What are greenhouse gases?

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.

Why should the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere be reduced?

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.

How does carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere?

Natural and human activities are the two main sources. Animals function as a natural source during respiration since they exhale carbon dioxide as a waste product. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions are caused by human activities such as burning coal, oil, wood, or natural gas for energy.

How can carbon dioxide be removed from the atmosphere?

While it may not be possible to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions, some of those that do occur can be offset. Supporting projects that reduce or trap greenhouse gas emissions in another location is referred to as offsetting.

Offsetting allows you to mitigate the damage caused by releasing carbon dioxide into the environment by doing other activities that remove carbon dioxide, for example, by planting trees. Companies reduce their carbon footprint by investing in carbon offset projects and purchasing carbon credits.

What are carbon offset projects and how do they work?

Carbon offset projects are environmental projects that 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 becoming 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 atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed, and the carbon is then stored in the soil.

What are carbon credits?

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.

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, 3.2 million verified carbon credits are currently available for purchase.

How does the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?

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 cattle. 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 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

How long does the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project keep carbon dioxide out of the air?

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project is expected to remove and store 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of 30 years.

What methods are used to track the Project's impact on soil carbon?

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.

What is Verra VCS?

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's approach was validated as sound. The Project was then certified as fulfilling the Verified Carbon Standard by Verra (VCS).

How can I be sure that the emission reductions are taking place?

NRT has limited the risk of reversal by monitoring and evaluating grazing methods and maintaining contact with the conservancies involved.

In addition, 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.

What considerations go into calculating how many credits the Project has available in a particular year?

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.

For the first monitoring period, this buffer claimed 16% of project credits, a threshold set by Verra over which the Project has no control.

The credits that go into Verra's non-permanence buffer can be used for any of Verra's AFOLU projects that may have unintentional reversals that are eligible to be claimed out of the buffer, and they will not be reallocated to this project if no reversals are needed, as they contribute permanently to mitigating the risk of unintentional (i.e. a wildfire on a forest carbon project) reversals for all Verra AFOLU projects.

When calculating available credits, how is the risk of reversal for soil carbon accruals factored in?

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.

This buffer claimed 16 percent (about 600,000) of project credits during the first monitoring period.

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.

What is the Project's buffer policy and percentage, and how was it determined?

Verra's Non-Permanence Risk Assessment tool claimed 16% of project credits during the first monitoring period.

This 16% is dictated by Verra mostly on the basis of land tenure and government corruption risks and is outside the influence of the Project unless landowners sign the equivalent of conservation easements.

Credits in the non-permanence buffer are available to offset reversals in all Verra projects. Although it is not strictly an insurance policy, the 16 percent buffer is similar to an insurance payment. Conservancies will never have access to them.

How is the amount of additional carbon captured calculated?

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

What is validation?

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.

Is the Project validated?

Aster Global Environmental Solutions, a Verra-approved VVB, validated the Northern Kenya Carbon Project under Verra’s VM0032 methodology.

What is Verification?

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.

Is the Project verified?

The Project is Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) certified by Verra.

After successfully undergoing the most stringent additional audits in 20 different categories, over and above Verra’s own Verified Carbon Standard, and for its benefits to Climate, Community, and Biodiversity, the Project got awarded the CCB Triple Gold Distinction.

Going forward the Project will likely be verified on an annual basis.

What is CCB Triple Gold Distinction?

In 2020, 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 requiring stringent extra audits in 20 different categories, over and above Verra’s own Verified Carbon Standard.

What is unique about the Project?

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project is expanding the frontiers of carbon removal. The Project is 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 is the first in the world to:

• Use the new 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.

How many credits are available from this Project?

Approximately 3.2 million Verified Carbon Units have been issued, from the 2013-2016 monitoring period.

The units from the monitoring period of 2013-2016 were verified in December 2020. This is due to the fact that they were the first credits to be confirmed from a vast and complex operation with many aspects that are new to the industry and operating in a challenging logistical environment.

As of June 2021, approximately half of the available credits had been contracted or are in the process of being contracted with buyers. The remaining half are still available for purchase.

When will more credits be issued?

Credits for the monitoring period 2017-2020 are projected to be available in Q1 2022, once validated and verified. The initiative will most likely verify and issue credits on an annual basis after that.

How can I know if my firm is a good fit for this Project as a buyer?

The Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project is ideal for businesses that wish to demonstrate their commitment to climate leadership and action, as well as benefit indigenous and local communities, improve biodiversity, and achieve a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Investing firms should:

• Have a credible climate strategy
• Demonstrate efforts to reduce emissions
• Have stated their climate commitments and outlined measures to meet them.
• Report annually on progress toward emission reduction targets, or demonstrate how the purchase of VERs is a major activity as part of a larger sustainability and climate program.

To decide who is eligible and a strategic match for the Project, Native employs a set of principles and due diligence requirements. Native welcomes inquiries from any company, regardless of size, in any country throughout the world. Native exclusively sells to businesses who want to offset their own carbon emissions. The Project is not available to resellers, retailers, wholesalers, etc. Sales are made solely for the purpose of retirement, not for market trading.

I am interested in buying tonnes. Who may I contact?

Please get in touch with Native’s Director of Client Strategy, Jennifer Gerholdt. E: jennifer.gerholdt@native.eco Tel: +1-202-760-5335

What resources are available for buyers who want to promote their involvement in the Project?

For further information and a copy of the Project pack, please contact Jennifer Gerholdt, Native's Director of Client Strategy.

E: jennifer.gerholdt@native.eco Tel: +1-202-760-5335

How is the revenue from the credit sales collected and passed to the conservancies?

