Sherbro River Estuary Blue-Carbon Agreement — Carbon-Justice Mangrove Protection (Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leone's Sherbro River Estuary holds roughly half of the country's remaining mangrove forest, though deforestation there has run at about 1.7% a year since 2012. In October 2025, 124 communities across the estuary signed a 50-year benefit-sharing agreement with West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based project developer, covering protection of an estimated 79,000 hectares of mangroves.

Namati Sierra Leone, a US-based legal-empowerment NGO, spent roughly three years helping communities negotiate the deal using six 'carbon justice' principles drawn from a global network of grassroots organisations' past experience with carbon projects. A tripartite Community Benefit Organisation - three community, three company and three independent representatives - oversees fund management, and the project is certified to Verra's methodology using a conservative baseline.

The agreement has a potential lifetime impact of more than 3 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent. Communities are guaranteed 40-52.5% of gross carbon-credit revenue (varying by phase), with the Sierra Leone government receiving 7.5-15% and community payments disclosed within 45 days of any credit sale. More than 2,500 efficient cookstoves have already been distributed to reduce reliance on mangrove wood for fuel, with fish-drying ovens and processing equipment planned next.

Reporting on the deal is candid about the risks: Verra has previously faced scrutiny after research found some of its terrestrial forest-carbon projects delivered far fewer climate benefits than claimed, the buyer framework contains no explicit exclusion of fossil-fuel companies, and Sierra Leone's post-civil-war history of land grabs has left communities wary. No credits have yet been sold, and the project's real-world carbon and biodiversity outcomes remain to be independently verified.