Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Carbon credits · Kenya · 2012–2026

Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project and the Isiolo court ruling

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured. Disputed
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 3 none on record · 2 not disclosed · 4 insufficient · 1 not measured · 7 disputed See the gaps
Accounts of the harm differ
Do the credits represent real additional soil carbon?
  • Communities and civil society Survival International: The project “does not present a credible case for its carbon ‘additionality’”; Simon Counsell, quoted by Survival, called it “extremely implausible” that the credits represent real additional soil carbon.
  • Company or project NRT: Its H1 2023 report said the project “has successfully reduced carbon emissions and conserved crucial habitats, increasing biodiversity”, and reported up to 5% improvement in rangelands' health in its own monitoring. Northern Rangelands Trust (via wildphilanthropy.com)
  • Standard-setters and registries Verra: Reported “no non-conformities” on 23 November 2023. Survival International

A Verra-registered soil-carbon project in northern Kenya covers 1.9 million hectares. In January 2025 a Kenyan court found that two of its conservancies had been set up without adequate public participation.

about $22m vs $42–90m estimateDocumented payments to communities and conservancies vs reported gross credit sales
Estimate. The payments figure adds the amounts published by NRT, Mongabay and the project page for different periods (to November 2022, H1 2023, 2024, 2025). The sales range is the Wall Street Journal figure as cited by Survival International. The windows are not identical.

Status As of June 2026: Verra reinstated the project on 18 June 2026 after a community ratification vote of about 1,500 members; the outcome of any appeal against the January 2025 ruling was not found.

What?
The Northern Rangelands Trust's soil-carbon project over 1.9 million hectares of grazing land sold more than 6 million credits, valued at $42–90m, to buyers including Netflix and Meta. In January 2025 a Kenyan court ruled that two conservancies producing about a fifth of the credits were created without adequate public participation. Mongabay
Where?
Northern Kenya: 1.9 million hectares across 22 community conservancies; the court case concerned Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies in Isiolo County's Merti subcounty. Mongabay
When?
The project started in 2012; Verra suspended it in January 2023 and resumed sales in November 2023. The court ruled on 24 January 2025, Verra suspended the project again on 13 May 2025, and reinstated it on 18 June 2026. Verra
Who?
Gained
  • Netflix and Meta — Bought credits (Netflix 180,000, Meta 90,000) and used them toward their own climate claims. Down to Earth
  • Native (credit marketer) — Marketed the credits; its earnings are not disclosed. Native
  • Northern Rangelands Trust — Says it "does not receive any profits from the project"; it says revenue is split 60% to community development and 40% to conservation work. The Star
  • Conservancies and communities — About $27m in documented payments to 2026 (sum of reported figures, estimate; incomplete).
Lost
  • Residents of the Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies — The Isiolo court found in January 2025 that the conservancies were set up without adequate public participation and ordered them shut. Mongabay
  • Samburu, Borana and Rendille herders — The project covers land used by more than 100,000 people; Survival International says it replaces traditional grazing with centrally controlled, commercial-style ranching. Down to Earth
Harmed
None on record
Why?
The project's stated aim is to remove about 50 million tonnes of CO₂ over its lifetime, as "one of the largest community-led soil carbon removal programs globally". Native
How?
Soil-carbon credits from the conservancies' grazing land are verified under Verra's standard and marketed by Native to companies; NRT says revenue is split 60% to community development and 40% to conservation work. The Star
In proportion Documented community payments of about $27m equal 30–64% of the estimated $42–90m in credit sales (estimate; different periods).
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

The Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project (Verra project 1468) began in 2012 and covers 1.9 million hectares and 22 conservancies. The proponent is the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) and the credits were marketed with the company Native. The project's page describes it as one of the largest community-led soil carbon removal programs globally, designed to remove about 50 million tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.

The first crediting period (2013–2016) produced 3.2 million credits, all sold by January 2022. Survival International estimated their value at $21–45 million. Survival, citing the Wall Street Journal, reported more than 6 million credits sold, worth $42–90 million; the article itself could not be checked against the original. Mongabay and Survival reported 6.19 million credits sold, with buyers including Netflix and Meta; NatWest was also named as a buyer. NRT said it does not receive any profits from the project.

Survival International said in March 2023 that the project did not present a credible case for its carbon additionality. Verra suspended the project in January 2023. On 23 November 2023 Verra reported no non-conformities and sales resumed. Survival said Verra reviewed only an audit by Ruby Canyon from late 2022.

On 24 January 2025 the Isiolo Environment and Land Court, sitting with three judges, ruled in a case filed in 2021 by 165 petitioners. It found that the Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies had been established without adequate public participation, and, according to one report of the decision, on unregistered community land. It ordered operations shut down, barred 53 rangers from Merti subcounty, and ordered the Kenya Wildlife Service to revoke licences. Biliqo Bulesa supplied about 20% of the project's credits, according to one source.

Verra suspended the project for a second time on 13 May 2025, after the ruling. NRT said the project remained fully compliant with the Verified Carbon Standard. Verra reinstated it on 18 June 2026, after a ratification vote by the Chari Dedha community of about 1,500 members that was assessed by the verification body.

