Maasai herder with his cattle, Kenya © Beckwith & Fisher

Dear Jack,

Your involvement in our recent campaigns has had such a huge impact that we wanted to update you straight away.

In March we launched our “Blood Carbon” report, exposing how Indigenous people’s land in northern Kenya was being used to generate carbon credits and massive profits – and doing so without the people’s informed consent, while blaming them for supposed environmental harm.

More than 7,000 of you have taken part in the campaign so far. Verra – the company that “certifies” carbon credit projects – has been bombarded with emails, as has the French government agency AFD, which backs the project.

In fact AFD got so many emails from you that they complained that their inbox was overloaded! 

Your campaign has had other impacts too:

- The CEO of Verra has resigned after widespread criticism 
- Verra has stopped selling carbon credits from the project and started a review
- The Kenyan authorities have reportedly sent a team to the project area to investigate, and are looking at regulating the whole carbon credits system in Kenya.
- Several Indigenous pastoralist communities in the area have spoken out against the project – an incredibly brave move, given that many community members have been arrested, assaulted or intimidated.

Six thousand miles away, on the Indonesian island of Halmahera, another Indigenous people have also become the victims of a false solution to climate change – the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people, whose lush rainforests are being mined for nickel.

The nickel is destined for electric car batteries. French mining company Eramet is making enormous profits from digging up the Hongana Manyawa’s land and selling the nickel, even though it risks wiping out hundreds of uncontacted people. Despite this, German chemical giant BASF is looking to invest in the project, while Tesla is investing $5bn in nickel mining in Indonesia.

You’ve sent thousands of emails  – 10,000 and counting. Eramet and BASF were so concerned they asked to meet us: we told them that they have no right to be mining uncontacted Indigenous people’s land, and must stop immediately. 

And in Germany, where BASF is headquartered, Survival spoke out about the issue in front of 5,000 shareholders at their AGM. A group of German MPs has written to the company to warn them that mining without consent, which is clearly impossible to obtain where the people are uncontacted, is a violation of German, and international, law.

We’ll keep you updated as things develop in these and our other campaigns. In the meantime, once again, thank you for taking action – it really does make a difference.

Best wishes,

Caroline Pearce
Director