Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project in southern Kenya

The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ (Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project is the first carbon offset project in Eastern Africa under the voluntary carbon market. A private company, Wildlife Works Ltd, has been implementing the project since 1998. Carbon credits started being sold from 2009. The area (covering 500,000 ha) with pri - vate and community land tenure is located in Taita and Taveta Counties in South Eastern Kenya. The Kasigau corridor is a very important wildlife hotspot since it links Tsavo East and West national parks, which are Kenya’s largest wildlife refuges. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project created an economic incentive for landowners and communities within the corridor to protect their forest. Wildlife Works supports land - owners and local communities to implement forest management plans that exclude the destructive use of forest resources. After a successful pilot Phase I (2008–2011), the project expanded considerably in 2010 from 30,000 ha in the Rukinga forest, to 170,000 ha of similar dryland forest, mainly owned by community ownership groups, or ‘group ranches’. Wildlife Works negotiated Carbon Rights Agreements/Easements with the neighbour - ing community landowners to execute the sale of carbon credits (at approx. US$9 per ton) under the voluntary carbon market. The carbon right belongs to the landowner but Wildlife Works manages them and sells carbon credits on behalf of the group ranches. The revenues are shared between 3 groups: • 1/3 for Wildlife Works to cover administrative costs, reimbursement for donors, verification fees, payments for rangers. • 1/3 for the shareholders of the land in cash as dividends (paid 4 times/year). 113 • 1/3 for the communities through budget allocation to community groups having income generating activities which they manage themselves

---

• View source