Carbon offsetting replaces Kenyan pastoralists’ land use

The report “Blood carbon: how a carbon offset scheme makes millions from indigenous land in northern Kenya” (2023, 70pp) by Simon Counsell and Survival International focuses on the 2 million ha Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project of the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT). The NRT calls it the world’s largest soil carbon removal project and the first one generating carbon credits that rely on modified grazing practices. It introduced “planned rotational grazing” meant to stimulate more vegetation growth and thus store more carbon than traditional grazing methods practised by the local Borana, Samburu and Rendille pastoralists. The project was registered by the carbon credit verifier Verra and has generated at least 6.7 million credits in the past ten years, 4.5 million of which have been purchased to offset carbon emissions. However, the report reveals that the project is putting pastoralist culture and food security at risk and raises serious concerns about the ethics and effectiveness of this scheme.

A further Web article by Survival International on carbon trading in Kenya can be found here: https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/13672 (30 March 2023).

See also the Web article: ‘Blood carbon’: how a Kenyan carbon offset project harms indigenous pastoralists and does nothing about climate by Olivia Rosane written for EcoWatch (12 April 2023).

The Elephant platform highlighted the story in the article “Anatomy of a multi-million dollar colonial carbon project in Kenya” (31 March 2023).

 

Posted on 23 April 2023 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure