As Kenya accelerates efforts to restore degraded landscapes and expand tree cover, farmers investing in long-term conservation projects are increasingly looking to carbon credit markets as a potential source of income.
This is buoyed by recent legal reforms that guarantee them a share of proceeds from carbon projects.
Some players in the carbon credit sector are already committing to revenue-sharing arrangements that exceed the minimum benefit threshold required by law.
Speaking during World Environment Day celebrations at Kamwaki Coffee Estate in Limuru, farmer Sue Gichuki said landowners who have resisted converting agricultural land into real estate developments, for instance, are hopeful that the country's emerging carbon credit ecosystem will eventually reward their environmental stewardship.
Gichuki, who helps oversee the estate alongside proprietor Michael Gichuki, said preserving trees, wetlands and biodiversity is driven by a desire to leave a lasting legacy for future generations rather than pursuing short-term financial gains.
“What will my children inherit from me? Will it be buildings? How many houses can people live in? It's only one at a time,” she narrated.
She noted that the estate has deliberately maintained natural ecosystems, including wetlands and tree cover, which support pollination, wildlife habitats and the quality of its coffee production.
According to her, environmental conservation and agricultural productivity can coexist, creating value that extends beyond a single generation.
The farmer said the anticipated rollout of structured carbon credit trading presents an opportunity for landowners who have chosen conservation over more lucrative real estate developments.
“We hope that it will pay off. This is not just about short-term gains. We have resisted real estate developers who come, sometimes lining up with offers, but we keep telling them no, we want to preserve the land and benefit from it differently,” Gichuki said.
“Many people still do not understand carbon credits, but we hope that in the end we will see real benefits.”
Her remarks come at a time when Kenya is operationalising provisions under the Climate Change (Amendment) Act, 2023, which introduced mandatory benefit-sharing arrangements for carbon projects.
The law requires land-based carbon projects to allocate at least 40 per cent of revenues to participating communities and landowners.
Boreka founder and Chief Executive Esther Mutuma said the legislation is helping build confidence among farmers by providing a clearer pathway for financial returns from climate action initiatives.
Boreka Group is a climate-focused social enterprise working with farmers and partners to drive tree planting, biodiversity conservation, and carbon credit participation.
Mutuma explained that Boreka has registered more than 1,500 farmers across several counties and trains them on climate change awareness, tree management and participation in carbon projects.
The organisation works to simplify carbon credit concepts for farmers by linking tree planting directly to the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
She said Boreka has gone beyond the minimum legal threshold and committed to returning a larger share of carbon revenues to participating farmers.
“As Boreka, we're not even doing 40 per cent, we are committing 60 per cent. Why? Because we believe really it is the farmer that should benefit the most, because the land is theirs, the labour is theirs, the security, taking care of the trees, and so our role is really to aggregate them and bring them together,” Mutuma said.
She further noted that meaningful farmer participation will depend on demonstrating tangible financial benefits from conservation activities.
She argued that once communities begin earning from carbon projects, tree growing will become an attractive economic activity rather than a purely environmental obligation.
Its push for farmer-led conservation is being supported through a partnership with NCBA Bank.
During this year’s World Environment Day celebrations at Kamwaki Coffee Estate, the partners planted an additional 300 trees, bringing the total planted at the farm to about 3,000.
The exercise forms part of NCBA’s wider commitment to plant 10 million trees by 2030.
Beyond planting, the partnership focuses on long-term survival through farmer training, monitoring and stewardship. Boreka reports a tree survival rate of about 70 per cent, significantly above the national average of between 30 and 40 per cent.
Collectively, NCBA and Boreka have planted 340,000 trees, engaged 642 farmers, trained more than 1,000 farmers and created 400 green jobs.
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