A school built by Safbois company in Yafunga area, Isangi territory. Photo by Malenga Byobe, used with permission.
This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network. This article was first published on Africa Uncensored.
About 80 kilometers (49.71 miles) from the city of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) lies the Isangi territory. This remote territory can be accessed by a boat ride through the deepest river in the world, the River Congo, or by a four-hour motorbike ride through a dusty, winding trail. Isangi is among the seven territories of Tshopo Province, the largest province in the DRC by geographical area. Yafunga, a village in Isangi territory, is home to about 8,000 people who mostly rely on farming and fishing to make a living. There’s no road leading to the village, one clinic catering to all residents’ medical needs, and two schools. Yet Yafunga is among over 30 villages whose chiefs signed off their land rights to American investors who promised to provide schools, roads, and improved healthcare, among other things.
Since 2004, the people of Yafunga have been barred from their land as its ownership swapped from one foreign investment to another — first, in the form of a logging concession through the company Société Africaine de Bois (Safbois), then later into a carbon offsetting project managed by a company called Jadora. Gradually, ownership of both Safbois and Jadora was transferred to an influential family from the US that seemingly owned extensive assets in the DRC.
The carbon offsetting project is registered under the name “Isangi REDD+” on the Verra database. Verra is a US-based nonprofit organization that certifies carbon offsetting projects and authorizes the sale of the resulting carbon credits globally. One of the Isangi REDD+ project documents shows that Safbois has three shareholders: Daniel Blattner, David Blattner, and James Blattner, three American brothers. After nine months of analysing hundreds of documents, this investigation found at least 40 companies connected to the Blattner brothers, managing a myriad of activities in DRC, from mining, banking, logging, electricity distribution, construction, owning an airline, and more recently, carbon offsetting projects.
The Blattner brothers were repeatedly contacted to comment on the findings in this article, but did not respond.
This investigation followed activities surrounding the Isangi REDD+ project and its financiers, uncovering how the Blattner family benefited from a corporate game of musical chairs with the residents of Yafunga and at least 30 other villages in DRC’s Isangi territory, profiting through more than five companies that deal in carbon offsetting, all of which are registered at the same address in Florida, US, while simultaneously managing conservation and logging projects spanning over 565,000 hectares (1,396,145.41 acres), with little compensation to the Indigenous communities who were forced to relocate.
Verra certified Isangi REDD+ to sell carbon credits in September 2014, and the project went on to sell its first credits in May 2015. The Isangi REDD+ project sold more than 1.3 million carbon credits from 2015 to 2024. However, in January 2024, DRC’s Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development reviewed all 82 forest concessions in the country and terminated eight conservation concessions, including Isangi REDD+. The ministry said that Safbois failed to follow set procedures when converting the initial logging concession into a conservation concession and consequently ordered the company to return the project land to the state.
The Ministry of Environment’s January 2024 report records a total of 26 REDD+ projects in the DRC. Of the eight canceled REDD+ projects, three belong to the Blattnes — two Safbois concessions allocated to the Isangi REDD+ project, spanning 316,686 hectares (782,548.148 acres), and another concession, of 248,318 hectares (613,607.14 acres), owned by the Renewable Solution (RESO) company. According to the Florida Department of State corporate registry, Daniel and David Blattner own RESO. Although project documents submitted to Verra show that Brandon Blattner, Daniel Blattner’s son, is the company director at RESO.
The RESO project was terminated because the ministry did not receive required documents for its authorisation. All three projects make up 565,004 hectares(1,396,155.29 acres of Isangi territory. This is more than twice the size of Luxembourg.
Screenshot of Brandon Blattner’s Facebook profile showing that Daniel Blattner is his father. Fair use.
The Blattners are members of a wealthy American family that has amassed wealth from investing in different sectors in DRC since the 1980s. Some of their activities in DRC have warranted legal redress, like the arrest of David Blattner in 2020, as one of the directors of a construction company, Societe Africaine de Construction au Congo (Safricas). David was accused of embezzling public funds allocated to building flyovers, as contracted by the DRC government. According to a report by L’Intreview.cd, the Kinshasa-Gombe Court of Appeal sentenced David to 20 years of forced labor in February 2021 and ordered him to pay over USD 800,000 in restitution. It is unclear whether David actually served his sentence.
The budget for a REDD+ project in the DRC is about five million dollars, according to Carbon Market Watch. Many local investors lack the means to shoulder such projects, which opens the door for foreign investors like the Blattner family.
The Blattner business empire includes one of the DRC’s major airlines, Compagnie Africaine d’Aviation (CAA), whose shareholders are Daniel and David. The two also own the World Leasing Company, where they advertise their fleet of airplanes available for leasing. Perhaps the most famous Blattner, Elwyn, was featured in a 1989 New York Times article titled, “Getting Rich in Zaire: An American Tells How.” Elwyn, who was 33 at the time, was compared to now-US President Donald Trump, then a popular New York businessman. Elwyn was described as “young, wealthy, and seemingly buying everything in sight. An increasingly rare species in black Africa.”
According to the New York Times article, the rise of the Blattner family empire in the DRC began during notorious dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime. The family at the time owned land bigger than the size of Greece in the DRC, at over 15 million hectares (over 37 million acres). The Blattners have owned and run major businesses in DRC for almost fifty years, making it almost impossible to accurately quantify the size of their empire.
This investigation did not directly connect Elwyn Blattner to the Isangi and Tshopo Lomami REDD+ projects.
David, Daniel, and Brandon come up in connection with three companies in Pennsylvania and 12 companies in Florida in the US. Safricas and RESO are also among nine of the Blattners’ companies registered at the same address in Miami, at a posh apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, worth about USD 2.5 million. David Blattner is registered as the owner of the apartment.
