KAJIADO RANGELANDS CARBON PROJECT
CarbonSolve has launched a 1.5 million hectare soil carbon project in the Kajiado District of Kenya’s southern rangelands region. The goal of CarbonSolve’s Kenya investment in the Kajiado District is to advance rangeland carbon projects and create a sustainable financing mechanism that will support decades of rangeland restoration efforts for priority project areas.
The Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project (KRCP) is operated and managed by a for-profit company – Soils for the Future Africa (SftFA)– based in Kenya and headquartered in the project area. This project is supported by CarbonSolve, a US-based Carbon Project Developer that includes Mark Ritchie as a co-owner, and builds from the financial and administrative systems of the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), a 501c(3) non-profit conservation organization based in the U.S. In this way, CarbonSolve will help develop the capacity of for-profit companies in Africa to meet the highest Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.
Learn more at https://www.soilsforthefutureafrica.co.ke/
THE PROCESS
This video, of the document signing at the Olkirimatian Annual General Meeting, showcases the transparent and public approach taken by SftFA when collaborating with local communities to discuss joining the carbon project in Kajiado County. For the large communities that have been formed around Group Ranches, Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are the forum for finalizing the communities’ agreements to join the KRCP. This involves the formal signing of two important legal agreements. The first is the transfer of carbon rights from the community to SftFA, allowing them to develop and sell carbon credits on behalf of the community. The second is a benefit-sharing agreement, outlining how the financial benefits from the carbon project will be distributed to the community over time.
Prior to selling carbon credits, SftFA agrees to pay communities $2 per hectare of grazing land. This payment is meant to cover the costs the communities face in joining the carbon project, including the time and effort spent preparing a list of community priorities that the funds will support. Later, the communities will take on the responsibility of managing and reporting how these funds were spent.
