinics are non-existent, and our forest is all we have left. It is our breath, our memory, our past and future. As long as we live, we will protect it, no matter the indifference and injustice.”
This voice from Tshopo resonated through the hall, reminding everyone of both the fragility and strength of forest communities.
Vittoria Moretti emphasized that “this market creates social fractures” and that “projects are often run by actors without experience and without real benefit to the populations.” She advocates for alternative models, such as community forestry or direct payments for environmental services — “non-market solutions where communities become the true guardians of the forest.”
Maître Willy Elua of APEM added: “We have exposed the hidden truths of a market presented as virtuous. The carbon market has become an instrument of modern predation. But the DRC must be a climate solution with appropriate and ethical tools.”
In closing, Guy Nsimba, Director of the Congolese Carbon Market Regulatory Authority (ARMCA), the public institution tasked with regulating, organizing, and controlling the purchase, sale, and resale of carbon credits to value the DRC’s environmental efforts, particularly in forest preservation and climate regulation, praised the quality of the work:
“We thank RFUK and APEM for the transparency with which this report and film document the realities on the ground. The national registry has just been made available online. It is a first step, but full transparency is essential to restore trust.”
She added that this type of audiovisual production “helps raise awareness among the public and decision-makers by translating technical data into human stories, which is crucial for understanding the real stakes of carbon governance in the DRC.” The full report is available in English and French, accompanied by a documentary featuring testimonies from affected communities.
Finally, the sustained applause marked the end of a day filled with truth and commitment. In the corridors and over coffee, discussions continued, animated, passionate, and hopeful. Between the scientific rigor of the report, the palpable emotion of the film, and the frankness of the exchanges, Kinshasa witnessed a rare moment of collective awareness. Behind the impressive figures of the carbon market, one message stands out: the DRC should not only be the lungs of the world, but also the beating heart of a fair climate transition, respectful of communities and forests, where justice and protection go hand in hand.
By KilaloPress