Governing Nature-based Climate Solutions: Prospects for a just green transition in Kenya (JUCAN)

Project summary

Nature based Climate Solutions (NbS) are, in brief, actions that aim at benefiting climate, biodiversity, and people. These solutions are high on the global and national carbon offsetting and biodiversity conservation agendas. The number of projects is growing in the Global South, including in Kenya. While NbS scholars tend to focus on technical aspects of how to address the climate, biodiversity and people objectives simultaneously, there is less knowledge about NbS governance. Critics argue that there are considerable trade-offs between the NbS objectives, and there is a risk that interventionist approaches and skewed power relations marginalize local communities by disrupting their institutions and undermining their rights to land and other natural resources and thus contribute to environmental injustice. JUCAN sets out to learn from the institutional dynamics and government arrangements of three current NbS in Kenya. Kenya has a long and devastating record of environmental injustice, but rural communities depend on conservation and restoration of their degraded natural resources. The main research question is what the implications are of NbS governance for a just green transition in Kenya.