Informing Equitable Governance and Engagement of Maasai Communities in Carbon Markets to Ensure Benefit Sharing and Effective Conservation

Student Researcher (2024)

Owen Tucker, Major: Finance; Major: Integrative Conservation

Student Researcher (2023)

Michael Foley, Major: Economics

Student Researcher (2023)

Riley Kelley, Major: Biology; Major: Environment and Sustainability

Faculty Mentors

Dr. Fernando Galeana-Rodriguez, Graham Henshaw  (2023), and Erica Garroutte (2023)

Project Description

Carbon markets and offset programs have the potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change and promote the livelihoods of communities, but there lacks a clear and just framework for ensuring the local communities involved in the sequestration of carbon are actively engaged in and receive equitable benefits from these programs. W&M students are working alongside Amboseli Ecosystem Trust to explore best practices for ensuring the engagement of Maasai communities in the carbon market and offset programs to ensure they are engaged and benefit.

The Amboseli Ecosystem has a unique history and approach to community conservation that has served as a model for conservation globally. The Maasai communities of Amboseli are stewards of their ecosystems, applying pastoralist livelihood strategies and belief systems that are compatible and that sustain biodiversity conservation and ecosystem function. The successful conservation of Amboseli's unique biodiversity, therefore, is a result of the commitment to community-led conservation and to equitable governance structures at the group ranch level and across the region to balance conservation and Maasai livelihoods. Frequent droughts, land use change, group ranch subdivisions, and an influx in outside markets, however, are threatening the persistence of biodiversity and pastoralist livelihoods of Maasai communities. Increasing subdivision in the group ranches has threatened the persistence of the established governance structures and conservation strategies in the region.

Carbon markets have the potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change, promote environmental conservation, and support the continued pastoralist livelihoods of local communities. However, for the carbon markets to be effective, there is a need to evaluate the lessons learned from conservation initiatives about the best governance structures for ensuring equitable community benefit and representation as well as sustainable conservation benefit. This exploration of the political ecology of conservation decisions in Amboseli will provide support for the group ranches and communities to plan for and prepare for how they will make decisions and ensure that carbon markets align with and benefit community goals.

In 2023, a team of W&M students surveyed community members in Amboseli about the ways in which climate change is affecting their livelihoods, their adaptation strategies, and their knowledge of and perspective of carbon markets as a climate adaptation strategy. The results of this study indicated that community members are seeing impacts of climate change and land use on their livelihoods and are diversifying their livelihood strategies as a result. While there are carbon market projects in Amboseli, their results indicated a general lack of knowledge and mixed perception of carbon markets as an effective climate adaptation and conservation strategy for the Amboseli region.

Building upon this research, Owen Tucker'25 will work with Amboseli Ecosystem Trust and community members to explore the political dimensions of land use decisions and climate adaptation and the ways in which local communities are involved in and make decisions about carbon markets.

Project ID - Format

23-019-23 - CRP Year

23-019-24 - CRP Year