FEATURE: UN-BACKED PARTNERSHIP HELPS KENYANS PROTECT FORESTS, IMPROVE LIVELIHOODS

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 19 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400
Subject: FEATURE: UN-BACKED PARTNERSHIP HELPS KENYANS PROTECT FORESTS,
IMPROVE LIVELIHOODS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

FEATURE: UN-BACKED PARTNERSHIP HELPS KENYANS PROTECT FORESTS, IMPROVE
LIVELIHOODS
New York, Apr 19 2013 10:00AM
A United Nations-backed project in Kenya is protecting forests and
wildlife, as well as providing alternative livelihoods, and offers
valuable lessons on how governments and the private sector can
successfully work together for the betterment of communities and the
environment.

The project is run through the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), which
seeks to create financial value for the carbon stored in forests,
offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions and
invest in low-carbon technologies to sustainable development.

The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project is protecting 200,000 hectares –
500,000 acres – of dryland forest in south-eastern Kenya in a vital
wildlife and biodiversity corridor between two national parks, Tsavo
East and Tsavo West.

Nearly 150,000 rural Kenyans are benefitting from the distribution of
revenues from the sale of the carbon offsets in the project, which is
carried out with private sector partner Wildlife Works.

"The fundamental purpose of Wildlife Works is to take the pressure
off natural resources, particularly forest-based resources, by
creating an environment of alternative livelihoods," said Bryan Adkins
of the Kasigau REDD+ Project.

"It's a social enterprise, which means that it puts the value of
community input and community involvement at the forefront of its
mission," he added.

Mr. Adkins noted that, in the Kasigau corridor, impoverished
communities are often forced to "leverage the landscape" to make ends
meet, to feed their families, to clothe their children and provide for
their basic needs.

Wildlife Works was able to sign agreements with the community groups
that owned the land in the corridor for management rights in return
for a dividend to the groups, thereby being able to manage the forest
resources in a "non-consumptive" way towards generating carbon
credits.

The revenue generated from those carbon credits, said Mr. Adkins, is
re-invested into the community in three "pots" – a direct dividend to
the landowners themselves, the continuing operation of managing the
land, and directly into the community through Wildlife Works' 'carbon
trust' for development projects.

"What we found is that in addition to generating meaningful carbon
offsets, meaningful REDD emissions reductions, the project has been
able to generate significant 'co-benefits'," he stated. "The
co-benefits come in two packages, and are probably as important, if
not more important, in gaining the acceptance of the project at the
sub-national level and national level."

In terms of biodiversity co-benefits, the project has documented
measureable and verifiable increases in "high conservation value
species" such as lions, elephants and cheetahs. There has also been
significant landscape recovery in areas that had previously been
degraded or deforested completely, Mr. Adkins said.

The social co-benefits include alternative livelihoods for the people
of the area thanks to an increase in investors and strategic
partnerships. This includes the creation of a clothing factory in the
area to provide jobs so people do not have to be involved in
activities such as charcoaling or illegal wood extraction.

Companies such as Puma and SOKO have both invested heavily in an
eco-clothing factory, which provides around 150 jobs in the area –
which is significant, Mr. Adkins noted, for an area which had very
little external investment before the project.

"All of this is done through a very collaborative approach with the
Kenya Forest Service," he stated, adding that its support was "very
evident" throughout the project.

The Kenya Forest Service is a semi-autonomous agency set up in 2007
to conserve, develop and sustainably manage forest resources for the
country's socio-economic development. It is managed by a board of
directors drawn from both the private and public sectors that has the
mandate to oversee the development of the entire forest sector.

Forests play a vital role in the life of the East African nation,
where 70 per cent of the population of 40 million is engaged in
agriculture, and 70 per cent of the energy demand is met from wood and
charcoal, which are the main sources for cooking and heating.

According to a mapping exercise carried out in 2010 with the help of
the Japanese Government, the forest area in Kenya is nearly 7 per
cent. The country's forests fall into five categories:
natural/indigenous forests, including mangroves; industrial plantation
forests; private forests; dryland forests; and urban forests.

The establishment of the Kenya Forest Service is just one of several
reforms and measures taken by the Government to create an enabling
environment for investment in the sustainable management of forests.

As part of the reforms, the Government promulgated the Forest Act in
2005, marking a "fundamental shift" in that the old legislation did
not provide for community participation, said Patrick Kariuki of the
Kenya Forest Service.

"The new legislation is very strong on community participation and
also provides for private sector investment. This we consider as very
key to bringing the private sector and communities on board in a fair
and formal manner."

The country also has a blueprint – Vision 2030 – that aims to move
Kenya to a middle-income country by 2030. "Within this blueprint, we
have key targets for the forest sector, especially with regard to
supporting forestry protection, conservation and development," Mr.
Kariuki stated.

The reforms have led to an increase in public financing for the
forest sector – a 200 per cent increase to $7.5 billion in the current
financial year. They have also led to more partners in the forestry
sector; an increase in community participation; greater investment by
the private sector; and resource mobilization from other sectors in
the economy that benefit from the ecology services of forests such as
energy and water.

The success of the REDD+ project owes much to the reforms undertaken
by Kenya, Mr. Adkins stressed. "We found from our limited experience
that an enabling legal environment and enabling institutional networks
are the key to making this happen."

He cited several critical factors in this regard, including the
explicit support of the Kenyan Government in creating an enabling
investment environment and in creating a law enforcement environment
which allows property rights and tenure to be enforced in a way
without creating tensions.

"This collaboration has also been extremely meaningful in creating
examples of how the government and the private sector can actually
play a key role together in the local community, at the local level,"
stated Mr. Adkins.
Apr 19 2013 10:00AM
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