  1. 2012Project starts; later covers 1.9m ha and 22 conservancies
  2. 2016First crediting period (2013–2016) ends with 3.2m credits, all sold by January 2022
  3. 2021165 petitioners file the case in Isiolo; Oakland Institute report alleges killings by NRT rangers (16 Nov)
  4. 2022NRT says it receives no profits (The Star, 14 Nov); NRT reports $14.6m paid to communities and conservancies to November
  5. 2023Verra suspends the project (Jan); Survival questions additionality (Mar); Verra reports no non-conformities and sales resume (23 Nov)
  6. 2025Isiolo court rules on 24 January; USAID funding to NRT ends in January; Verra suspends the project again on 13 May
  7. 2026Verra reinstates the project on 18 June after a Chari Dedha community ratification vote

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“one of the largest community-led soil carbon removal programs globally”

Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project page, with Native as partner · date not given · Native

“has successfully reduced carbon emissions and conserved crucial habitats, increasing biodiversity”

“does not receive any profits from the project”

NRT, as reported by The Star · 14 November 2022 · The Star

“does not present a credible case for its carbon 'additionality'”

Survival International · March 2023

“extremely implausible”

Simon Counsell, quoted by Survival International, on whether the credits represent real additional soil carbon · 2023

“negative impacts in some form are unavoidable”

“The project remains fully compliant with the requirements of the Verified Carbon Standard.”

NRT · May 2025

“The Biliqo Bulesa community has strongly supported the carbon project.”

Tom Lalampaa, NRT chief executive · after the January 2025 ruling

“strikingly little evidence”

Review commissioned by The Nature Conservancy and other donors, on the Oakland Institute's allegations of killings by NRT rangers · 9 June 2022

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Do the credits represent real additional soil carbon?
Communities and civil society
Survival International

The project “does not present a credible case for its carbon ‘additionality’”; Simon Counsell, quoted by Survival, called it “extremely implausible” that the credits represent real additional soil carbon.

Company or project
NRT

Its H1 2023 report said the project “has successfully reduced carbon emissions and conserved crucial habitats, increasing biodiversity”, and reported up to 5% improvement in rangelands' health in its own monitoring.

Northern Rangelands Trust (via wildphilanthropy.com)
Standard-setters and registries
Verra

Reported “no non-conformities” on 23 November 2023.

Survival International
Was Verra's 2023 review adequate?
Standard-setters and registries
Verra

Reported no non-conformities on 23 November 2023, after which sales resumed.

Survival International
Communities and civil society
Survival International

Said Verra reviewed only the late-2022 Ruby Canyon audit, and quoted that audit: “negative impacts in some form are unavoidable.”

Survival International
Were the conservancies established with adequate public participation and community support?
Courts
Isiolo Environment and Land Court

Found on 24 January 2025 that the Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies were established without adequate public participation.

Mongabay
Company or project
NRT (Tom Lalampaa, chief executive)

“The Biliqo Bulesa community has strongly supported the carbon project.”

Communities and civil society
Survival International

Said the project replaces traditional grazing with centrally controlled, commercial-style ranching on land used by more than 100,000 Samburu, Borana and Rendille people.

Down to Earth
Did NRT rangers commit extrajudicial killings?
Communities and civil society
Oakland Institute

Its report “Stealth Game” (16 November 2021) alleged extrajudicial killings by NRT rangers; it called the later donor-commissioned review a sham.

Researchers
Review commissioned by The Nature Conservancy and other donors (9 June 2022)

Found “strikingly little evidence”.

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

Recorded

  • Isiolo Environment and Land Court, 24 January 2025: Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies established without adequate public participation; operations ordered shut; 53 rangers barred from Merti subcounty
    Mongabay
  • Biliqo Bulesa supplies about 20% of the project's credits (one source); another account attributes about one-fifth to the two conservancies together
    Mongabay
  • Verra suspended the project in January 2023, reported no non-conformities on 23 November 2023, suspended it again on 13 May 2025 and reinstated it on 18 June 2026
    Verra
  • Documented payments to communities and conservancies: $14.6m to November 2022; about $0.55m in H1 2023; about $2.5m in 2024; $2.4m to the community fund and $2.0m for operations support and rangeland management in 2025
    Mongabay
  • Native's marketing fee or margin: not disclosed in any source found
    Native

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

≈ $22m
Sum of the six published figures. The December 2022 gap is not covered. A summary figure of about $27m documented to 2026 also exists and is not reconciled with these items.
Payments to communities and conservancies, to November 2022 (NRT)$15m
Bursaries, H1 2023 (KES 51.7m)$0.38m
Drought aid, H1 2023 (KES 23.4m)$0.17m
Payments, 2024 (Mongabay)≈ $2.5m
Community fund, 2025 (project page)$2.4m
“Operations support and rangeland management”, 2025 (project page)$2m
Not split further between communities and rangeland.

