I’ve been working on a story about mangroves, carbon credits and Indigenous stewardship for nearly a month, and I’m still not ready to publish it.
So this episode is a bit different. I’m taking you behind the scenes of the reporting and talking through what I’ve found so far, what I got wrong along the way, and the questions I’m still trying to answer.
It starts with a mangrove forest in northern Australia that has been cared for by Yirrganydji people for generations, and a surprisingly difficult question: if people have already done a brilliant job protecting somewhere, should carbon markets pay them to keep doing it?
From there I ended up trying to understand additionality, who actually controls blue carbon projects, how companies choose which carbon credits to buy, and where the money really goes.
I thought I understood the story when I started. I don’t anymore.
I’ve now got questions sitting with Verra and Evolution Markets, and I’m waiting for their answers before I write the full investigation.
For now, this is where the reporting has taken me.
