A Kenyan court dealt a blow to the conservation group Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) when a three-judge panel ruled that two of its community conservancy affiliates were set up illegally.

The decision, issued by the Environment and Land Court of Isiolo county in northern Kenya, ordered the conservancies to shut down their operations effective immediately. Fifty-three community wildlife rangers were also prohibited from “operating or deploying” in Merti subcounty, where the two conservancies, Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab, are located.

The ruling was a win for 165 residents from the two conservancies who filed the petition in 2021. Abdirahman Osman, a pastoralist and human rights advocate who was the lead petitioner, said he was “happy” with the outcome.

“I’m not opposing the concept of conservation, but how it’s done and the legitimacy created a lot of confusion and doubts,” he told Mongabay by phone.

NRT, founded in 2004, supports 44 community conservancies in Kenya, covering around 10% of the country’s landmass, primarily in the arid north. NRT describes its mission as to “develop sustainable solutions that directly benefit local people, land, and wildlife.”

In the ruling, the judges said both Biliqo Bulesa and Cherab conservancies were established without adequate public participation. Officials from Isiolo county, which includes Merti subcounty, were described as having “breached their constitutional and statutory mandates” by neglecting to register community land before permitting conservancies to operate on it.

NRT’s supporters in Isiolo protested against the decision, vowing to appeal it.

“We are determined to fight this ruling and expose the falsehoods behind it,” said Adan Denge, a community elder from Merti.

The broad language of the ruling could spell trouble for other NRT-associated community conservancies and a major carbon credit project it operates. Under the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project, livestock grazing routes are managed by a committee to maximize vegetation regrowth, generating carbon credits. Around one-fifth of the credits — bought by companies like Netflix, Meta and NatWest — come from the Biliquo Bulesa conservancy.

In 2023, after a report by advocacy group Survival International accused the project of overestimating its carbon savings and violating Indigenous rights, the certifying body Verra suspended credit issuance from it before later reversing course.

“The Biliqo Bulesa community has strongly supported the carbon project, and no grievance has ever been received in respect of their participation in [it],” said Tom Laampala, chief executive officer of NRT. 

Osman told Mongabay that until the communities’ land is legally registered, it’s premature to operate a conservancy, and that NRT and the two conservancies’ leadership haven’t appropriately responded to community members’ concerns.

“If the community registers its land, that’s the time the negotiation over conditions and the transaction can take place,” he said. “But in the setup that we’re in, it will not work and is more of exploitation than benefit to the community.”

Banner image of a Samburu pastoralist in northern Kenya’s Sera Community Conservancy, an affiliate of NRT. Image by Ashoka Mukpo/Mongabay.