Category Archives: Community

Wildlife Works’ Big Day Out!

Wildlife Works’ regional directors from around the world, with the REDD+ directors from the U.S. and Kenya offices, and the top performers from each department of our Kenyan Project, gathered for an educational day of exploration in and around the rural communities we serve!

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The aim of this big day was for the directors of REDD+ projects and Wildlife Works employees to experience the beauty of rural Kenya, to learn about the community projects we have already accomplished, and to get to know the local residents and hear their needs for future community projects.

Everyone gathered at Camp Kenya, an eco-tourism site on our land, and divided into 6 teams with 6 or 7 people per team. The event was made up of multiple challenges including a treasure hunt, sightseeing, a community questionnaire and a scavenger hunt. Each team was equipped with a map of our project area in southeast Kenya, a GPS and a list of questions.

The teams visited 5 ranches, Rukinga, Taita, Mgeno, Kambanga and Maungu, located close to our project area.

BigFunDay

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For the treasure hunt, the teams were instructed to travel to certain GPS points and find a clue that would direct them to the location of the treasure. For example, at Mawe Mrefu, once the team reached the GPS location they discovered a riddle that read:

“Beneath the tree,
On top of the rock.
If you can’t find me,
A baboon’s knocked me off!”

The treasure was a cache of soapstone coasters in a variety of colors. The goal of the treasure hunt was for each group to collect a full set of matching coasters by the end of the day.

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Each group’s starter kit included a community questionnaire that would help the teams discover what’s new in Kasigau, ask for the local peoples’ thoughts about our current REDD+ projects and find out what additional community projects they would like to see in the future.

The questionnaire led the teams to the Marungu Secondary School, the Makwasinyi water tank, the Buguta Disabled Group at Buguta Community Library, Ranger Post 6.0, the Amy Nicholls Memorial Centre in Bungule, Kasigau Chief Kizaka’s office, the Marungu Hill Conservancy Association, and the Jora Women’s Basket Group, where team members could take a break for lunch. The Women’s Basket Group welcomed each team with traditional dancing, and some of the directors and managers joined in!

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Wildlife Works founder Mike joins in the dancing with the ladies from Jora!

Wildlife Works founder Mike joins in the dancing with the ladies from Jora!

For the scavenger hunt, teams had to purchase or find specific items throughout the day. The groups were given some money to buy a stuffed animal from the Buguta Disabled Group and a basket from the Jora Women’s Group. Team members also needed to find an herbivore tooth, a twig of Acacia Tortilis (also known as the Umbrella Thorn tree), some frankincense resin from a Boswellia tree, and some elephant dung.

Team members could collect points for spotting wildlife while on their journey, and many got to see African elephants, giraffes, buffalo, lions and various species of birds. The employees spent the day hiking on red sandy soil, climbing up hills to take photos and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

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The finish line was at the Susana Bar in Maungu where the teams trickled in and relaxed over drinks and stories about the day. Wildlife Works’ Conservationist Manager Cara Braund, who organized the event, tallied up each groups’ total points and chose a winner. Landscape Manager Danny Woodley’s team won, though all teams were acknowledged for an element they performed well.

The winning team received a hand-stitched Panamanian decorative piece of fabric traditionally worn as a front panel on clothing, which will be on display at the Kenya office.

Lider Sucre, Regional Director for Latin America, said, “The sites we visited, the community people we spoke with, the amazing wildlife, and getting to know the Rukinga team really made a big difference for me in understanding the project and our impact. For instance, it was EXCELLENT that I was teamed up with Bernard, Lenjo, Muhammed and Brown for the treasure hunt. I got to know their personalities and their superb attitudes. Bernard really excelled at identifying wildlife and Lenjo was so gracious with greeting all the different community members. I got to see them in their element and appreciate their vocation and dedication.”

The Jojoba Project: Cosmetic and beauty plants benefit rural communities

If you check the ingredient label on your favorite shampoo, lotion or lipstick, it’s very likely you’ll see jojoba listed. The oil pressed from the seeds of this shrub can be used “as is” to soften hair and skin, or can be mixed into different cosmetics as an added moisturizer. Jojoba oil is unique in that it is chemically a liquid wax, not a triglyceride, making it more similar to the natural oil on human skin (sebum) than traditional vegetable oils.

Jojoba shrubs are hardy and can survive in arid climates and rangelands. Plantations of jojoba have been established in a number of desert and semi-desert lands including Argentina, Australia, Israel and the Sonoran Desert covering large parts of Arizona, California and Mexico. The arid savannas of our Rukinga project area have the ideal conditions for jojoba plants to thrive.

