The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project

With discussion on how companies can build a market-driven solution to finance forest and wildlife conservation, benefit local communities and meet SDGs, this webinar was broadcast live from the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya.

The project protects over 200,000 hectares of dryland forest, an important ecosystem with rich biodiversity. Located between the Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, the region serves as a vital corridor for more than 300 species of wildlife, including 2,000 wild elephants. 

The emerging marketplace for REDD+ carbon offsets provides funds for the project to support social programmes that impact around 120,000 local people. Long-term jobs for local communities have replaced unsustainable and destructive sources of income such as poaching, subsistence agriculture and illegal tree harvesting. 

In 2011, the project was successfully validated and verified under the Verified Carbon Standard and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard. It was then the world's first REDD+ project to receive issuance of carbon credits and also the first Verified Carbon Standard REDD+ mega-project, in that it will result in the avoidance of over 1.5m tonnes of emissions per year for 30 years.  

Joining live from the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project were:

• Lenjo Mwandoe, community relations manager
• George Thumbi, agribusiness and forestry manager
• Seraphine Charo, carbon committee representative
• Mercy Ngaruiya, founder of an environmental women’s group
• Eric Sagwe, head ranger

Host and moderator: Ian Welsh, Innovation Forum