What is the threat to the forest?
At the start of the project, unplanned slash-and-burn expansion for subsistence farming, charcoal production and cattle ranching were the main drivers of large scale deforestation in the area. While these threats are still very present in the region, the project activities have been successful at stopping deforestation by providing economic alternatives to the communities.
Has deforestation been completely stopped in the project area?
Yes, deforestation has nearly stopped because the community has agreed to stop extractive forms of livelihoods, now that they have economic benefits from the project in return for protecting the forest. Our conservation strategy is founded on holistically partnering with the local communities who choose to protect their surrounding forest by using carbon revenues to fund their self-determined social and economic development plans. Illegal charcoal burning and commercial poaching have always been and remain a consistent threat, but with the communities support these activities have been dramatically reduced by foot and air patrols conducted by Wildlife Works community rangers. Additional proof that the project has been successful in protecting the forest and wildlife is the return of elephants to the area soon after the project started. Currently there are over 11,000 elephants in the Tsavo ecosystem with about 2,000 of them using the Kasigau Corridor as their permanent home.
What was the reference area used to develop the baseline?
The reference area was delineated through requirements outlined in sections 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 of the VM0009 methodology, “Methodology for Avoided Mosaic Deforestation for Tropical Forests.”
A common misconception is that for REDD+ Projects the reference area must exactly match current conditions of the project area. Actually, the reference area is chosen to most accurately represent the future threat to the project because of its proximity to the project area, similar ecological and land use properties, but importantly, because it has already experienced deforestation from the threats applicable to the project. The project area by contrast, by its Verra definition, has not yet experienced deforestation and must consist of the remaining intact forest to be conserved. The reference area for the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Projects was chosen based on these criteria, ensuring that it accurately reflects the baseline scenario, enabling reliable measurement of the project's impact on reducing deforestation.
The reference area has a larger population than the project area because the population is expanding from the reference area towards the project area, and deforestation of the reference area has accompanied that expansion. The inherent logic behind REDD+ necessitates that the reference area show what would happen if deforestation pressures went unabated. If the project area was not protected, the logical conclusion is that people would continue to move into the project area and convert it to subsistence farms. As of today, the project area only has community members surrounding it. Therefore, the forest remains protected, but continues to face heavy threat from surrounding deforestation pressures.
Kasigau has been independently verified 9 times and is the most visited and awarded REDD+ project in the world.
Who are the legal landowners?
The community landowners (who are shareholders to the land leased and owned by the Government of Kenya) are mostly native Taita families, the majority of whom have lived in the area for generations.
There are currently about 9000 individual shareholders. Each local shareholder on average probably represents 8-10 family members, meaning shareholding benefits extend to nearly 72,000-90,000 Kenyans. The overwhelming majority of the landowners are immediate members of the community or their descendants.
Wildlife Works does not purchase land for carbon projects, and instead aims to strengthen the customary rights of local and Indigenous communities to their lands. Neither Wildlife Works nor Mike Korchinsky ever had any intention of acquiring shares in land when they began their involvement in Kasigau in late 1998. However, two years after Wildlife Works began their conservation work on Rukinga, Mike ended up intervening in order to prevent Rukinga’s majority shareholders, who were not local community members, from selling their majority shareholding interest to a regional cattle baron. The cattle baron planned to install a slaughterhouse on the land and to increase the cattle stock levels to a degree that would have eliminated the wildlife. After exhausting other possibilities, Mike instead bought these shares to prevent them from being sold to the aforementioned cattle baron.
Therefore, Mike’s shares in Rukinga Ranching Company were acquired in 2000 purely as a defensive measure, to protect the conservation corridor from being transformed back into a cattle ranch.
Since acquiring the shares in Rukinga Ranching Company, Mike has been seeking to transfer ownership back to the community. He has not profited from any dividends associated from his shareholding and abstains from exercising his voting rights.
How do you ensure that everyone in the project zone is engaged with the project?
There are over 100,000 community residents that live in the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project zone. It should be expected that each village and each individual will have varying degrees of knowledge and direct interaction with the project. Since starting the REDD+ project community engagement activities have dramatically increased.
The core of the community democratic governance structure is the Locational Carbon Committees. Project activities are determined by a unique community trust model that centers the needs of villagers to allot revenues from the sale of carbon credits in the Wildlife Works REDD+ Project. Each self-determined community project evolves in a democratic process that ensures transparency and equity.
The community trust was set up in 2011, with standard operating guidelines developed and maintained by the communities themselves, and regularly updated to account for community needs and legal/regulatory changes. The trust’s core decision-making bodies are the Locational Carbon Committees (LCCs). Each LCC represents a series village, roughly equal to 15,000 community members, and is composed of 7-9 democratically elected members, with equitable representation in gender, age and physical ability. The LCCs meet eight times per year to decide and vote on projects to benefit the Kasigau communities. They are advised by non-voting representatives from local and county governments, for example an engineer from a water board to provide guidance on pipeline construction.
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How long did the FPIC process take to complete?
Wildlife Works had been partnering with community members in the area for 10 years prior to the start of the REDD+ project. Proper and thorough FPIC was conducted with the community land owners and community members for them to consent to the REDD+ project.
Wildlife Works’ REDD+ projects follow the Cancun Safeguards for Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), a process protected by international human rights standards that states, ‘all peoples have the right to self-determination’ and ‘all peoples have the right to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.’
Some key features of our FPIC process include:
We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the risks to, and potential (negative) impacts on, various stakeholders and proposed mitigation plans.
We provide communities with complete information on the purpose, nature, scale and duration of the project activities
This includes information on the planned stakeholder engagement process (e.g., times and venues of public consultation meetings), grievance-registering and management procedures, and opportunities and means by which they can participate.
We conduct thorough FPIC during the feasibility phase, before any contracts are signed to establish the project. Our FPIC process includes conducting extensive community outreach and sensitization to community members, in a user-friendly and culturally fitting manner, free of manipulation, interference, coercion and intimidation. If the community partners agree to start the project, FPIC continues throughout the entire life cycle of the project.
We implement continuous and meaningful consultation with all project stakeholders, including marginalized groups within the local community.
We use an effective and culturally appropriate procedure for which people can provide feedback and complaints.
We provide communities with timely disclosure of appropriate information.
We believe FPIC is a continuous process, and does not end once communities give their consent for the start of a project. The fluid FPIC process is part of our commitment to continuous improvement.
Recently, the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project team has overhauled its HR processes as well as strengthened our grievance channels with the communities.
