Deal #3214 Version #59369

Safbois has entered into a logging concession covering 348,000ha. Safbois has given Jadora full uncontested control of the total area in 2009 to establish a carbon-credit programme. Later on (around 2018?) the reported area for the REDD+ area was only reported to be 187,571ha. The remaining 146,268.5ha should thus have returned to the control of Safbois for logging activities. Safbois has also established an oil palm plantation within the concession area. The company might use the area no longer under REDD+ to expand the oil palm activities. This would be illegal, but has happened before in the DRC.

Safbois innitially gave Jadora full uncontested control of the concession in 2009, but later reduced this to only 187,751ha. The remaining 146,268.5ha return to the control of Safbois for logging activities. Safbois has also established an oil palm plantation within the concession area. Within the REDD+ area an agricultural programme will be rolled out for the communities within the concession with the aim to increase productivity through “no burn” techniques. "In 2009 Safbois put an end to its logging program, converting it to an ecosystems service concession – setting the stage for the Isangi REDD+ project." "In the case of Jadora/Safbois, the conversion from an exploitation to a conservation concession was strongly criticized by civil society and several non-governmental organizations. They contested the legality of the conversion and suspected it had been done to avoid the increasing scrutiny of and revolt against its illegal logging activities and the non-compliance with the social responsibility contract Safbois had with local communities. Some other critics claim that Safbois had been converted just because the company realized there were much less prime high value timber species than expected or that it had already harvested all of them, hence strongly decreasing the company’s revenues or even forcing its activities to stop."

Logging concession

The agreement between Safbois and Jadora for the REDD+ area was signed in 2009. Communities on the ground confirmed to a researcher, in 2016, that Safbois had totally stopped its logging activities

In 2016, when I did some field research in the Jadora area, the project was stalling. But then, in 2018, Blattner’s REDD+ ambitions came back. Daniel Blattner, wanted to boost Jadora project and pushed for a jurisdictional programme like the one in Maï Ndombe. They have started to sell their credits (e.g. to Delta Airlines: https://news.delta.com/delta-offsets-carbon-emissions-100000-customers-tuesday )