Decades of exploitation
Photo of Yafunga village in DRC’s Isangi Territory. Photo by Malenga Byobe. Used with permission.
Emmanuel Litete is a dad of seven. The 42-year-old was born and raised in Yafunga village. His children are among the 104 kids who learn at the school built by Société Africaine de Bois (Safbois), from the proceeds of a logging-turned-carbon-offsetting project. On a Thursday afternoon, Litete sits by a fireplace outside his mud-brick house. A high school graduate, he now spends most of his time by the same fireside since he stopped farming years ago. His farmland is part of the Isangi REDD+ project, and now belongs to Daniel Blattner.
Litete Emmanuel, a resident of Yafunga in Isangi Territory. Photo by Malenga Byobe. Used with permission.
According to the Isangi REDD+ project document, Safbois entered into an agreement with Jadora, granting Jadora full control of the project area within its logging concession in September 2009. This effectively relinquished the land that was initially allocated for logging to one that conserves the forest to sell carbon credits. Logging activities in the area stopped in 2011, the project document states. Consequently, Verra approved the project to start selling carbon credits in September 2014. In May 2015, the project sold its first carbon credits. However, it was not until December 2019 that communities signed a contract consenting to their land being used for the Isangi REDD+ project.
Residents were told that their land would be managed differently, and to cement this, they needed to sign agreements that would effectively cede control of their land. Litete explains that they were told the commercial logging enterprise run by Safbois was transforming into a carbon offsetting project under Jadora.
We cannot do anything with the land since they came. When they came, they told us they were not exactly a company, but were just following Safbois.
According to Verra’s regulations, local communities must be informed about projects before implementation. It appears that Isangi REDD+ violated these guidelines, as well as DRC national laws, by waiting five years after the project began before informing residents. The project proponent created the Isangi REDD+ Facebook page in March 2019, where they began showcasing their Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) initiatives.
Screenshot from the Isangi REDD+ Facebook page. Fair use.
A copy of the 2019 contract, attached below, signed by Daniel Blattner and 39 chiefs representing different villages in Isangi territory shows that communities were promised 15 “modern school buildings,” 10 health centers, “traditional rights” (which residents clarified was payment of USD 300 per village per year), among other promises (See Article 9 on page 6 in the contract below). In exchange, Article 19 of the agreement (Page 5) states that the community would refrain from any activities on the land, including agricultural, pastoral, or logging.
Based on The Guardian’s 2007 report, Safbois did not build the promised three schools and hospitals, construct roads, or offer jobs as they promised the people of Yafunga in a September 2004 agreement for a logging concession. Today, residents point to the one dilapidated school as the only lasting benefit they got. Experts say that this reneging of responsibilities is not uncommon, and companies are known to either completely walk back their commitment to communities or offer very little, if anything. A logging company once gave a community bars of soap, packets of soup, bottles of beer, and bags of sugar as payment for their land concessions, according to a report from The Guardian.
Seven-classroom building constructed by Jadora in 2022. Photo by Malenga Byobe. Used with permission.
In January 2024, the DRC’s Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development ordered the termination of the Isangi REDD+ project for failing to follow procedure in converting a logging concession to a conservation concession. At this point, the Blattners had initiated a bigger REDD+ project in September 2020 called the Tshopo Lomami REDD+ project, which is strategically positioned at the border of Isangi REDD+. They also built seven more classrooms next to the dilapidated classrooms previously built under Safbois. This time with decent roofing and floors. Behind it is a plaque showing it was built by Jadora in February 2022.
Besides the classrooms, the only other benefit residents said they received from Safbois and Jadora between 2004 and 2024 was an annual USD 300 payment. However, according to the school headteacher, Michel Bolonga, the last time the community received this payment from Jadora was about seven years ago. Bolonga said:
They no longer honor what they had agreed to give to the community at the end of each year.
According to Verra’s registry, Isangi REDD+ sold over 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide. Going by the modal price of five dollars for a ton of CO₂ from DRC, the Blattners could have made at least seven million US dollars from this land.
Residents have already signed a contract for the Tshopo Lomami REDD+ project, which is still awaiting approval from Verra. This time, communities were promised 25 schools, ten health centers, 12 bridges, and a host of other promises.
At 446,080 hectares (1,102,287.69), the new Tshopo Lomami REDD+ project covers four territories — taking up part of Isangi territory, as well as Opala, Ikela, and Yohuma territories. Three of the four companies financing Tshopo Lomami REDD+ are managed by Daniel’s son, Brandon Blattner, according to the project document submitted to Verra: Renewable Solutions LTD (RESO), Green Initiatives LTD (GRIN), and Biodiversity Developments LTD. All three companies are registered at the same address in Florida, and their owners are listed as David Blattner and Daniel Blattner as per the Florida Department of State registry.
Vittoria Moretti, a Forest Campaigner at Rainforest Foundation UK, who has been following REDD+ projects in DRC’s voluntary carbon market, noted:
There are villages where communities cannot even cut a piece of wood to build doors for their houses because there’s a police system to control them and they could get arrested. Some cannot even build a coffin to bury their dead because of this strict control over their land. All for a couple of hospitals and schools? Is there no other way that can give the communities more control as well? This is one of the problems we have with how carbon credit is done here [in DRC]. What really remains to the communities is very little to say.
Community members say that the hope they once placed on development from Safbois, Jadora, and others’ investments has amounted to nothing. They are also not allowed to work the land that would otherwise sustain them. Litete asks: “We don’t dispute that the soil belongs to the state, but what about the people who have been keeping the forest? Don’t we have rights?”
