FAQs

Greenhouse gases are found in the Earth's atmosphere. They have a chemical structure that allows them to absorb heat and re-emit it back to the Earth. The significant greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. 

The equilibrium of energy entering the earth from sunlight and departing the atmosphere determines the temperature of the Earth. An imbalance exacerbates climate change and its severe repercussions, such as global warming, flooding, and altered rainfall patterns.

Greenhouse gases block heat from the earth from escaping into space, warming the planet and increasing global temperatures. The bulk of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are carbon dioxide. Carbon and oxygen are the two elements that form carbon dioxide.

Natural and human activities are the two main sources. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions are caused by human activities such as burning coal, oil, wood, or natural gas for energy.

Carbon offset projects \ mitigate the negative effects of emissions on the environment. The goal is to keep carbon in solid and dissolved forms, so it doesn’t combine with oxygen and become carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

Companies can offset unavoidable emissions, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and expand sustainably by investing in carbon offset projects like the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project, in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil.

Carbon offset projects \ mitigate the negative effects of emissions on the environment. The goal is to keep carbon in solid and dissolved forms, so it doesn’t combine with oxygen and become carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.

Companies can offset unavoidable emissions, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and expand sustainably by investing in carbon offset projects like the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project, in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil.

In certain countries, the amount of carbon companies can release into the atmosphere annually is capped. If they exceed the limit, they may be required to buy carbon credits. Other companies purchase credits voluntarily to take climate action. 

A carbon credit is a certificate indicating that a government or firm has paid for a carbon offset project to remove a specific amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project, 6 million verified carbon credits have been sold to date.

Cattle herders in the project rehabilitate overgrazed grasslands by combining traditional and contemporary grazing methods. The herders employ sustainable grazing strategies such as rotational grazing, which allow perennial grasses to regrow, collecting and storing carbon from the atmosphere.

Rotational grazing improves soil health, resulting in more plant cover and higher-quality pasture for both livestock and wildlife. . More carbon is deposited in the soil as plant cover increases. By restoring more than two million hectares of savannah grasslands in an increasingly arid region, the North Kenya Carbon Project is planned to capture and store approximately 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over 40 years.

The project area is monitored using remote sensing analysis. It measures the percentage of the project's activities that were successful each year. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which analyzes satellite photos of the Earth's surface to evaluate plant health, can detect the influence of grazing on vegetation. Light is absorbed and reflected differently by healthy plants than it is by unhealthy plants. The Project employs a model that can distinguish between the effects of livestock on plant production and the effects of climate change on plant productivity.

Each conservancy's total area grazed once or less in a given year is credited at the projected accrual rate for that conservancy. Areas grazed twice or more are not given any credits. The remote sensing method is based on a four-year study of the rainfall-corrected yearly change in NDVI (dNDVI) and the number of times a place was grazed, based on over 40 points of comparison of dNDVI and the pattern of seasonal grazing impacts. This relationship produces a dNDVI threshold at which multiple grazing events occur. Using this threshold the landscape is classified according to whether or not successful implementation occurred.

Verra is one of the industry's leading and most respected carbon standards.

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project was examined by Verra's independent verification bodies in 2020, and the project methodology was validated. The project was then certified as fulfilling the Verified Carbon Standard by Verra (VCS).

The Project adheres to the AFOLU standard developed by Verra. A 'reversal' is unlikely to occur in this project - even if overgrazing occurred throughout the project area owing to drought in a given year, the soil carbon loss would be minor and could be detected and corrected before having a substantial impact.

To provide further protection against a reversal, Verra sets aside a percentage of available credits as a non-permanence insurance buffer against future unintentional credit reversals.

As an extra precautionary measure, an evaluation is done of the risk that some of the carbon that has been sequestered and whose credits have been sold is somehow released back into the atmosphere. After that, a portion of the carbon credits gets allocated to a credit pool known as the buffer portfolio. These credits are not sold. Instead, they remain preserved as a form of insurance. If the credited carbon in the soil gets lost for whatever cause, or if the projections of how much carbon will accrue in the soil turn out to be an overestimate, Verra's buffer reimburses the buyer for the credits.

Verra, the Standard verifying the Project, sets aside a fraction of available credits as a non-permanence insurance buffer against unintentional credit reversals in the future.

Of the credits that go into Verra's non-permanence buffer a limited portion (up to 15% per 5-year period) of buffer credits can be released back to the project if it demonstrates durability and draws no reversals within a Verra specified timeframe, while the rest remains pooled to insure collective risk of all VCS AFOLU projects.

Verra's Non-Permanence Risk Assessment tool is used to quantify the risk of reversal for soil carbon accruals. This tool rates internal, external, and natural risks to determine the percentage of credits to be allocated to Verra’s buffer pool.

Unlike many forest-based projects, where forests can burn or be unexpectedly logged due to a breakdown in local land governance, there is little chance of catastrophic reversals in soil carbon from an unexpected event, such as a severe drought or locust plague.

Reversals would instead be incremental. If soil sampling reveals that the model underestimated credited soil carbon accruals, the non-permanence risk buffer would refund these credits to buyers, with future years of project activity replenishing the buffer.