Cosmas pruning seedlings

Cosmas pruning seedlings

As part of our greenhouse program, Wildlife Works has devoted roughly one hectare to growing jojoba, making Wildlife Works the largest producer of the plant in Kenya!

Currently, oil from the jojoba plants we grow is used in our soap production and is sold to hotels in Kenya. We hope to begin exporting the handmade soaps to sell in the U.S. in the near future.

The supervisor of The Jojoba Plant Project, Cosmas, is a 56-year-old married man with four children (three girls ages 21, 19 and 16, and one 14-year-old boy) living in Maungu, an adjacent town to Wildlife Works. Since 2009 when Cosmas took on the role of supervisor for the plant project, the number of facilities and employees dedicated to the project has risen, and quality of jojoba shrubs has increased. He says the project team is putting in a lot of hard work, knowing that the community will benefit from their success.

Cosmas with the team

Cosmas with the team

Cosmas has been working for Wildlife Works right from our company’s beginning. At first he worked as a casual laborer, then was assigned to the jojoba project. Cosmas was promoted to Jojoba Plant Project Supervisor 2009, after the success of the Kasigau REDD+ Project.

Cosmas is a role model for other workers who wish to grow within the company. Before coming to Wildlife Works he worked in Mbololo, a town 55km from his current home in Maungu, crushing stones and selling them as home construction materials to help support his parents. He completed secondary school levels and wanted to study medicine, but could not afford to pay the school fees. Cosmas used the small amount of money he had saved to pay for driving lessons in hopes of getting a job for one of the driving companies in Mombasa, but even after getting his license he had trouble finding work due to lack of experience. He visited Wildlife Works hoping to find a job as a company driver, but there were no positions available. At the time, our company had openings for casual laborers, so rather than continue searching for a position as a driver, Cosmas accepted the job and began work the very same day.

Cosmas spends his days pruning the jojoba seedlings, attaching tags to the plants in order to identify different growth rates and building micro-catchments around the shrubs. Micro-catchment is a practice to harvest rainwater in arid lands. The workers build up a mound of dirt surrounding the plants in order to trap rainwater close to the roots.

In addition to supervising the jojoba plant project, Cosmas’ responsibilities also include ensuring that all work equipment is well serviced and available for the other workers.

With a supervisor position at Wildlife Works, Cosmas’ life has really changed. He is now able to provide for his family’s needs including food, hospital bills and school fees for his three youngest children. Cosmas has been supporting his father who still lives in Mbololo since his mother passed away.

Micro-catchment

Micro-catchment

Micro-catchment

Micro-catchment

Cosmas hopes to see the jojoba plant become a global leader in producing oils and cosmetics.

Watering the seedlings

Watering the seedlings

Cosmas has formed friendships and good relationships with his colleagues, and says he enjoys working at the safe environment provided by Wildlife Works. He has learned a lot about the importance of conserving the environment, including planting and protecting trees, and educating fellow community members on the importance of protecting wildlife. We are proud to have Cosmas leading our team!

The show must go on: Environmental film festival educates community about conservation

Wildlife Works in collaboration with Amara Conservation, an NGO promoting sustainable livelihoods through education, organized an environmental film festival for the communities surrounding our project area in Rukinga.

WW Community Relation Officer Joseph Mwakima organized the program along with local teachers, the chairman of Location Carbon Committee (LCC) and the leaders of 5 villages in Kenya (Marungu, Mwatate, Mwachabo, Mwatate and Sagalla). The three-week-long program visited 13 different primary and secondary schools and traveled to 9 different communities.

Community members watching the films at night

Community members watching the films at night

Using the Amara Mobile Film Unit, the team was able to show three different conservation films from the African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF). The first film, “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” showcases the current threats posed to both humans and animals by the illegal international ivory trade. “Wanted” also illustrates the financial benefits that rural communities can gain from sustainable, wildlife-based tourism.

Students watching the films

Students watching the films

The second film, “Black Rhino on the Brink,” travels back thirty years to cover early attempts to save the Black Rhino from extinction. It contains footage from Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The film illustrates how people in different countries have worked together to save this seriously endangered animal. Although the number of Black Rhinos has plummeted to a fraction of their original numbers, they are slowly climbing back up due to the efforts of many people, some of whom have given their lives to protect these animals.

Students watching the films

Students watching the films

The final film “Mizoga,” (which means carcasses in Swahili) was written by the Born Free Foundation and produced in 2004 in Kasigau by students from Kenyatta University of Nairobi, Kasigau community members and Wildlife Works rangers, including our Head Ranger Erick Sagwe. The film has not yet been added to the AEFF’s list of conservation films, but was chosen for this festival due to its emphasis on protecting the environment and its use of the Swahili national language, which many residents understand better than English.

