Forest



The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project, a pioneer in wildlife conservation, protects over 200,000 hectares of dryland forest with over 11,000 wild elephants that live in this ecosystem (2000+ of those elephants call Rukinga their permanent home). The project provides social programs that impact over 116,000 local people and provides the local community of the Kasigau Corridor region with long-term jobs that replace unsustainable sources of income such as poaching, subsistence agriculture and illegal tree harvesting. In an area where wildlife and human survival were at odds, the project has created a market-driven solution to wildlife conservation through an expansive community-led, community-based conservation model, with profound and lasting impact.
The Threat
Community and wildlife were at odds when Wildlife Works first encountered Rukinga over 20 years ago. For many years, the land between Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks served as both the main migration corridor for local wildlife and a home to a slowly failing cattle ranch. Rukinga had become a bruised, balding and barren land with fields grazed to dust, poachers easily accessing the ranch and trees vanishing along a critical rainwater basin.
The Solution
The foundation of the project is job creation: Through carbon sales,
:Progress
The area protected has now expanded to over 200,00 hectares, which will offset 1.7 million tons of CO2 emissions per year over the next 30 years. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project, with the dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest under its protection and its original biodiversity restored, received Gold level status by the Community and Biodiversity Standard for exceptional biodiversity and climate benefits. The project area is home to an incredibly diverse population of wildlife including more than 20 species of bats, over 50 species of large mammals, over 300 species of birds and important populations of IUCN Red List species, including over 2,000 African Elephants, African Wild Dog, Cheetah, and Grevy’s Zebra.
With a long track record of steady, high-impact work, the project is beginning to see indicators of a transition towards a durable, long-term impact for the community, forest, and wildlife.
© Photos by Filip Agoo