-Joseph Mwakima
WILDLIFE WORKS COMMUNITY RELATIONS OFFICER
In Kasigau, through the Wildlife Works REDD+ project, we have a way to take care of the forest and help humans co-exist with wildlife. Through REDD+ work, we are able to fund what we need like education, access to clean water, and clinics. From the scholarships, students have gone out to learn, and are now coming back to the community as teachers, nurses, doctors, and business owners.
>100k
COMMUNITY
PARTNERS

200k
HECTARES
OF FOREST PROTECTED

11
ENDANGERED
SPECIES PROTECTED

>22m
tCO2e EMISSIONS
AVOIDED TO DATE

WATCH
WATER IS LIFE
PORTRAIT OF A RANGER: CONNIE
ABOUT THE KASIGAU CORRIDOR REDD+ PROJECT

KASIGAU, KENYA










DIAGNOSTIC HEALTH LABORATORY RENOVATED AND AFTER-SCHOOL HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMS ESTABLISHED FOR >1200 STUDENTS
OVER 50 CLEAN WATER AND WATER CONSERVATION PROJECTS COMPLETED
36 SCHOOLS RENOVATED, 10 NEW SCHOOLS BUILT, AND OVER 30,000 SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED.
1,700 WOMEN PARTICIPATING IN THE HANDI CRAFT VENTURE THAT GENERATED $250,000 IN REVENUE IN 2021
OVER 400 LOCALLY HIRED EMPLOYEES, 1/3 OF WHOM ARE WOMEN
IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS
The Kasigau Corridor project area is home to over 100,000 forest community members dispersed across 6 towns.
The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project area is home to over 100,000 people. The majority of the region is home to people who identify as Taita. The Taita consist of 3 subgroups: the Wadawida, the Wasaghalla, and the Wataveta, all who are thought to have originally migrated to the area around 1000-1300 CE.
Traditionally, the Taita lived in the hills, close to water sources. This enabled peaceful coexistence between the large wildlife populations that roamed the plains below.
Traditional economic activities included hunting, livestock rearing, and subsistence agriculture (with crops such as sorghum, millet, and yams). As populations grew and competition for resources intensified, many Taita migrated into the plains below, resulting in increased conflict with the wildlife that roams these plains.
The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project sits right along the famous Mombasa-Nairobi railway, which slices through the heart of the greater Tsavo ecosystem. Being so close to this important trade route, the communities in this area have lived through the slave trade, British colonialization, WWII, and the Mau Mau rebellion.
ARTICLE 01
Son of a Poacher, 26 year-old Fulfills Dream to Become Conservation Pilot
Daniel Zuma is not your regular character. As a gyrocopter pilot at Wildlife Works, the 26 year-old is living his dream and even more impressively, is dedicated to inspiring his community.
ARTICLE 02
Scholarship Success Stories
“Having come from a situation where there was no hope for the future to where I am today is my biggest accomplishment," says Julius Mkala, former Wildlife Works scholarship recipient.
COMMUNITY STORIES

ECO-CHARCOAL PRODUCTION
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Charcoal production can be extremely detrimental to the environment, as it requires 10 tons of wood to produce 1 ton of charcoal. Our sustainable charcoal team has produced tens of thousands of kgs of eco-charcoal without cutting down a single tree and are developing sales channels to increase its distribution. Eight permanent staff manually process 850-1,274 0.5kg briquettes/week.

COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE
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The Locational Carbon Committees (LCCs) are the governance structure through which the communities directly allocate carbon revenue towards community driven initiatives. The LCCs are democratically elected and approve budget spending on various community projects.

EQUALITY IN EDUCATION
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In addition to funding scholarships and school infrastructure, communities have chosen to use carbon revenue to fund a after-school health education programs. In 2021, a pilot program was rolled out in 10 primary schools across the project area, which combined the gender-inclusive sport of volleyball with reproductive health education. Subjects covered, for both boys and girl, include gender-based violence, menstruation, STIs and HIV.

SUSTAINABLE JOBS
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The project supports basket weaving women's groups in the project zone, as well as the production of other eco-crafts such as soaps and clothing, to strengthen women's economic opportunities, connecting them to external markets, building capacity and improving product quality of local craft groups.

CONSERVATION FARMING
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Our organic greenhouse distributes seedlings to the community for reforestation and community gardens. Carbon revenue also funds water access and sustainable farming training.

WATER CONSERVATION
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Carbon revenues have funded the completion of water infrastructure projects (rain catchments, pipes, etc.) that improve access to clean water for over 100,000 people.

THE COMMUNITY PARTNERS

° Loxodonta africana
AFRICAN SAVANNAH ELEPHANT

°Giraffa tippelskirchi
MAASAI GIRAFFE

° Panthera leo
LION

° Gyps africanus
WHITE BACKED VULTURE
FOCAL
WILDLIFE SPECIES
The project area is now home to an incredibly diverse population of wildlife including more than 300 species of birds, 20 species of bats, and over 50 species of large mammals including critical populations of IUCN Red List species such as the Grevy's Zebra and African Wild Dog.
The Kasigau Corridor is composed of over 200,000 hectares of dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest
Many community members rely on Acacia and Commiphora trees to create charcoal, which is then used to cook meals. Our eco-charcoal factory now helps sustainably create charcoal without cutting down trees, and currently produces around a thousand 0.5kg briquettes/ week .
The incredible baobab tree (also known as the Tree of Life) dots the endless horizons of the Kasigau Corridor. As the world’s largest succulent, it can also store over 1000 gallons of water in its trunk and can live for over a thousand years. The baobab tree helps provide shade and critical habitat for wildlife, and is important to the cultural traditions of the local community.

THE FOREST
MAI NDOMBE
DRC
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project protects 300,000 hectares of tropical rainforest.
PACIFIC ECOREGION
COLOMBIA
In the Pacific Coastal Ecoregion of Colombia, we have 3 projects in development to protect 500,000 hectares of forest.
EXPLORE OUR OTHER PROJECTS
ORIGINS
The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project serves as a critical wildlife corridor between the two halves of Kenya’s largest national park: Tsavo East and Tsavo West.
In the late 1990’s, the dry-land forest of the Kasigau Corridor had become degraded by a combination of factors including cattle overgrazing, clear cutting of trees for charcoal and illegal hunters easily accessing the land. Centuries of exploitation and marginalization had pushed these community members to a breaking point, and their pursuit to meet their basic needs was causing them to live in an unsustainable way that destroyed the very environment they relied on.
THE PROJECT
With this foundational project, Wildlife Works broke the mold of the traditional (and failing) fortress model of conservation, and pioneered a new method of conservation: one that places communities at the center of decision making. The goal of this project was to alleviate pressure on the ecosystem through job creation.
By protecting the forest and earning revenue from carbon credit sales, we partner with the local community of the Kasigau Corridor region to co-create long-term jobs that replace the unsustainable sources of income such as poaching, subsistence farming, and illegal tree harvesting. This includes jobs that protect wildlife, create eco-friendly products, support education, and co-develop conservation agriculture techniques with farmers.
Through an innovative model of community governance, the communities of Kasigau establish their own priorities for utilizing carbon revenue, resulting in sustained investments in scholarships for children, school infrastructure, water infrastructure, and other programs to improve the economy, health, and well-being of the community.