Gained elsewhere

≥ $0.67m*
Only Verra's levy can be estimated. Native's margin and NRT's overhead are not disclosed.
Verra registration levy (about 6.7m credits issued at an assumed $0.10) estimate$0.67m
The $0.10 rate is an assumption.
Gross credit sales, USD 42–90m (Wall Street Journal, as cited by Survival International)
$42m
Reached the ground
≈ $22m*
Gained elsewhere
≥ $0.67m*
Currency: USD · Window: 2012–2025 (periods as published). All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • nrt (November 2022): Said it does not receive any profits from the project; reported revenue shares of 60% to community development and 40% to conservation work, with each conservancy paying 5% to county mechanisms. · The Star
  • nrt (May 2025): Said the project remains fully compliant with the Verified Carbon Standard after the second suspension.
  • verra (November 2023; June 2026): Reported no non-conformities on 23 November 2023 and sales resumed; reinstated the project on 18 June 2026 after the community ratification vote. · Verra

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

  1. 2021–2025-01-24Claimant won
    Petition by 165 residents on the establishment of the Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies
    Isiolo Environment and Land Court · Civil · 165 residents (petitioners) → Northern Rangelands Trust (described as the defendant in a secondary account)

    A three-judge bench found that the two conservancies were established without adequate public participation and, per one report, on unregistered community land. It issued a permanent injunction on NRT operations there, including rangers, ordered the Kenya Wildlife Service to revoke licences, and barred 53 rangers from Merti subcounty. The outcome of any appeal was not found. Mongabay

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Rangeland health (NRT's own monitoring)
up to 5%
Improvement in the project area, H1 2023 report
Soil-carbon additionality
Disputed
Survival: no credible case; NRT report: reduced emissions and conserved habitats; Verra (Nov 2023): no non-conformities
Credits from the conservancy named in the ruling
about 20%
Biliqo Bulesa, according to one source; the court found it was established without adequate public participation

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Court ruling existsKey earnings undisclosedDeaths alleged, not verifiedUnder standard-setter review

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
  • Disputed Do the credits represent real additional soil carbon?

Figures

  • Insufficient Revenue: Survival, citing the Wall Street Journal: credits worth $42–90m.
  • Insufficient Compensation paid: Summary figure for documented payments to communities to 2026, given without itemisation; not reconciled with the itemised community_payments_documented entries.

Accounts

  • Disputed Was Verra's 2023 review adequate?
  • Disputed Were the conservancies established with adequate public participation and community support?
  • Disputed Did NRT rangers commit extrajudicial killings?

Record

  • Not disclosed Native's marketing fee or margin: not disclosed in any source found.
  • Not disclosed NRT's overhead from the project: not disclosed in any source found.
  • None on record The outcome of any appeal by NRT against the January 2025 ruling: not found.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: REDD-Monitor reported that a stay was refused on 1 April 2025; the judgment was not read.
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: the Wall Street Journal valuation of $42–90m, cited by Survival.
  • Disputed Figures differ on the share of credits: one source attributes about 20% to Biliqo Bulesa alone, another about one-fifth to the two conservancies together.
  • Disputed Documented payments to communities: the itemised figures add to about $22m, while a summary line gives about $27m to 2026; the difference is not explained.
  • None on record The Verra levy of about $0.67m rests on an assumed rate of $0.10 a credit.
  • Disputed No independent finding on the allegations of killings by NRT rangers (Oakland Institute, 16 November 2021); the allegations and the donor-commissioned review remain contested.
  • None on record Independent measurement of soil-carbon gains: none on record.

Did the harm stop?

Operations in the two conservancies were ordered shut on 24 January 2025. The project was suspended on 13 May 2025 and reinstated on 18 June 2026 after a community ratification vote. The 3.2 million first-period credits had been sold by January 2022.

Who paid?

The 165 petitioners and the communities of the two conservancies, in the court's finding of inadequate public participation. No refund of credit revenue is recorded.

Sources

Voices on record: ✓ Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers✓ Standard-setters and registries

Company or project

  2. NRT bi-annual report, January–June 2023
    Northern Rangelands Trust (via wildphilanthropy.com) · 2023

Press and investigations

  3. Blood Carbon (summary)
    Down to Earth · 2023-03

Communities and civil society

  3. Response to Verra review of NRT carbon project
    Survival International · 2023-11

Standard-setters and registries

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Science and environment

Hectare (ha)
A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.

Places and local terms

Conservancy (Kenya)
In Kenya, land managed by a community or private owners for wildlife alongside grazing, often with outside partners.
Pastoralists
People whose livelihoods depend on moving livestock between grazing lands.

Carbon and conservation finance

Buffer pool
A reserve of credits held back from sale by a carbon programme to cover future losses, such as forest burned or logged after credits were issued. It works as the programme's own insurance.
Carbon credit
A certificate representing one tonne of carbon dioxide (or equivalent) that a project says it reduced, avoided or removed. Buyers use credits to balance their own emissions in climate claims.
REDD+
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. A UN framework under which forest projects earn carbon credits for deforestation they say they prevented, measured against a projected baseline.
Standard-setter and registry
An organisation that writes the rules for carbon credits, approves projects, and records when credits are issued and retired. Such bodies typically charge fees per credit.

Institutions

OECD complaint
A complaint filed with a government's National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; the process is mediation, not a court.
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