7,565 people attended the festival, making it a huge success! The goal of this program was to sensitize the community towards REDD+ projects and large wildlife species, as well as to open discussions and highlight the important role of wildlife in the ecosystem.

Joseph Mwakima talking about REDD+ projects in Mwatate secondary school after the film.

Joseph Mwakima talking about REDD+ projects in Mwatate secondary school after the film.

After watching the films, many residents and teachers talked about starting environmental clubs within their community. We are thrilled with the success of this endeavor, and plan to schedule more events for the future!

Going green: Purchasing and planting tree seedlings in Kenya

As part of Wildlife Works’ reforestation efforts, our greenhouse team regularly purchase and replant tree seedlings from around our project area in rural Kenya. The greenhouse staff travel to communities around our Wildlife Sanctuary in Rukinga to purchase the seedlings from local farmers at Ksh10 per plant, providing a source of income for some community members who can not find stable work.

The greenhouse at Wildlife Works

After the seedlings are purchased, they are kept at the Wildlife Works greenhouse, nourished and prepared for replanting. Once the seedlings are ready, the team distributes them for free to local schools, churches, environmental groups and individuals for planting.

On November 23, the greenhouse team hired a canter, which is a kind of cart used for hauling goods, to assist them in transporting the purchased plants. The team would need to buy at least 50,000 saplings in order to thoroughly distribute them to the community.

A young girl carrying seedlings to sell to the greenhouse

The first location the greenhouse team visited was Kasigau, where the staff visited the home of Mzee (meaning “elder”) Coller, a married man with three school-aged children. While his children attend boarding school, Coller and his wife live in a small, unfinished hut. Without a stable job providing them with money for upkeep or sustenance, the couple rely on growing seedlings for money which provides them with two meals per day and covers the school fees for their children.

Once the greenhouse team arrived on the farm, Coller directed them to where he kept his seedlings. The team members were surprised and thrilled to find over 2,000 tree seedlings at his greenhouse! Coller said he was very happy for what Wildlife Works does for the community, and with the money he earned Coller can finally finish building his house.

Mzee Coller at his small greenhouse

The team continued to travel to different local farms within Kasigau and purchased anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 seedlings from each.

Purchasing tree seedlings

Next the team traveled to the town of Marungu, where the greenhouse staff met a farmer named Gradon Mswahili who also relies on money from the seedling program for sustenance. Through the sale of tree seedlings, Mswahili said he can afford to educate his three children, who are currently in secondary school, up to a tertiary level. Mswahili sold 8,000 seedlings, the highest amount any farmer has sold to the greenhouse team, and says that he is overwhelmed by what Wildlife Works is doing.

Wildlife Works greenhouse team members packing seedlings onto a canter

The last location in the greenhouse teams travels was Sagalla, and after five long days of work the total number of seedlings collected was 57,500 with a 90% species diversity.

The money from the purchase of tree seedling will benefit community members who otherwise could not afford to pay their children’s school fees or provide sustenance for their families. The saplings themselves will go toward reforestation efforts in an attempt to reclaim the once vibrant ecosystem of rural Kenya. The greenhouse staff members are continuing to spread a little green around the community… in more way than one!

Health, Wealth and Happiness: Rukinga Sanctuary hosts a health and finance management seminar for employees

Living in rural Kenya can mean limited access to formal institutions such as hospitals and banks. The closest hospital to Rukinga is St. Joseph Shelter of Hope located in the town of Voi, along with the closest bank. With Voi several hours away, many staff members at the Wildlife Sanctuary are paid in cash and find it hard to save money for the future. The Sanctuary’s Human Resources Department decided to host a special seminar bringing in speakers to teach Wildlife Works staff members how to stay on top of their health and finances. The goal of the talk was to provide employees with the tools needed for success.

On November 7, Dr. Andrew from St. Joseph Shelter of Hope and the finance team from Kenya Commercial Bank visited the Wildlife Sanctuary in Rukinga to speak in front of employees. The KCB finance team taught employees about how banks can keep their money safe. They demonstrated how to open a bank account and answered audience members’ questions on money issues.

Dr. Andrew spoke about the causes, treatments and preventative measures for cancer, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The doctor took time to focus on the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer, which is common among married women in Kenya because it is sexually transmitted. The audience was shocked to hear that men can carry HPV without showing any signs and put women at risk. The doctor also gave information on detecting early symptoms and advised women to get annual pap tests and cervical cancer screenings. While there is no cure for HPV, there are treatment options if one discovers cancerous cells in an early stage.

