The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya uses football to unite the community and circulate information about the importance of conservation efforts. Matches between staff and locals are used as an opportunity to raise awareness about wildlife protection, address environmental issues, and promote sustainable agriculture. These events foster collaboration and highlight the importance of community-led projects funded through carbon credit revenue, making sustainability a shared goal.
Written by Jane Okoth, Communications Lead at the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project
As one of the most popular sports in the world, playing football is also the perfect way for community members to come together and share their ideas. The Kasigau project in Kenya in collaboration with our community partners, has been utilising football matches as a platform to encourage harmony and inclusivity among the youth.
Being an already arid area with erratic weather patterns, it has become increasingly difficult for the local community who have been heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture to put food on the table. Cases of bushmeat poaching and illegal charcoal production have been on the rise. To counter this, the project has been sponsoring football matches in these locations in the project area where different youth groups are encouraged to participate.
In these football matches, our team partners with the youth as well as the community to co-create capacity development programs that increase their access to information about the REDD+ project, whilst creating awareness about wildlife and conservation and protection.
As the football matches continued, so did the conversations about the vulnerability of our environment and the importance of protecting it, learning about the disadvantages of slash-and-burn agriculture, and the alternatives available such as conservation agriculture. Through such interactive discussions, the community also got to know about the community-led projects that are funded through the carbon credit revenue.
This initiative has fostered dynamic thinking about environmental conservation. Additionally, the project organizes football matches between Kasigau staff, including rangers, and the community.
These matches aim to promote harmony and build a collaborative relationship. They serve as a platform for exchanging information and raising awareness about wildlife and environmental protection, enhancing community relations, and improving collaboration in managing human-wildlife conflict.
While this is a gradual process, we appreciate our community partners and staff for conducting these football matches and conservation awareness campaigns, which will continue in all of the Kasigau project areas.
This story was originally published on Community Voice: a global collective amplifying the stories of local and Indigenous communities, directly from the fragile ecosystems that are critical to fighting the climate crisis. Community Voice is an initiative of Everland, a specialized conservation marketing organization that exclusively represents the Voluntary Carbon Market's largest portfolio of high-impact, community-centered, forest conservation (REDD+) projects.