The SNAP model is used in the Project to compute the amount of excess carbon sequestered each year. The model will periodically be used to calibrate physical soil samples from the Northern Kenya Carbon Project to ensure its accuracy in future credit issuance. The SNAP model is a biogeochemical process model developed to describe the effects of grazing on soil organic carbon in tropical grasslands and savannahs. The model measures: · Grazing intensity (%): the annual proportion of plant biomass removed by grazers · Mean annual precipitation (mm/yr) · Soil sand content (%) · Plant lignin + cellulose content (%): the model assumes that all soil organic carbon that will be sequestered long-term comes from these plant components · Fire intensity (%): the annual proportion of plant biomass removed by fire.

A project is ‘validated’ as part of certification for Verra’s ‘Verified Carbon Standard’. Validation is conducted by an accredited Validation and Verification Body (VVB).

The project proponent develops the documentation for their proposed project according to criteria laid out under one of Verra’s methodologies, VM0032, in the case of this project.

The Validation and Verification Body reviews that documentation. If it complies with the methodology and standard requirements, the project is validated by the VVB, and then by Verra.

Yes, the Northern Kenya Carbon Project was validated under Verra’s VM0032 methodology in 2020.

Verification is the process of issuing carbon credits throughout the project lifetime once the Validation & Verification Body (VVB) confirms the Project met the criteria approved at validation.

This means that that amount of carbon has been sequestered, or removed, or its emission has been avoided, during the specific years verified, known as the ‘monitoring period’. Each verification has a monitoring period representing the year(s) when the credits were generated.

Yes, the project has been through two verification events (for the monitoring periods 2013-2016 and 2017-2020) under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) certified by Verra. 

In both verifications to date, the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project was awarded CCB Triple Gold Status for generating exceptional benefits in Climate, Community, and Biodiversity, known as CCB. CCB is a standard managed by Verra but requires stringent additional audits in 20 different categories, over and above Verra’s own Verified Carbon Standard.

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project is expanding the frontiers of carbon removal. The project was the first large-scale grasslands soil carbon project in the world and the world's largest carbon removal project to date. 

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project was the first in the world to:

• Use the VM0032 methodology, making it a ‘beta test’ of that methodology

• Use modeled removals rather than measured removals

• Focus entirely on soil removals

• Work with pastoralist communities who use land and resources communally

• The Project’s benefits to biodiversity help reverse wildlife declines occurring throughout Kenya and increase community revenue from tourism. It also provides several additional benefits including enhanced livelihoods, regenerated soil and grassland productivity.

For further information and a copy of the project pack, please contact the team at Native at business@native.eco 

Net profits from selling the credits will be paid to a Special Purpose Company set up purely to administer these payments on behalf of the participating conservancies. It will be fully audited and accountable to the conservancies and will be overseen by the Carbon Oversight Committee.

The Committee is formed of two representatives from the participating conservancies from each of Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu Counties and one representative from Marsabit county (where there is only one participating conservancy).

Both the committee and conservancies will be able to track the flow of every dollar of revenue the project earns. Its audited accounts will be shared by participating conservancies with their community members during their Annual General Meetings.

NRT makes no profit from the project, or from administering the SPV and only recovers costs directly associated with running the project. All remaining monies are intended to be paid to conservancies annually each January.

In the first 3 years of the project, the conservancies are expected to receive approximately 60% of total sales revenue, depending on the sales price achieved. As the project’s risk profile reduces, the conservancies share of total sales revenue is projected to increase to at least 69% over the project life.

The project is accredited to an international carbon standard. Accordingly, the project’s 30% cost of sale and production includes the cost of verification, issuance, ecological monitoring, reporting, community engagement, and the required administration processes. The above calculations are based on conservative estimates and there is potential for higher returns to conservancies and communities if premium prices are achieved.

Conservancies will split net project revenue into two parts.

40% goes towards supporting its conservancy operational costs, and 60% to social development projects chosen by the community.

For the first three years of the project, this 60% is accessed through the Carbon Community Fund which asks conservancies to formally apply for the use of these funds based on collective agreement from communities within the conservancies. It helps keep a record of this decision-making process and promotes good financial management of the funds available. The disbursement mechanism will be administered through the Special Purpose Company but overseen by the Carbon Oversight Committee, composed of representatives from the participating conservancies.

The 14 conservancies have a collective annual operating budget of roughly $1.9m. Using a portion of the carbon revenue to help pay these costs will make the conservancies more financially sustainable over the long term. Because the success of the project relies on the environmental management of the rangeland, half of the 40% operational allocation will be used for operational costs associated with running the rangeland programmes in each conservancy, making these activities sustainable over the project lifespan.

The distribution of revenue will be reviewed, in consultation with the conservancies, within three years to ensure this arrangement still meets community and conservancy needs.

Yes, communities can accept or reject the project

• Participation is voluntary

• Decisions are made through community governance structure

• Land remains community-owned

• Project does NOT transfer land ownership

• Communities retain control through governance structures