Kenya’s latest national climate plan reflects its ambitions to raise millions of dollars in climate finance by tapping into the voluntary carbon market, even as two of its biggest offsetting projects face scrutiny over tensions with local Indigenous communities.
Verra, the main global certifier of carbon credits, this week suspended the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP) for the second time for a review following a ruling by a Kenyan court earlier this year.
In a case brought by 165 community members, the court decided in January that two of the conservancies established by the project’s manager, Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), had been set up unconstitutionally, according to Survival International, a charity that works to protect tribal peoples.
The case followed a 2023 report by the human rights group, which found flaws in the process for obtaining consent from participating communities and breaches of the Community Land Act. It also questioned the project’s carbon storage calculations, saying they were based on monitoring information that was “unfit for the purpose”.
That prompted Verra’s first suspension of the project, which was lifted eight months later following a review that identified areas in need of improvement but not more serious failings.
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NRT, which announced leadership changes this week, said the new review “reflects due diligence following (the) recent court ruling that raised broader questions about land governance in Kenya”.
“The review does not stem from new concerns about the project’s methodology or technical foundations. The project remains fully compliant with the requirements of the Verified Carbon Standard,” Communications Director Moses Wakhisi added in an emailed statement.
Kajiado County protest
Verra’s latest move on Tuesday came weeks after protests by villagers opposed to another soil carbon project on Indigenous-owned grazing land in the East African country, which is still awaiting certification.
Stretching across swathes of grazing land in southern Kenya, the Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project (KRCP) is billed by its developers as a way to remove millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere and protect its inhabitants, and biodiversity, for decades to come.
In Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, such projects are an “immense opportunity” that can provide a critical source of much-needed climate finance, according to the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), a UN-backed initiative launched at COP27.
But just as the government’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) plan was being submitted to the United Nations climate body on April 30, a protest by some villagers from the Oldonyo-Nyokie Group Ranch in Kajiado County, home to the pastoralist Maasai people, spotlighted tensions within local communities over the leasing of ancestral lands for carbon-offsetting initiatives.
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The opposition of dozens of community members, who shouted “No carbon” and waved sticks during the meeting, prevented the signing of a 40-year lease on some 68,000 hectares (168,000 acres) of land as part of the much larger KRCP, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported.
Locals opposed to the initiative said the Kenya-based company that is leading it, Soils for the Future Africa (SftFA), had not followed the right process of obtaining consent from community members and accused it of getting some signatures under false pretences.
Herders who support it say better pasture management would help them deal with climate change impacts, and give them an additional income source.
SftFA did not respond to requests for comment. A company official has previously blamed a “misinformation campaign” for linking existing land tensions in the community to the project.
Sustainable development?
Kenya has been hard hit by climate-related losses in recent years, with floods and droughts in particular taking a heavy toll on the livelihoods.
It is targeting international funds, including from the voluntary carbon market, for about 80% of the cost of the climate change policies outlined in its NDC, which include cutting emissions by 35% and reaching 100% renewable energy generation by 2035.
President William Ruto has called carbon credits his country’s “next significant export” and said a new legal framework for engagement in the voluntary carbon market will mean host communities will see at least 40% of the proceeds.
But across the continent, questions about the credibility of carbon credit projects pose a threat to their development, according to the ACMI.
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On top of the unease among some Indigenous communities, carbon offsetting has faced mounting scepticism around the world. Critics say the approach fails to deliver real-world emissions reductions, and gives polluters a licence to continue burning fossil fuels, while “greenwashing” the damage they cause.
They also point to the global inequalities perpetuated by the system – with big global companies based in the Global North buying offsets from projects in the Global South that often fail to benefit local communities.
Soil project’s US backers
According to a KRCP document seen by Climate Home, the 1.5-million hectare (3.7-million acre) soil carbon initiative in Kajiado is expected to store more than 48 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over the project’s 40-year lifetime, and will generate carbon credits for Climate Asset Management (CAM), a UK-based joint venture of HSBC Asset Management and Pollination.
It is supported by CarbonSolve, a US-based carbon project developer and Biodiversity Research Institute, a US non-profit.
Under the rotational grazing practice it promotes, herders are not allowed to graze more than once on one location during the wet or dry season. Locally hired grazing coordinators from the participating communities will be recruited to ensure compliance.
The aim of this process is to ensure that some areas are left fallow for one year to allow recovery from past grazing, or to serve as grass banks during the dry season or droughts.
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Kenyan land rights activist Leonida Odongo said poor communication with local people was often an issue, with communities whose land is being leased for the initiatives sometimes unaware of exactly how they will be affected.
“Communities sign documents they don’t understand … and locals don’t get the chance to interrogate the potential impacts into the future,” she told Climate Home, adding that project backers sometimes gloss over the changes that pastoralists, for example, are required to make.
As Kenya looks to ramp up investment in offsetting projects, Mohamed Adow, founder of Kenya-based think-tank Power Shift Africa, said measures to protect local people’s rights are vital.
“It must protect community rights, prevent exploitation of land and prioritise environmental integrity and accountability,” he said.
