Dar es Salaam – State Minister in the Vice President’s Office for Union and Environment Hamad Masauni has rejected an allegation that the government has handed forests to Saudi or Omani companies for carbon-credit trading, calling it false and pledging to leave public office if it is proved.
Masauni was responding on October 11 to a claim attributed to CHADEMA Deputy Chairperson John Heche that forests had been given to the two Gulf states, which were collecting the proceeds.
Speaking during a visit to inspect environmental conditions in Dar es Salaam, Masauni said: “If he can substantiate what he said, I will quit being a minister, quit Parliament and leave Chama Cha Mapinduzi.”
The minister said carbon trading was not confined to forests or the transfer of title to land. He cited opportunities in clean energy, waste, agriculture, mining and forestry, and said the government had created an institution to regulate the sector.
A carbon credit is a tradable unit representing a verified reduction, avoidance or removal of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. In practice, a project developer may sell credits to companies seeking to compensate for emissions they have not yet eliminated, while the underlying land remains subject to Tanzania’s land and environmental laws.
The 2022 Carbon Trading Regulations and national guidelines established the basic framework for project registration, approval, monitoring and benefit sharing. In 2025, Parliament gave the National Carbon Monitoring Centre a statutory mandate to register projects, verify and certify credits, manage transactions and promote international cooperation.
The market extends beyond forests. The guidelines cover clean energy, waste, agriculture, industrial processes, forests and blue-carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, while requiring non-community projects to explain how local communities will participate and benefit.
NCMC requires developers to establish land rights or community agreements, register their project, select a standard and complete baseline, monitoring and verification processes before selling credits.
Masauni said in August that 117 projects had been registered by July, and announced four approved projects led by Burn Manufacturing, AP Energy Group with Sayari SA, Water Mission International Tanzania and Bridge Carbon Tanzania.
The centre currently lists nine ongoing projects and 1.117 million credits issued, suggesting that the larger government figure includes projects at different registration or assessment stages.
READ MORE: Carbon Credits Trading: A New Form of Africa’s Colonialism?
Carbon Tanzania, a nature-based credit developer, and the Tanzania National Parks Authority are among the better-known players through a six-national-park project announced in 2023.
Internationally, Tanzania also signed a June 2026 memorandum with Singapore on possible Article 6 cooperation under the Paris Agreement.
The Chanzo could not identify a Saudi or Omani project that owns Tanzanian forests or receives national carbon revenues. The more direct Gulf connection, however, is a preliminary 2023 agreement with UAE-based Blue Carbon, reported as covering about eight million hectares of forest reserves.
Saudi Arabia is also a significant regional buyer and marketplace builder. Its sovereign wealth fund and Saudi Tadawul formed the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company, which auctioned more than 2.2 million credits in Nairobi in 2023, most originating in the Middle East and Africa.
The sector’s rapid growth has also prompted scrutiny. Then-Vice President Philip Mpango said in 2025 that limited public understanding and the dominance of a small number of brokers were barriers.
At the same time, Maasai representatives and advocacy groups have raised concerns about consent, benefit sharing and grazing restrictions in proposed northern soil-carbon projects.
