Working towards net zero carbon: Earthly and Mainer join hands in Kenya

As discussed in a recent article on our website, Mainer Associates has partnered with the good people at Earthly in its drive to becoming a climate positive business. We have chosen to invest in the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project project – more details below!

While becoming carbon neutral means an organisation can be confident that they’re not further damaging the planet, climate positive means that we know we’re doing our bit in the bigger fight to redress the balance back in favour of long-term sustainability.

Becoming climate positive means using Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which are solutions that work with nature to address social changes that can then provide benefits both in terms of human well-being and biodiversity. They involve the protection, restoration and management of natural ecosystems – for example, growing forests; managing aquatic systems; the creation of new ecosystems in and around urban areas. Communities can be protected, infrastructure strengthened, water supplies secured, and climate change mitigated.

Earthly is a leading player in the NbS field. The team works with an independent board of scientific advisors and natural solution partners to advise and set businesses up to achieve climate positive solutions. Here is what they have to say about the service they offer:

“Our science-backed natural solutions help you balance your carbon impact – and go beyond, to become climate-positive. And our immersive platform makes it easy for you to see and share your positive impact”.

Why did we choose the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project?

At Mainer, we particularly liked the fact that it was a REDD+ project. REDD stands for Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Earthly’s website states this:

“The idea is that by placing a price on a natural asset, in this case the forest, countries will take greater measures to protect it thereby reducing forest loss, increasing conservation management and increasing GHG removal.”

REDD+ as a process is moderated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This body supports countries' attempts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and encourage conservation, sustainable management of forests, and increased forest carbon stocks.

Kasigau Corridor is a market-driven solution to wildlife conservation that puts the community front and centre in its sustainability model. Also involved as consultant on the project is Wildlife Works, which is a carbon development company founded in 1997, with bases in San Francisco, California and Voi, Kenya.

The corridor in Rukinga, Kenya. Here’s Earthly’s description:

“It protects an expanse of over 200,000 hectares of dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest home to over 2,000 elephants. The project also provides social programmes whose impact reaches over 116,000 people. The project has so far led to 13,936,339 tCO2 emissions avoided to date.”

Sunrise over Kasigau Corridor from outside the Wildlife Works office. Photo: Geoff Livingston/licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The project uses the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) for certifying carbon emissions reductions, which is the world’s most widely used voluntary greenhouse gas programme. In particular, it’s key to working out how successful any sort of offsetting project can be.

Kasigau Corridor allows 1,700,000 tonnes of emission to be avoided annually, at a cost of £9.10 per tonne. Furthermore, as you would expect, there has been an impact beyond pushing climate positivity for companies buying in. Prior to the project beginning, there was conflicting use of the land by local farmers and the wildlife population in the two areas through which the corridor runs: one wanted to farm cattle; the other, use it as a migration area. From 1998, the Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary and associated community projects were developed, providing both safe harbour for the wildlife and other means of earning a living for the local population.

The area contains many a diverse wildlife population: over 50 different species of mammals; more than 300 species of birds; and over 20 types of bats. Moreover, there are a number of animals featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species, including African Wild Dogs, Cheetahs and over 2000 elephants.

The project helps in the fight against poaching as well and is fully engaged in job creation and creating a positive future for everyone that calls the land home. We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Earthly in this fantastic project.

This report from Earthly details our current business footprint and represents the first step in this wonderful venture.