8 July 2025 – For immediate release
The Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) is calling out Volkswagen for its role in a controversial carbon offset project that threatens the land, livelihoods, and rights of Maasai pastoralist communities in Northern Tanzania. Volkswagen is the primary investor in the Longido and Monduli Rangelands Carbon Project, a soil carbon credit scheme managed by Soils for the Future Tanzania (SftFTZ).
Despite detailed evidence of human rights violations and environmental risks presented in MISA’s March 2025 report, Volkswagen has failed to halt its involvement. The project, which locks communities into 40-year contracts, is based on unproven and scientifically questionable soil carbon methods. It restricts pastoral mobility and imposes external grazing regimes on Indigenous lands without securing genuine, free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).
“This project threatens the survival of our communities and our centuries-old traditions of land stewardship,” said a MISA spokesperson. “We will not be managed by a corporation from the Global North, especially in the midst of increasing repression by the Tanzanian government.”
MISA demands that Volkswagen:
- Respect the five-year moratorium on all soil carbon projects in pastoralist rangelands of Northern Tanzania.
- Immediately withdraw its funding from the Longido and Monduli project.
- Publicly disassociate from SftFTZ, its controversial on-the-ground partner.
The moratorium is a necessary pause to ensure proper regulatory protections are in place and that the rights of all affected Maasai communities are upheld. Instead, Volkswagen is rushing to greenwash its climate record while trampling on Indigenous rights.
MISA has published a detailed counter-statement responding point-by-point to Volkswagen ClimatePartner’s misleading public claims. The document highlights the lack of transparency, consent, scientific validity, and fair benefit-sharing in the project’s design and implementation.
ENDS
For interviews or more information, please contact:
maasaiinternationalsolidaritya@gmail.com
Notes to editors:
- MISA’s response to Volkswagen’s arguments is available here
- MISA published its research report on the situation: “Soil Carbon Credits: Another Wave of Land Alienation in Northern Tanzania?” (MISA, March 2025)
- Freedom House has downgraded Tanzania to “Not Free,” citing altered voter registrations of Maasai citizens as part of a repressive campaign to expel their communities from a planned game reserve. (Freedom House, 2025)
