We are very pleased to share the good news that the first pilot project in our Partners in Carbon Sequestration initiative has been agreed and started.

Anglican Development Services (ADS), Kenya has developed a pilot tree growing project for carbon sequestration at two sites: St Andrew’s Church, Ukia and the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Makueni Complex, both in Makueni County, Kenya.

The project has been awarded the Climate Stewards’ Seal of Approval, meaning it meets the rigorous standards and criteria necessary to qualify as a high-quality tree-growing project funded by carbon offsets. Providing the tree growth proceeds as anticipated, the project sites are expected to sequester (lock up) 400 tonnes of carbon (known as carbos) over the lifetime of the project.

700 saplings were planted across the two sites in December. Eleven species were planted in total, including Melia Volkensii, a  deciduous tree native to the drylands of Eastern Africa, Tamarind trees, Junipers and Olea Africana. The Mukueni complex site was fenced before planting to ensure protection of the saplings from animals.

Speaking about the project, Fredrick Odinga of ADS Kenya said, “We are excited about this Anglican Communion carbon project to draw out learning for scale up of the project across different dioceses. We hope this will give us experience and learning to inform the development of a voluntary carbon programme within the church and create mechanism for being an agent for carbon credit in Kenya.”

The project has been funded in the first instance by the Anglican Alliance, who will use some of the sequestered carbon to help offset its unavoidable carbon emissions. St Mary’s Church Islington in the UK has also jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the partnership, having been a keen supporter of the Partners in Carbon Sequestration idea since it was first discussed in a webinar in October 2023.

Dr Richard Nicholson, Eco Church leader at St Mary’s, said: “It has been clear for nearly 20 years that carbon drawdown on a very large scale is an essential part of trying to limit temperature rises. The Anglican Communion, with people on the ground in over 165 countries, is in a very good position to help deliver this, not only by planting trees but also by using any of the ‘nature-based solutions’ that are appropriate in a given place.  I am delighted that St Mary’s can help with this project, and I hope that we can also help the villages to develop in other ways.”

Partners in Carbon Sequestration is a joint initiative of the Communion Forest and Climate Stewards. For a long time, we have recognised the potential of working together. The reach of the Communion Forest throughout the Anglican Communion means we can identify both potential growing partners in places well-suited to growing trees for carbon sequestration (especially tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Anglican Communion) and potential funding partners who want to offset their unavoidable carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, Climate Stewards, a UK-based charity which is passionate about helping people to measure, reduce and offset their carbon footprint, have been offering high quality carbon offsets since 2007. There are several things that make Climate Stewards distinctive:

• Climate Stewards works with local partners on small-scale, community-based projects that are beneficial to the community and for biodiversity as well as sequestering carbon as trees grow. They are therefore ideal partners who are used to working with smaller-scale projects that churches can undertake.

• Climate Stewards is part of the A Rocha family of organisations, caring for God’s creation around the world. We therefore share a faith identity, motivation and sense of responsibility.

• The Climate Stewards’ Seal of Approval standard provides a framework for developing and implementing robust, sustainable, transparent community-led carbon projects in the majority world. This provides us with confidence that the projects that come under the Partners in Carbon Sequestration initiative are robust and rigorous.

ADS Kenya is the perfect organisation to deliver this first project and we are thrilled to be partnering with them. As the specialised development arm of the Anglican Church of Kenya, ADS has long standing expertise and experience in implementing projects in various sectors including agriculture, the environment and community development. ADS Kenya is very experienced in tree growing and have been working with another of Climate Stewards’ partners, WEC, as they embark on this new area of work.