Dr. Andrew also discussed the symptoms of breast cancer. He demonstrated to the audience how to do self examinations by lying face up and using one’s hand to test for any unusual lumps or pain in the breast. If pain is detected, doctors can test for cancer while still in an early stage. The treatment for breast cancer is a mastectomy, where the breast is removed and one can use an artificial breast in its place. The doctor emphasized that removing a breast is far better than losing one’s life at a tender young age.

Dr. Andrew also accepted questions from the audience on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

Rua from Wildlife Works thanked the two teams and all those who ensured that the day was a success. HR Manager Laurina Lenjo also expressed his gratitude to the speakers and audience members.

According to our in-the-field community reporter Rose, the seminar has been a great success! Staff members have opened bank accounts and are planning for the future. The workers are talking more openly about health issues and many of the women working at Wildlife Works’ Rukinga Sanctuary have gone in for cervical and breast cancer screenings. We wish everyone at Wildlife Works a healthy, prosperous new year!

Students from Marungu Secondary School take a walk on the wildlife side

Part of Wildlife Works’ community enrichment strategy includes ensuring that underprivileged students get a chance to view their beautiful ecosystems and see wildlife in their natural habitat.

Students in rural areas do not enjoy the comforts and opportunities that the more privileged students in urban areas regularly experience. The schools surrounding Rukinga, including the Marungu Secondary School, are located almost two hours inland from Mombasa, deep in the Kenyan bush. Students at Marungu are boarded for four years, and many of them never get the opportunity to travel or visit the most picturesque parts of Kenya.

Last month, the Wildlife Works’ Human Resources Department organized a group of 30 Form Four students and two teachers from the Marungu Secondary School to travel to the Wildlife Works’ student camp for a wildlife conservation expedition! The event took place a few days after students had finished their national examinations and holiday break had already begun.

The participants traveled from their respective homes to their school compound at 4:00 p.m. where they were picked up by four Wildlife Works’ Land Cruisers and driven to their accommodations at “Camp Kenya.”

Wildlife Works’ Human Resources Manager Laurian Lenjo, Community Relation Officer Joseph Mwakima and Environmental Officer James Mwangongo welcomed the students to camp and filled everyone in on the adventures that lay ahead of them over the next two days.

After supper on the first night, the core organizers spoke to the students about carbon awareness and the importance of planting trees. Mr. Mwangongo encouraged students to take this new information home, plant trees in their neighborhoods and educate their community about conservation. Mr. Mwakima gave a motivational speech in which he encouraged students to wait for their exam results, with a promise that if they performed very well Wildlife Works would sponsor them on their next tertiary school level.

On the second day, students watched a film about the importance of conservation, then put their new knowledge to action and planted five trees. Finally, the group went for a game drive where they spotted beautiful wild animals including elephants, zebras, giraffes and lions.

Mr. Lenjo said, “[We came up] with this activity for the students who have been studying hard for four years, and are unable to [afford to go] on any trips. [We want them] to be exposed to the environment and what it offers in terms of flora and fauna. This also puts them in a position to make better career choices if they are confused about which field to venture into after [getting] their results. We are always happy to expose them to new things and give them something to ponder career-wise.”

Grace Wanjala: Sewing her own future

Grace Wanjala began school as a young girl, but was forced to abandon her studies at age 14, due to a lack of funding.

Grace, now 22 years old, remembered putting away her school uniform at Class Eight, knowing in the back of her mind that she would never put it on again. This was a real blow for the young girl, but Grace had no one to pay her school fees expect for her father who had lost his job.

Grace accepted her situation and tried to make the best of it. Regardless of the setbacks, Grace had hope that there would still be a great future for her and her sister, who was also forced to abandon her schooling at Form Three. Since she had been blessed with a beautiful voice, Grace joined the choir near her home in Wundanyi and began to participate in ongoing singing practices.

Grace said her time with the choir reminded her of going to school, saying, “We use to behave like school children. We would wake up early in the morning, do house chores and prepare lunch for our siblings who were in school at lower levels. After lunch we would walk with them and leave each other at a juncture where they would go to school as we would go for choir practice. The choir to us seemed like a school and through this we were able to wash away the unspeakable thoughts of being out of school, but at night tears watered my bed. I could not comprehend a life or a future without education.”

Grace Wanjala at the Wildlife Works eco-factory

Although she never returned to school, Grace was able to attend a three-day training program at Shin Ace Garments Kenya, an apparel enterprise in Mombasa, to learn how to sew. Grace found that she had a knack for sewing, and could finish a garment without much difficulty. When she heard about the eco-factory at Wildlife Works, she applied for employment. She passed her interview, showing off her abilities to make t-shirts from 100% organic cotton fabric, and got the job.