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 SPC and only recovers costs directly associated with running the project. All remaining monies are intended to be paid to conservancies annually each January.

How much money will the conservancies receive?

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.

How will the revenue from the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project be spent?

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, comprised 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.

What Community benefits are being monitored?

NRT tracks the Project’s impacts on community well-being with regular surveys on household income, sense of security, employment, and access to milk and water. Special emphasis is made to survey marginalized and vulnerable groups.

The Project also tracks all instances of grazing-related conflict, to minimize and mitigate such disputes and how revenue from the sale of the carbon credits impacts communities as it comes in.

What Biodiversity benefits are being monitored?

NRT’s Wildlife-Conservancy Managed Monitoring System (Wildlife CoMMs) tracks sightings of wildlife across the project area, including threatened and endangered species such as elephant, reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, Beisa oryx, gerenuk, lion, cheetah, and wild dog.

Due to planned rotational grazing that improves forage productivity over the entire Project area, more sightings of these critical species are projected.

Every three years, the Project also undertakes biodiversity surveys in five project conservancies.

Will the Project remain limited to its initial area or will it expand?

This project, which has been audited and reviewed, will not be expanded. Other new VCS/CCB projects, spearheaded by NRT and employing the present paradigm, could start in other northern Kenya rangelands, or other similar landscapes in Kenya or overseas, depending on governance and administrative support.

What is the impact of the Northern Kenya Rangeland Carbon Project?

The Project provides increased pasture and feed for herders' animals, as well as improved livelihoods. It has resulted in:

• Higher pasture quality
• Healthier livestock yielding more milk and meat
• Better market prices for livestock
• Increased family income from the sale of healthier cattle
• Plentiful pasture even in dry season preventing livestock loss
• Reduced grazing conflict, resulting in more peace
• Generation of new streams of income through carbon sequestration and reintroduction of tourism
• Better way of life for more than 175000 people
• Availability of funding for community developmental projects
• Built the region’s resilience to climate change while also conserving endangered wildlife habitat

In the context of this Project, what is leakage and how is it prevented?

Animals moving unintentionally and/or unauthorizedly from conservancies into regions beyond the project area would be considered leakage for this project. If there aren't enough grass resources in the project region, they might do this.

The rangelands program trains conservancy leaders how to create rotational grazing plans that don't cause leakage while taking into account community feedback. Any off-project rotational grazing permitted by agreements with surrounding conservancies would not be deemed leakage, and hence would not result in a discount to project VER reduction.

The Project primarily prevents leakage by informing conservancy grazing committees about the dangers of removing cattle from the project area. Encroachment is reduced by combining encroaching livestock with project livestock to protect grass banks. Prior to livestock arrival in the conservancy, conservancy grazing committees go out to communities outside of the project area to raise awareness about the grazing plans.

In September 2017, NRT convened a workshop to set out the fundamentals of the Project’s operations, and how the Project's success and benefits hinged on solid governance and adherence to the grazing plans. Issues of leakage, encroachment, and revenue sharing were examined and received well by key participants, community and conservancy leaders, and decision-makers.

Because the conservancy's leadership changes triennially, NRT recently conducted a briefing to ensure the new leadership understood the Project and could make an informed decision about whether the conservancy they represent was still interested in selling carbon credits.

In May and June 2021, NRT undertook a comprehensive briefing campaign in all participating conservancies to update the communities on the Project as the first issue of carbon credits are launched.

What is additionality in the context of this Project?

Pastoralist communities who were traditionally nomadic are increasingly settling in places to facilitate access to schools, health clinics, and water infrastructure. Establishing permanent settlements means livestock are continuously grazed over the same area. Continuous grazing in a single region causes overgrazing, a loss of perennial grass cover, soil carbon loss, and erosion.

Historically, nomadic grazing, moving herds across large areas allowed sufficient rest and regeneration of perennial grasses, as the perennial grasses co-evolved with migratory animals. The project works with communities to present the benefits of rotational grazing as a way to improve pasture and describe the process of earning carbon revenue from improved grassland management.

Revenue from carbon provides an important additional incentive for herders to follow conservancy grazing plans, through investment of carbon revenue into community development priorities. The grazing plans are designed to improve the condition of grasslands and emulate a return to traditional nomadic grazing alongside adopting contemporary rangeland management practices. It promotes coordinated grazing within conservancies, and between conservancies, expanding the benefits of that managed approach to a landscape scale. It also incentivizes collective grazing management amongst conservancy communities, aiming to mitigate overgrazing. It is these benefits that have incentivized pastoralists to support rotational planned grazing from project inception to now, and future sales of credits and the resulting financial benefits that conservancies and communities receive will act to further incentivize project activity into the future.

Without this project investment in training and awareness on soil health, rotational grazing management and facilitation of grazing committees to implement grazing plans and support peaceful grazing negotiations between neighboring communities, grazing patterns would be largely uncoordinated across much of the landscape which would exacerbate overgrazing, erosion and rangeland degradation as well as lead to increased conflict between neighboring communities over scarce natural resources.

The project activity will fund conservancy and landscape scale grazing planning which are facilitated by conservancy grazing committees and rangeland coordinators, movements of livestock from other participating Conservancies and from non-project communities are integrated into these grazing plans.

Revenue from carbon is also vital for the long-term financial viability of conservancy institutions and sustaining their role in rangelands management, peace, community economic and social development and wildlife conservation. The continued implementation of planned grazing across the landscape and the resultant carbon sequestration will depend on sustaining the support of conservancies as strong, community-led institutions.