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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Patrick Greenfield

The new ‘scramble for Africa’: how a UAE sheikh quietly made carbon deals for forests bigger than UK

Forest-covered hills in Liberia, with tall palm trees.
Forests in Liberia … it has struck a deal covering 10% of its land. Photograph: John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images

The rights over vast tracts of African forest are being sold off in a series of huge carbon offsetting deals that cover an area of land larger than the UK. The deals, made by a little-known member of Dubai’s ruling royal family, encompass up to 20% of the countries concerned – and have raised concerns about a new “scramble for Africa” and the continent’s carbon resources.

Such deals can deny the rights of people living on the land to make use of it for their own purposes while providing unclear benefits to the environment

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