Mbirikani Project

Jadora, in partnership with Soils for the Future, has developed a methodology to generate emission reductions by managing grazing animals and fire in grasslands and savannahs.

Management options include reducing fire, improved livestock grazing management, reducing livestock numbers, and increasing wildlife numbers in areas where they have been overhunted.

Grasslands and savannah ecosystems can store nearly as much carbon in soils as forests do in more visually obvious wood. Changes in the way grasslands are managed could reduce global emissions by 10-15%, and so grassland management offers a new way to generate emission reductions.

Working Together

Jadora, is joining with the Mbirikani Group Ranch to restore carbon to the soil of 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of African savannah near Amboseli National Park, Kenya. We are employing a combination of herder education and infrastructure investment to improve water distribution to restore traditional Maasai methods of moving livestock in very large herds rapidly across the landscape. This allows grasses that have been heavily grazed in recent decades to re-grow following grazing periods, sending more roots deep into the soil.

When these roots die back each year, they remain as carbon-rich organic matter in the soil, thereby completing a process of converting carbon dioxide from the air into carbon stored in soil. This project has numerous side benefits, including restoring grass and land values for the group ranch, enhancing wildlife habitat in a key corridor between Amboseli, Chyulu Hills, Kilimanjaro and Tsavo National Parks in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, and sustaining the traditional livelihoods and land rights of nearly 4000 Maasai.

Mbirikani Group Ranch
between Amboseli and Chyulu Hills National Park in southern Kenya. Colors indicate different vegetation zones in this 120,000 ha Maasai group ranch which supports more than 400 Maasai families from livestock grazing and gathering. Jadora and Soils for the Future are partners with the Mbirikani Group Ranch, in operating a project to better manage livestock grazing in many of these vegetation zones that will allow grass to recover from past intense grazing and allow CO2 to be sequestered in soil. The improved grazing will also reduce methane emissions.