Kenya - planning stage

Timber piled ready for charcoal burning.

Location
Dakatcha, Kenya

Partners
A Rocha Kenya

Offsets
6 million tonnes CO₂

The Dakatcha Woodland is an area of 38,000ha of dry East African forest north of Mombasa. It is home to rare birds found nowhere else in the world. Recently it has become the target of charcoal burners who are cutting down the large trees to make charcoal for cooking fires in the towns. Substantial areas have been cut down in the last two years. From a climate change point of view this is a double whammy because the charcoal-making process is a very inefficient one which produces a lot of CO₂ for relatively little charcoal. At the same time we are losing the potential to absorb CO₂ as these trees grow.

The project aims to reduce the deforestation by educating local people about the benefits of the forest and conservation agriculture as well as providing them with alternative incomes such as bee-keeping and woodlots.