Unlocking Local Value: Rethinking Benefit Sharing in African Carbon Projects

The report examines benefit-sharing mechanisms (BSMs) in African carbon projects, highlighting the need for transparency, fairness, and community agency to attract high-integrity investment. It categorizes projects by risk—identifying community land-based projects as the highest risk—and proposes five core principles for best-practice BSMs. The authors argue that current low carbon prices fail to cover the costs of robust community engagement and call for regulatory frameworks and commercial financing tailored to the African context.

• African countries have significant potential for high-impact carbon projects, yet their current market share in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is low; only 13% of credits issued by projects initiated between 2013 and 2023 were from Africa, and only 36% of those credits have been retired.
• Carbon projects are divided into four categories with varying risk levels for local communities: non-land/product-based (low risk), large-scale engineered (low to medium risk), individual or private land-based (medium risk), and community land-based (highest risk).
• There is a critical financial gap where current VCM prices do not cover the upfront costs and extended timelines required to implement high-integrity BSMs, often forcing the industry to rely on supplementary concessionary funding.
• Effective BSMs are hindered by a lack of transparency regarding project commercials, with developers often treating financial details as 'commercially sensitive' and using inconsistent terms like 'gross revenue' and 'net profit'.
• Regulatory approaches across Africa are fragmented and evolving; for example, Kenya has draft regulations mandating a minimum 40% share for communities in land-based projects, while Tanzania requires 70% of revenue to be shared with the government.
• To ensure fairness in community land-based projects, the report recommends the appointment of an independent community advocate at the developer's expense to provide legal and technical support during negotiations.
• The report suggests moving toward 'dynamic BSMs' that require terms to be reconsidered every five years or upon significant changes in circumstances, such as natural disasters or market shifts, to maintain community buy-in.

APA

Shah, K., Berman, A., Kimani, C., & Shamakamba, C. (2024). Unlocking Local Value: Rethinking Benefit Sharing in African Carbon Projects. FSD Africa. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CAP-A-Benefit-Sharing-Report-23.08.24_FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Shah, Keshinee, Ash Berman, Caroline Kimani, and Clinton Shamakamba. Unlocking Local Value: Rethinking Benefit Sharing in African Carbon Projects. FSD Africa, 2024. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CAP-A-Benefit-Sharing-Report-23.08.24_FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Shah |first1=Keshinee |last2=Berman |first2=Ash |last3=Kimani |first3=Caroline |last4=Shamakamba |first4=Clinton |title=Unlocking Local Value: Rethinking Benefit Sharing in African Carbon Projects |publisher=FSD Africa |date=August 2024 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CAP-A-Benefit-Sharing-Report-23.08.24_FINAL.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{shah2024unlocking, author = {Shah, Keshinee and Berman, Ash and Kimani, Caroline and Shamakamba, Clinton}, title = {{Unlocking Local Value: Rethinking Benefit Sharing in African Carbon Projects}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2024}, month = aug, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CAP-A-Benefit-Sharing-Report-23.08.24_FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }