ORF documentary visits the Northern Rangelands Trust project in Kenya: “We have not seen any money from CO₂ funds”

“Obviously the money from the carbon credits was misappropriated.”

Recently Austrian TV programme ORF travelled to Kenya to investigate the Northern Rangelands Trust project. The documentary team also visited two REDD projects in Indonesia, the Rimba Raya REDD project and the Katingan REDD project, as well as a cookstove project in Nairobi.

Previous posts on REDD-Monitor look how ORF reports on the Rimba Raya and Katingan REDD projects. This post focuses on the Northern Rangelands Trust project, the full name of which is the Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project.

The project is vast, covering a total of more than 2 million hectares. More than 100,000 people live in the project area.

Netflix and Meta are among the companies that have bought carbon credits from the Northern Rangelands Trust project. In March 2023, Survival International published a report that exposed serious problems with the project.

As a result, Verra put the project on hold. By November 2023, Verra had completed its “review” and the project was allowed to sell carbon credits again. Survival International described the review as a “shocking whitewash”.

Verra, Netflix, and Meta did not respond to ORF’s questions.

“An unparalleled economic gold mine”

ORF’s journalist Isabella Purkart travelled to Kenya to investigate how the project is working on the ground.

While she was in Kenya, Purkart saw the floods in Kenya that came after months of drought. The impacts of the climate crisis are particularly severe in Africa. But little financial support has come from rich countries.

In his speech at the 2023 Africa Climate Summit, Kenya’s President William Ruto saw carbon trading as a possible way of raising climate finance for Africa:

“The restoration and expansion of Africa’s natural carbon sinks are not just an environmental imperative, in fact they are an unparalleled economic gold mine.”

Purkart travels to the north of Kenya. The increasing dry periods are making traditional cattle farming more difficult. Some herders are forced to look for alternatives, such as camels which are more resistant to drought. But they don’t want to completely do without cattle. For centuries, nomadic communities have developed grazing practices that are adapted to the climatic conditions.

In the rain season, farmers move their cattle to the north. During the dry season they move to another area. Umar Abduba, a cattle farmer, tells ORF that, “Our ancestors introduced this system. It is an old tradition.”

Overgrazed?

But the Northern Rangelands Trust argues that many herders have changed their grazing practices in recent years and become sedentary. The land is over-grazed, they say. If the animals were to graze as before, millions of tonnes of carbon could be stored.

Purkart speaks to a goat herder called Stephen Esekon who explains that, “The goats allow us to send our children to school. We pay for everything we need with the money from keeping them. They are our only source of income.”

The project description document for the Northern Rangelands Trust project states that by grazing his goats according to a predetermined plan, more carbon can be stored in the soil.

But Stephen knows nothing about this. The Northern Rangelands Trust has not spoken to him about changing his herding practice. He says,

“We have not changed our grazing practices. We have inherited them from our ancestors. Even as children, we watched our grandfathers move their livestock from one area to another to let them graze.”

“We have not seen any money from CO₂ funds”

The project area consists of several conservation areas, that according to the Northern Rangelands Trust are managed by local communities. The money from carbon credits is supposed to go to the communities.

A herder caller Adan Hussein tells ORF that,

“We have heard that these carbon credits are intended to improve the livelihood of our community. They are supposed to be payments in recognition of the preservation of our environment. But we here, from the Leparua Conservation Area, have not seen any money from CO₂ funds.”

The herders show Purkart a well that was supposedly recently built for the community. Adan says that,

“In the financial year 2021-22, the project shows that a well was dug in Kilimani. In reality, however, it was dug by the Kenyan government as early as 1992.

“It’s interesting: the conservancy board members have been elected to represent our community to NRT. They are not business people and are not employed by a government agency. Nevertheless, they lead very affluent lives. They own big houses and drive expensive cars. If you ask yourself where they got the money from, the answer is obvious to me: obviously the money from the carbon credits was misappropriated.”

Said Yussuf adds that,

“The money is usually distributed in cash. For example, a community receives the equivalent of about €70,000 in cash. NRT does not track what the money is actually used for.”

Increasing conflicts

Recently, the herders explain, conflicts in the region have increased. They suspect that has something to do with the carbon trading.

Another herder, Abdifattah Dayow, says that,

“We ourselves moved away because of the conflicts. People were murdered and livestock stolen, so we left. When people and their livestock leave an area, grass grows back on the pastures. New carbon credits can then be sold.”

Adan adds that,

“We have this suspicion because certain incidents occur once or twice a year, always at exactly the same time, namely when the rainy season begins. This is when people have to leave the area and the grass can germinate well.

“So NRT is selling CO₂ certificates, but not by controlling grazing patterns, as they claim, but by displacing people through conflict.”

“You cannot control how much grass is eaten”

Purkart meets Mordecai Ogada, an ecologist who lives close to the project area.

Ogada tells ORF that,

“You cannot control how much grass is eaten by elephants, buffaloes, gazelles or cattle. Nor can you control how much grass grows in the whole of northern Kenya or what vegetation occurs there. At most, you can do this in a small fenced area, for example on a farm. There is a natural cycle and it is not in our power to control that cycle.

“The project is based on measurements taken over short periods of time in small areas. Statistical projections are derived from this. This system cannot work, but payments and environmental decisions depend on it. It is a flawed construct. The money flows into a system that is based on incorrect measurements.”

Northern Rangelands Trust responded to ORF’s questions with a statement:

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about our project and we believe that those who have spoken to you are not trustworthy and have made up these stories based on their own interests.

Mordecai Ogada comments that,

“Pastoralism is probably the most sustainable production system we have in the world today. They have managed to get the best out of a very inhospitable environment without destroying it, because their own livelihood depends on it. Unfortunately, they are now victims of foreign interests. As a scientist, I can say that the best thing we can do for our global environment is to support the pastoralists or at least leave them alone.”