Verra Section 6 Review (May 2025)
Additional transparent review process now underway
Verra has notified the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP) that it will initiate a Section 6 review. This process is part of Verra’s standard quality assurance system and follows a recent ruling in the Kenyan courts that raises broader questions about land governance across the country.
The review is not in response to any new technical concerns or findings related to the project itself. It is a procedural step intended to assess how the ruling may intersect with Verra’s validation and verification conditions. We welcome the opportunity to engage openly and constructively with Verra, and we are committed to full transparency throughout the process.
As a precaution, the project’s status on the Verra registry will show as “on hold” while the review is underway. The project remains active and operational on the ground
What does this mean?
Section 6 reviews are a mechanism for Verra to reassess whether the original conditions for validation and verification still hold. They are commonly used in cases where external developments, such as policy changes, legal decisions, or new information, warrant a second look at how a project’s design or implementation aligns with the Verified Carbon Standard.
This review is expected to proceed alongside the project’s ongoing verification process. A formal legal opinion, affirming the project’s legal basis and community agreements, will be submitted to Verra by 29 May 2025, as part of the documentation under review. Ruby Canyon Environmental, the project’s independent Validation and Verification Body (VVB), is overseeing the verification.
Our response
The project team, Native, and community partners are fully engaged with Verra’s process. We are confident in the project’s integrity, legal foundations, and positive impact.
This review follows a previous Section 6 process (2023), which was closed by Verra with all findings addressed and crediting resumed. Since then, the project has continued to strengthen its governance and transparency, including:
- Expanded community representation and oversight
- Public publication of the 2023 CCB triple gold verification
- Over 230 village-level awareness meetings (OCSAM) across the landscape
- Launch of updated grievance and FPIC processes
A proven model for climate, community, and conservation impact
NKRCP is the world’s largest soil carbon removal project and the only grasslands carbon project to reach this scale with community leadership at its core. Through improved grazing practices across nearly two million hectares, the project has demonstrated measurable carbon removals, drought resilience, and community co-benefits.
Participating communities continue to guide the use of carbon revenues through the Carbon Community Fund, supporting education, water, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Verified impact data is available via the Verra registry and the project website.
What’s Next?
- The project remains active
- A legal opinion and supporting documents will be submitted by May 29
- The Verra review will take several weeks to complete
- Stakeholders will be updated directly and through this page
We remain committed to transparent communication, evidence-based reporting, and a model of carbon finance that delivers for people, landscapes, and climate.
More information on the project
Project Overview
The Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP) is a community-led program to improve livelihoods, and is currently one of the few landscape scale carbon removal projects globally. The project represents a large-scale proof of concept for community-led rangelands restoration and community-based development supported by the voluntary carbon market.
The project was developed to improve grassland health and sequester carbon in the soils of community rangelands in northern Kenya through traditional nomadic grazing alongside contemporary rangeland management practices. Communities design grazing plans, including practices such as rotational grazing, which allow perennial grasses to rest and recover, collecting and storing carbon from the atmosphere. Rotational grazing improves soil health, resulting in more plant cover and higher-quality pasture for livestock. More carbon is accumulated in the soil as plant cover increases, and root growth intensifies. By restoring approximately two million hectares of savannah grasslands in an increasingly arid region, the project is planned to capture and store 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The project area includes 1.9 million hectares of savannah grassland located approximately 270 kilometers north of Nairobi, stretching from the northern slopes of Mount Kenya to Mount Marsabit in far northern Kenya.
Pastoralist communities earn reliable and sustainable carbon revenue by leading the regeneration and restoration of savannah grasslands. They direct how the revenue generated through the project is used, including for emergency drought responses, infrastructure and water development, education, healthcare, tourism, and youth and women empowerment.
Learn more
https://www.northernkenyacommunitycarbon.org/
https://www.northernkenyacommunitycarbon.org/impact
The Communities
The conservancies and communities across the project area strongly and overwhelmingly endorse the project, as they have done since the project’s inception.
Recently, the project partners carried out 238 village level Ongoing Community and Stakeholder Awareness Meetings (OCSAM) during the past few months across the 22 conservancy units within the project area. The OCSAM process–which is among the largest community engagement efforts undertaken by any carbon project–is the most recent awareness building effort that began with the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) process that was originally obtained as required not just by Verra’s program, but by human decency and respect. These meetings aim to further bolster communications and project awareness, and enhance the FPIC process across all the participating conservancies. The roll out of this initiative has been a resounding success and the conservancies continue to maintain a strong level of momentum. A detailed report of this initiative will be made publicly available.
Conservancy and community members have been eager to share their experiences with the project, and the impact the project is already having on their lives and livelihoods. A collection of their voices and stories is available at: https://www.northernkenyacommunitycarbon.org/community-voices
Contact Us
If you are interested in learning more about this project, we invite you to contact us:
Kevin Hackett: [email protected]