The Kikuyu escarpment forest with its great mixture of both large and small wildlife animals, birds and butterflies, has been the beautiful gateway to the Great Rift Valley until degradation set in.
This environment is the source of water and thus livelihood to the neighbouring communities. Escarpment Environment Conservation Network (ESCONET) effectively mobilises and builds the Great Rift Valley community’s capacity to rehabilitate, conserve and protect its natural ecosystems and promote the sustainable maintenance of a clean, healthy environment.
The communities have become even more dependent on the forest for their livelihoods due to the negative climatic changes. The women and girls move longer distances in search of fuel wood and water, exposing them to danger of attacks and assaults. The Masai have to bring their cattle to graze in the forest. With the loss of flora and fauna, tourism income has dwindled.
The Project has planted 180,000 indigenous trees in the Great Rift Valley over the last 11 years.
Social and Sustainability Benefits
The project is contributing to sustainable development:
- poverty reduction through employment creation
- water catchment areas will be conserved providing water/food security.
- Plant 30,000 indigenous tress on 30 hectares
- Birds, butterflies and other wildlife habitats will be conserved and others created
- Bees attracted by the trees in flowering season will benefit the community through sale of fruit and honey, and so reduce poverty
- Nutritional benefit from some of the fruit trees
- Pastoral communities will have pasture for their animals during drought times
- Trees also assist in the prevention and control of soil erosion.
£7.50 to plant a tree and offset 1tonne CO2e in Brazil
1By using the carbon markets, entities can neutralise, or offset, their emissions by retiring carbon credits generated by projects that are reducing GHG emissions elsewhere. Of course, it is critical to ensure, or verify, that the emission reductions generated by these projects are actually occurring. This is the work of the VCS Program – to ensure the credibility of emission reduction projects.
Tree Buddying — a HEALTHY plus!
The Kenya tree planting programme incorporates “Tree Buddying”. This means that for each tree you pledge, as well as planting a tree, we also offset one tonne of CO2 through our VCS Project: Rainforest Preservation Brazil.
VCS is additional ‘insurance’ that your carbon offsetting:
- is fully verified
- meets international standards – including meeting strict additionality requirements
- meets BSI’s PAS 2060 specification on carbon neutrality
- meets the Carbon Footprint Standard and
- continues to take additional CO2e out of the atmosphere during the life of the tree
in addition to delivering all the other great benefits of this program.
