Close this search box

When Carbon Projects Leave Communities Behind: Reflections from the Laikipia Climate Talks

8 Views

Across Kenya’s conservancies, a quiet tension is growing. Nature-based carbon projects are expanding rapidly, bringing investment, international attention, and promises of climate and community benefit. But for many of the communities living around these projects, the reality on the ground tells a more complicated story.

In April 2026, a team from the Nuvoni Centre for Innovation Research attended the Laikipia Climate Talks, held at the Il Ngwesi cultural boma. The forum brought together government representatives, development partners, civil society organizations, technical actors and, most importantly, local community members for an in-depth dialogue on carbon projects and their impact on communities in Laikipia County.

What emerged from those two days was quite insightful.

Laikipia: A County at the Centre of the Carbon Conversation

Laikipia is among Kenya’s most active counties for nature-based carbon projects. Its expansive landscape, established conservancies, semi-arid climate and relatively early adoption of carbon projects make it a significant site for carbon project development. The county government has taken steps to build a supportive policy environment, including a county climate change act and action plan, aligned with the country’s Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement. Though the Climate Change Act alludes to it, the Paris Agreement is explicit: carbon projects must promote the rights and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples.

Actual Realities

For many community members living near carbon project areas, the carbon market is poorly understood. Projects conduct the required consultations for informed consent, but community members often leave without a clear understanding of what the project does, how it generates revenue or how that revenue will be shared. Several factors contribute to this. Technical carbon concepts do not translate easily into local languages, terms like “carbon credits” lose meaning or context in translation. Crucially, the information-sharing events are often held in hotels in urban centres, making them physically and socially inaccessible to most community members.

What communities see, however, is foreign individuals on their land, restrictions on their movement and risks to their livelihoods. Without adequate understanding of why, this breeds resentment and erodes trust not only in the projects themselves but also in community leadership and governance structures. One observation from the forum stood out: among some community members, carbon revenue has come to be viewed as cursed. This speaks not to irrationality but to a felt sense of exclusion and ambiguity around how benefits flow and to whom.

Who Benefits and Who Doesn’t?

The distribution of carbon benefits within communities is a significant point of concern. Those who tend to benefit most are community members who already hold power and voice; disproportionately older men. Most of the time, women, who are often the primary stewards of land and natural resources, are frequently excluded from decision-making and benefit-sharing structures. The social development commitments embedded in project design documents present further tension. When carbon revenue reaches communities, it often comes with conditions dictated by external actors rather than by the communities themselves. Revenues received are directed towards social amenities such as schools and water infrastructure, effectively substituting government functions rather than directly improving individual and household livelihoods. It is worth noting that county governments already receive fees from carbon projects operating within their borders.

What Would Better Look Like?

The forum surfaced a clear appetite from community members, civil society, and technical actors alike for a more equitable and transparent model. Several directions emerged:

Communication must meet communities where they are. Information about carbon projects should be delivered in local languages, using imagery and through channels that communities already trust and use, not in hotel conference rooms in distant towns.
Benefit-sharing frameworks need rethinking. Kenya's diverse contexts call for context-specific, research-informed approaches to benefit sharing, ones that reach households and individuals directly, rather than being absorbed into broader community funds.
Regulation must be enforced, not just written. Consistent implementation of policies, including transparency requirements for community leaders at all levels, clear separation of carbon revenue from government service delivery functions, and community agency over how funds are used.
Pricing and market participation matter. Stakeholders at the forum emphasized that Kenya and the broader African region should not remain merely suppliers of carbon credits. By producing units of higher integrity, African carbon projects can become active participants rather than just providers for the global carbon market.

Not All Projects Are Failing

It is important to state clearly: not all nature-based carbon projects in Kenya are falling short. The Il Ngwesi conservancy which hosted this forum is itself a case that demonstrates what community-centred carbon projects can achieve when the conditions are right. Understanding the factors that made Il Ngwesi work is as important as understanding where other projects are falling short. As Kenyan carbon projects work to upgrade their practices to meet the new threshold for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), this is an opportune moment to genuinely reconsider the depth of community inclusivity and benefit sharing, not just as a compliance requirement but as a foundation for projects that actually last.

Nuvoni’s Perspective

At Nuvoni, we believe that the integrity of carbon markets in Africa depends on the integrity of community relationships within those markets. Research, honest dialogue and policy that reflects on-the-ground realities are essential to getting this right. The Laikipia Climate Talks were a valuable reminder of what is at stake and of the communities whose voices must be at the center of this conversation. We hope to further this discussion with our upcoming webinar at the end of the month.

Story by:, Stella Khaoya

Physical Address

No. MK088, Ushindi West Avenue,
Mukuyu Rd (Mukuyu West Wing), Thome 1
Nairobi, Kenya

Organization

Subscribe for newsletter & get news, events and publications updates

Contact Us

Office Tel: (+254) 20 8009928 |
Mobile: (+254) 706 324 467

Work Inquiries

Interested in working with us?