Who Benefits from Tree-Planting in the Global South?: The Case of Two Carbon Offset Projects in Laos

To meet the global goals of climate change mitigation, planting trees has become a prominent, and ostensibly easy, approach. A recent report, however, estimates that the equivalent of half of today’s global croplands, 633 million hectares (ha) of land, are required to meet the projected biological carbon removal in national climate pledges and commitments that involve reforestation. In addition, private sector actors are increasingly using this option to offset their own or to sell carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market. This will require
acquisitions of large tracts of land for interventions that reduce carbon through tree planting – and with little available land in high-income countries, investors often turn to the Global South to address the increasing demand to offset carbon emissions. Still, most of this land is far from idle – as is often claimed to justify deals such as these – and the experiences during the global land rush in the last few decades showcase how land investments from actors in high-income countries often adversely affect local communities. So how can we ensure that we do not perpetuate the failings of the past when it comes to carbon offsetting?