Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)

AWF is working with communities in Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prepare and launch Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) projects to encourage forest conservation, preserve and expand carbon stores, create new sources of revenue for communities through carbon trading, and alleviate the drivers of deforestation through the development of alternative livelihoods.

Leading the way are the residents of the Mbirikani Group Ranch in southern Kenya, with whom AWF has partnered on natural resources management since 2002. Situated strategically between Amboseli, Tsavo West, Chyulu Hills, and Mt. Kilimanjaro National Parks, the group ranch is an unfenced 321,000 acre parcel of land owned and managed communally by local Maasai. Mbirikani is part of a migratory corridor that connects Amboseli to Chyulu and hosts a wet season dispersal area for approximately 30,000 wild animals including the highly endangered black rhinoceros.

There are just over 15,000 people residing on Mbirikani, who keep tens of thousands of livestock; both people and livestock are under great stress due to prolonged drought. Forest degradation, overgrazing, lack of water resources, poorly planned development, sub-division of land, and habitat fragmentation has posed the greatest threats to Mbirikani’s local environment in recent years.

Mbirikani Group Ranch is remote, and its residents have few livelihood options. To generate support for forest conservation and to improve livelihoods, AWF and the Mbirikani community embarked on a carbon-offset project. During the past two years, AWF and Mbirikani residents have methodically undertaken activities to understand and measure carbon stocks and deforestation trends in preparation for pursuing REDD.

Working with climate science experts, Mbirikani’s elected Group Ranch Committee, and community members, AWF conducted a pre-feasibility baseline carbon study to identify, quantify, and examine drivers of degradation and deforestation. This study showed that on average 2.5-5% of Mbirikani’s forest is being lost annually, a rate higher than the national average. With less than 3% of Kenya under forest cover, this rate of deforestation is alarming. The forest loss in Mbirikani is driven by increasing population and settlement, which in turn leads to increased demand for local timber to satisfy needs for building materials, fuel and charcoal for cooking, and medicinal products. Besides household consumption, local timber is also harvested for sale outside of Mbirikani. In addition, trees are being cut for woodcarvings that supply tourism markets, and for rungus, a traditional Maasai weapon.

The study outlined approximately 50,000 contiguous acres of forest abutting Chyulu Hills to be targeted for a carbon offsets program. AWF has subsequently worked with Mbirikani to train over 100 community members in REDD readiness, and to undertake an integrated forest management and local economic development program to tackle the deforestation drivers. Leading strategies are the introduction of fuel-efficient jiko cookers, the development of woodlots that can be used in the future for sustainable wood production, sustainable charcoal production, and direct reforestation and tree planting efforts.

Presently, the project is working towards certification and marketing of the carbon derived from avoided deforestation by submitting the project design documents for independent audit and verification under the internationally recognized certification programs of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards (CCB) and Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).

Once certification is complete and the project has secured buyers, income generated from the sale of carbon will support forest conservation and annual project verification. The remainder will be paid directly to households of the Group Ranch, who in essence will function as corporate shareholders. The project is pursuing this benefit-sharing scheme in an effort to make sure benefits are felt directly by all parties who must assume an active role in preventing deforestation, including by foregoing their own consumptive uses of the forest.

The Mbirikani REDD project is poised to succeed in protecting approximately 50,000 acres of forest, curbing future greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and developing alternative energy and enterprise activities for forest-dependent communities.