Overview
Kenya’s Gazi Bay proved that a community-led blue carbon project could work at one site. Scaling that model across Africa’s coastline is a different, harder problem, and one that depends on more than replicating a planting technique.
How Africa Can Scale Community-Led Blue Carbon
Mikoko Pamoja became the world’s first verified community-led blue carbon project by combining credible science with genuine community ownership. That combination, not the planting method alone, is what makes it worth scaling.
african restoration policy
What Scaling Actually Requires:
- Policy Alignment
National frameworks like Kenya’s own Blue Carbon Ecosystems NDC Implementation and Investment Plan 2025 to 2035 need to support, rather than sit apart from, community-led projects.
- Replicable Governance
Other communities need structures they can adapt rather than reinvent.
- International Cooperation and Finance
Credible project preparation, not just planting activity, needs funding capable of matching the ambition.
- Scaling With Rigour
Carbon claims require evidence. As community-led blue carbon spreads across Africa’s coastline, the same rigour that gave Mikoko Pamoja its credibility has to scale with it, which is why Twende works across restoration, science, community governance, monitoring, project development and finance together.
