Trading Mangrove Conservation for Carbon Revenue: A Blue Carbon Eco-Social Contract

Executive Summary 

Mikoko Pamoja, meaning “Mangroves Together” in Swahili, is the world’s first community led blue carbon project, established in 2012 in the villages of Gazi and Makongeni on Kenya’s south coast. This case study analyses it as a micro level eco-social contract in which a coastal fishing community collectively commits to mangrove conservation in exchange for carbon revenues funding social protection, green livelihoods, and climate resilience. Since 2013, the project has generated US$210,000, averted 18,500 tonnes of CO₂, extended clean water to over 5,400 people and provided educational materials to 700 children. It is now the first project globally to incorporate seagrass conservation under carbon offsetting standards. Recognised as UN Kenya SDG Person of the Year 2023 and replicated in four countries, Mikoko Pamoja demonstrates that community governed payments for ecosystem services can deliver conservation, social protection, and climate adaptation simultaneously at village scale. 

Context and Background 

Social, Economic and Political Context 

Gazi Bay lies in Kwale County, approximately 50 kilometres south of Mombasa. The villages of Gazi and Makongeni have a combined population of roughly 7,000 people dependent on artisanal fishing, subsistence agriculture, and mangrove extraction for fuelwood and construction. Kwale is among Kenya’s most economically marginalised regions, with 80 percent of the Gazi Bay community earning livelihoods through fishing. Mangroves function as nursery habitat for commercially fished species, provide coastal storm protection, and sequester carbon at rates up to five times greater than terrestrial forests. Yet between 1985 and 2010, 20 percent of Kenya’s mangroves were lost to unsustainable harvesting, reaching 70 percent in some peri urban areas. 

Historical Background 

Mikoko Pamoja emerged from two decades of ecological research led by Dr James Kairo of KMFRI and Professor Mark Huxham of Edinburgh Napier University. The institutional breakthrough came in 2009 when the Gazi Women Community Based Organisation was established with UNDP and GEF Small Grants Programme support, embedding community ownership from the outset. The project launched formally in 2012, with Plan Vivo certified carbon credit sales commencing in 2013. What began as a micro proof of concept is now informing national policy, with KMFRI replicating the model in Lamu County, home to over 60 percent of Kenya’s total mangrove cover. 

Objectives and Scope 

The project’s primary goals are to protect and restore 117 hectares of mangrove forest through community governance, generate sustainable green livelihoods from carbon revenues, reinvest those revenues into community determined social development priorities, and deliver climate adaptation co-benefits by maintaining coastal ecosystem services. Mikoko Pamoja is unambiguously micro in scale: two villages, one bay, 117 hectares, governed by a single democratically elected community organisation. The temporal scope is defined by the 20-year Plan Vivo agreement running from 2013 to 2033. 

Stakeholder Analysis 

The Mikoko Pamoja Community Organisation (MPCO), comprising 13 elected members, is the primary governance body coordinating conservation, benefit sharing, and revenue allocation through democratic voting. ACES, a Scottish charity, manages carbon credit sales and transfers revenues to MPCO upon verified target completion. KMFRI provides ecological monitoring and carbon accounting. The Plan Vivo Foundation certifies and issues carbon credits. The Kenya Forest Service conducts forest policing and issues Community Forest Association permits. Supporting partners include WWF Kenya, Edinburgh Napier University, and GIZ Germany. 

Description of the Eco-Social Contract 

Substantive Content 

The contract is codified in the Plan Vivo Project Design Document and the Participatory Forest Management Plan. The community commits to protecting 107 hectares from deforestation and planting approximately 4,000 seedlings annually. ACES receives payment from international buyers and transfers revenues to MPCO, which allocates them through democratic community votes to priorities including clean water, school textbooks, healthcare, ecotourism wages, beekeeping, seaweed farming, and aquaculture. Today, 82 percent of carbon credit returns flow directly into community-determined initiatives, exceeding the original 70 percent target. 

The traffic light payment verification protocol gives the contract enforceable strength. Annual monitoring data is assessed against conservation thresholds: full compliance yields 100 percent payment, partial compliance 50 percent, and failure yields nothing. Social entitlement is conditional on conservation delivery, not assumed. A further innovation addresses leakage risk: rather than simply banning mangrove harvesting, the project planted fast growing Casuarina trees outside the reserve as alternative construction timber, removing the economic incentive for illegal harvesting before it materializes. 

Implementation and Resources 

Plan Vivo validates the project to sell at least 3,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent per year, generating projected annual revenues of approximately US$130,000. Seed funding came from the UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme. Annual ecological monitoring covers carbon stocks, crab counts, and seagrass inventories, with full verification every five years. The 2024 Annual Report documents a REDD+ Community Learning Exchange at Gazi Bay in September 2024 with Gender Equity and Social Inclusion explicitly integrated, alongside visits from GIZ Germany and Intellecap assessing global replication. 

Outcome and Impact Analysis 

Success Indicators 

Over 10,000 mangrove seedlings were planted between 2012 and 2017, restoring approximately 800 metres of degraded coastline. The project has averted 18,500 tonnes of CO₂ and is certified to avert 3,000 tonnes annually through 2033. Dr Kairo describes it as a triple win: climate, community, and biodiversity. Socially, clean water now reaches 5,400 residents, 700 children have received educational materials, and over 200 jobs have been created. The Reach Alliance (2025) characterizes the model as a virtuous cycle of conservation, carbon financing, and community co-creation, each pillar reinforcing the others. 

Lessons Learned and Innovations 

The project’s 117 hectare scale has prevented access to larger compliance carbon markets. Reliance on the voluntary market creates price volatility risk, and Kenya’s absence of a national blue carbon policy framework creates regulatory uncertainty. The most significant forward-looking innovation is the carbon plus seagrass model developed by ACES with UNEP and Edinburgh Napier University. Mikoko Pamoja is the first project globally to incorporate seagrass under carbon offsetting standards, while the sister project in Vanga pioneers Plan Vivo biodiversity certificates for seagrass meadows, a new financial instrument for marine protection beyond carbon alone. 

Conclusion 

Recommendations 

Governments considering similar eco-social contracts should prioritize community co-design of conservation obligations and benefit sharing before external carbon finance is sought. The traffic light verification protocol should be adopted as a standard accountability mechanism in community PES arrangements. National blue carbon policy frameworks must be developed to reduce regulatory uncertainty. The carbon plus model combining mangrove credits with seagrass biodiversity credits should be studied as a template for expanding financial viability of small-scale coastal conservation globally. 

Future Directions 

Mikoko Pamoja is expanding carbon accounting to include seagrass meadows, which would make it the first combined mangrove and seagrass carbon credit project globally. The model is scaling nationally through Lamu replication targeting 5,000 acres and KES 13 million in annual community revenues. The September 2024 REDD+ Community Learning Exchange at Gazi Bay signals growing institutional confidence in the model’s scalability across East Africa and beyond.