Violates the rights and threatens to destroy their means of subsistence: to the Masai of Tanzania the idea that Volkswagen carries on a program of compensation of carbon emissions Obviously on their lands you don’t like it. A 1 million hectare project that involves the crumble of traditional and consolidated grazing practices of the Masai, which would thus be forced to move on to “rapid rotation grazing”, which reduces flexibility and causes difficulties, in particular during dry seasons.
Reason why the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (Misa) denounced the “Loss of control or use“By Pascoli Vitali for the Masai and accused the car manufacturer of having done”False and misleading statements“On the participation of the Masai in the decision -making process relating to the project.
The reality is that many Masai shepherds have already been evicted by large portions of their pastures to make room for national parks and hunting reserves where tourist activities take place. Now, a new, large project of generation of carbon credits, promoted by Volkswagen ClimatePartner (VWCP) and Sails for the Future Tanzania (an American company that deals with the compensation of carbon emissions), is taking control of most of the remaining lands, threatening the means of subsistence of the Masai and upsetting their practices.
The Masai have not given their free consent, prior and informed of the project, which fear will limit their access to fundamental areas in periods of drought and will endanger their food safety.
Our livestock will be exhausted. We will end up not even having a cow – Ngisha Sinyok, member of the Masai community of Eluai, says alarmed, who is fighting to prevent the project from being carried out. Questioned on the involvement of Volkswagen in the program, Ngisha Sinyok replied: “It is not a solution to climate change. It is just a way to make money using the environment. It has nothing to do with climate change.
According to Fiona Watson, director of the Research and Advocacy Department of Survival International, the carbon project supported by Volkswagen violates the rights of the Masai and will have a disastrous impact on their lives and will allow the company to continue polluting while cleaning its image. The project takes away from the Masai the control of their lands and is based on the false colonial assumption that the Masai are ‘destroying’ them: a prerequisite not supported by tests. The Masai graze cattle in the plains of Eastern Africa from time immemorial. They know the earth and know how to manage it better than those who develop carbon projects trying to obtain millions of them. “
Volkswagen’s investment is believed to be in the project, whose official name is “Longido and Mondoli Rangelands Carbon Project”, amount to several million dollars and has contributed to the corruption and tensions that rage in northern Tanzania, according to the report laid out by Misa on the project.
In southern Kenya, an adjacent project, also managed by Sails for the Future, is marked by similar problems and has already raised the resistance of local communities.
The bloody carbon relationship of Survival International has revealed that the entire basis of these projects for “carbon storage on the ground“It is spoiled and not supported by tests.
At the basis of everything there is, in reality, only the intention of making profit, through fakely green programs.
