Families in Republic of Congo dispossessed of their land to make way for oil giant Total’s offsetting project

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plantaciones total

An investigation by SourceMaterial and Unearthed exposed some of the impacts of a major tree-planting carbon offsetting project in the Republic of Congo from oil giant TotalEnergies, which was announced at the end of 2021. To gain access to the land, Total partnered with Forest Neutral Congo (FNC) to plant trees in the Lefini reserve, part of the Batéké Plateaux. FNC, which has leased the land from the Congolese government, is a subsidiary of Forêt Ressources Management (FRM), a French consultancy firm. But the project has come at a cost for families on the Batéké plateaux who have lived off of this land for generations. Read the full report in English here.