Forest protection in Kenya: Preserving biodiversity, protecting the climate

Kenya, Kasigau Wildlife Corridor

ClimatePartner ID: 1004

Project details

In the field

Project impact

Project facts

Quality criteria

Forest protectionGet to know the project

How do you actually conserve 200,000 hectares of forest? The forest in question is a section of dry forest and savanna in the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor, which connects the Tsavo East and Tsavo West Natural Parks in Kenya. It is home to endangered species such as lions, zebras and parrots as well as countless species of birds. Every day during their seasonal migration, 2,000 African elephants cross the area.

However, this forest area is facing massive deforestation and slash-and-burn practices. In order to protect the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor, more than 100 rangers who guard and defend the area have been trained among the local population. More income opportunities for the local population are required in order to stem the depletion of the natural environment. That's why the project creates jobs in factories and small businesses.

The project was chosen as the Best Offsetting Project in Environmental Finance's 8th voluntary carbon poll in 2017.

How does forest protection help fight global warming?

Forests are not only among the planet's most important carbon reservoirs. They also are home to an enormous diversity of species and are the livelihood for all people. However, global forest areas have declined sharply in recent decades due to increasing settlement, agricultural use, illegal logging and mining.

Forest protection projects ensure that forests are preserved in the long term and that the protection of forests is given a higher value than their deforestation. Together with the local population, project participants protect the area from negative influences. To allow for this the projects create alternative sources of income and educational opportunities. Depending on the project region, forests store varying amounts of carbon per hectare. Particularly high amounts of carbon are stored in the vegetation and soil of tropical swamp forests, primary rainforests, or mangroves. Forest protection projects in the ClimatePartner portfolio are registered with international standards.

The project aims to contribute to these United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project facts

Climate projects generally fall into one of three groups: carbon reduction, carbon removal, or carbon avoidance. Carbon reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a specific activity (e.g., improved cookstoves). Carbon removal projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it in carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation). Carbon avoidance projects avoid greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere (e.g., protecting forests from deforestation with REDD+ projects).

All climate projects are based on international standards. They set processes and requirements which carbon projects must fulfill to be recognised as a proven method of reducing carbon emissions.

Climate projects demonstrably reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved with various technologies, ranging from nature-based solutions to social impact projects and renewable energies.

Most standards on the voluntary carbon market list their projects in public registries. The registries are used to store project data and track issuances and retirements of verified emission reductions. The registry ID can be used to identify projects in the standard registry.

Check out this project

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Verification happens regularly after each monitoring period. A validation and verification body checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct and verifies them. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the process.

This figure shows the estimated annual emissions reductions calculated before the project started. Actual reductions in each monitoring period may differ. To be registered as a climate project, the project developer must submit the estimate using the ex-ante methodology in a Project Design Document (PDD), which is similar to a business plan, and an independent auditor validates it. In each monitoring period, the developer recalculates the figures based on the project’s actual performance and documents them in a monitoring report, which independent auditors then verify. VERs are only issued for reductions that have actually taken place.

* For certified projects only: the project-related information on this page is based on the documents in the register.

Explore our projects