Presentation short abstract

This paper explores the potential of a green extractivism lens to investigate the capitalist logic of carbon finance and its uneven geographies, trying to examine the dynamics of value extraction along the commodity chain and among the multiple actors involved in a carbon forestry project in Kenya.

Presentation long abstract

The voluntary carbon market (VCM), allowing the trading of emissions and offsets at national and international levels, is one of the most controversial key tools of climate finance. By translating greenhouse gas reductions/removals into compensation credits, these initiatives attribute a tradable economic value to nature, distributed along the carbon value chain between investors, project implementers and intermediaries.

This paper examines an Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) project in Kenya, around the Mount Elgon Forest ecosystem. Although presented as simple intervention and highly beneficial for local communities and territories, the project reveals a long value chain that connects the tree planted in Kenya by small farmers to the credit exchanged on international markets. The complex architecture lying behind includes a French investment fund, created by big companies such as Danone, Hermès and others, pre-funding the initiative; a Swedish NGO implementing the activities with other small Kenyan organizations; two certification bodies responsible for the credits (Verra and Gold Standard); and the local farmers and their lands, central to the project’s success.

Drawing on desk research of grey literature and project documents, the intention of this paper is to explore the process of value extraction, the unequal power relations and the multi-scalar dynamics behind the carbon commodity chain through the extractivism lens. An exploratory mission in Kenya is also planned for February 2026, to collect interviews with key actors and to orient future fieldwork. The aim is therefore to test its potential to highlight (neo)colonial power dynamics that connect local realities to global capital flows.