Controversial carbon credits scheme in Kenya re-certified by Verra for the second time - Survival International response

© Beckwith & Fisher

Maasai herder with his cattle, Kenya.

Last week, the carbon credits certifier Verra reinstated for the second time a hugely controversial carbon credit scheme in Kenya led by the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), despite a court ruling from 2025 that two of the largest conservancies set up by NRT had been established unconstitutionally, with no basis in law. 

One of these, Biliqo Bulesa, contributes about 20 percent of the carbon credits to the project. The court ruling could potentially be applied to half of the other conservancies involved.

Despite the enormous question mark this ruling raises over NRT’s entire operation, Verra decided last week to reinstate the whole 2-million-hectare project on the basis of a “ratification” process carried out in just one community — without even waiting for the final outcome of the court case, which NRT has appealed and which is still ongoing. This is not only absurd, but potentially damaging for the rights of Indigenous peoples everywhere.

The supposed ‘ratification’ project claimed to secure communities’ FPIC - free, prior and informed consent. But that has to come before a project starts, not be bolted on 14 years later, once a court has ruled the whole thing was built on illegal land grabs. NRT and Verra are not simply patching up a paperwork error; they are trying to retroactively legitimize a project that should never have existed in the first place. 

If other communities still say no, what then? Will Verra finally scrap the project – or just keep looking for new ways to get to “yes”?

This is the real scandal: under Verra’s rules, you can sell carbon credits derived from violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights under international law, let companies like Meta and Netflix buy and trade them for years, and then – once you’re caught – simply fix the paperwork retroactively and carry on as if nothing happened. 

That’s not integrity, that’s impunity. And it’s a warning for every company still buying Verra credits, anywhere: if this is what “compliance” looks like, the whole system is little more than a rubber stamp for greenwashing abuses against Indigenous peoples.

The project is currently being restructured in an attempt to make it consistent with Kenya’s laws - raising the question as to how it was ever authorised under Verra’s system, and how it issued millions of credits when it was clearly not compliant with Kenyan law – and in order to obtain communities’ FPIC. Survival has learnt that this is being strongly resisted by some communities, and is far from over. Verra’s decision to reinstate the project has completely pre-empted this process.