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Climate Governance Integrity Programme

Climate & Corruption Case Atlas - Climate Governance Integrity Programme

  • Kenya

Marginalised Communities in Northern Kenya kept in dark about a key Carbon Offsetting Project

Corruption Type

Abuse of Free Prior Informed Consent, Conflict of Interest

A report by Survival International alleges that a carbon-offsetting project encompassing some two million hectares of land managed by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) — a community-led non-governmental organisation in Kenya-- violated the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of the communities living in the area. The report claims that the NRT failed to properly inform communities about the project or follow adequate processes to ensure community consent. NRT has the findings, claiming that the local communities had been informed and the project enjoyed "widespread community support". Verra, a US-based carbon certifier removed an 8-month suspension period. Nonetheless, the review calls attention to inadequate consultations with the locals and unclear procedures to address grievances. One NGO speaking to Quantum Commodity Intelligence has questioned the effectiveness of the review conducted by Verra and claims that it has not addressed the core concerns raised by Survival International.

There were also allegations that conflicts of interest have blurred the separation of responsibility between the government and the NRT as people holding leadership positions at NRT were appointed to decision-making bodies in Kenya’s environmental agencies.

The project, which started in January 2013, sought to replace 'unplanned' grazing with 'planned rotational grazing' to allow vegetation in the area to regrow. This, in turn, would result in greater storage of carbon in the conservancies’ soils. The project planned to generate around 1.5 million tonnes of extra carbon 'storage' per year, producing around 41 million net tonnes of carbon credits for sale over a 30-year project period. In its first crediting period between 2013-2016, it generated 3.2 million carbon credits, all of which were sold by 2022. A second batch of credits, for 2017-2020, was claimed by the project in April 2022.

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