Grace Wanjala at the Wildlife Works eco-factory

Today she is working at the Wildlife Works eco-factory making T-shirts for our partnership with PUMA, and earns enough money to buy clothes for herself, do her hair and save up funds for future use. Her sister Presila, is also working at the eco-factory, but has taken some time off for maternity leave. Grace says she is very grateful for the opportunity Wildlife Works has given her. We are grateful to have such talented employees!

Grace Wanjala at the Wildlife Works eco-factory

Grace Wanjala at the Wildlife Works eco-factory

Not a drop to drink: Building water tanks in arid lands

For the people of the Kasigau area where our Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary is located, a normal day involves walking many miles to collect or purchase clean water. With urbanization and changes in lifestyles, water consumption is increasing at a tremendous rate. Kasigau is considered an ASAL (arid and semi-arid land), where water shortages are the norm. The lack of clean water leads to unhealthy living situations, forcing humans and wildlife to drink contaminated water, which can lead to water-born diseases.

Our conservation strategy that falls under the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) carbon offset marketplace includes the implementation of community improvement projects that aim to ameliorate these rural community challenges.

For those unfamiliar with our unique approach to REDD, money collected from the sale of the carbon offset credits that we produce goes back into the rural communities who have committed to protecting their environment and wildlife. The money is used to create sustainable jobs that give residents alternatives to destroying forests and wildlife for their basic survival needs. These jobs support improvements to education, environment, health and provide other forms of sustainable work.

When the people of Kasigau and five other locations around our project area heard about REDD and how this project could help their communities, the message was difficult for people to believe, but they decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and haven’t regretted it since. The local communities enjoy additional support for women groups, better job opportunities and growth, more education scholarships and overall local commerce growth from the increased job opportunities.

Early last year residents started offering proposals for the various community improvement projects they wanted to see carried out. Each village was allocated one third of the carbon credit money that is normally set aside for community improvement, just so long as the proposal is within REDD project mandates. Most locations issued similar proposals, all of which indicated a need for water.

The process of proposal verification requires a lot of time and research to determine feasibility, and many community members began to feel anxious that the water projects were not going to happen. The people of Makwasinyi in particular began to lose hope, as their old water tank was cracked and unusable, forcing them to travel very far from home for water.

To everyone’s relief, construction on the water tank projects began last month and we’re happy to say the one in Makwasinyi is already finished and ready for use!

 

The new water tank.

Ms. Zige, a mother of one, said she is so happy to have water just next to her house. She explained the situation Makwasinyi, saying, “When we gave the proposal of a water tank, we thought that it will never happen… We continued to use the old one but since it had a lot of cracks, all the water that was being pumped in would pour out and this would force us to go out and look for water very far from our home… Now I lack words to express my gratitude to Wildlife Works.”

The old, cracked water tank

The old and new tanks, side by side.

In addition to the water tanks, Wildlife Works has signed over many more community projects to contractors, and we are ready to start construction on a new classroom at the Mwatate Seconday School building, water storage tanks at the Maili Kumi Primary School and furniture for the students at Moi High School including new chairs, bunk beds and lockers.

As we continue our work to protect forests and wildlife, we will also continue improving living conditions for the members of our community. We are so grateful for our supporters, our staff members and everyone who believes in the power of REDD!

Cleaning day: Everybody do your share!

With no real infrastructure to manage waste, residents of many rural towns are neither motivated nor educated about why they shouldn’t litter. As a result, many towns, like our neighboring town of Maungu, are overburdened by noncompostable trash thrown in the streets. Part of Wildlife Works’ community education initiative focuses on teaching students how to reuse and recycle plastic items.

On Oct 27th, duty called upon the residents of Maungu to join hands and remove all the polythene paper bags and plastic containers that constantly build up around the town. Wildlife Works and Marungu Hill Conservancy organize an event each year to ensure that the town is clean, and all the plastic containers are recycled into usable objects.

This year our rangers joined in to provide security and assist the students from various schools and community members in their efforts.

Students were divided into groups and assigned different areas of the town to clean. Participants worked with gloves and rakes to remove the unsightly plastic debris, while fierce winds blew papers around and covered the workers’ faces with dust. Those who live in Maungu develop camel-like lashes to keep sand away from the eyes and special salivary glands to sieve sand out of the mouth. The work may seem tedious, but the volunteers were not discouraged.

The townspeople finished up the hard work just after noon, and gathered to relax and enjoy soda and half cake. Students entertained everyone with plays and poems about keeping the town clean.

Christine, who handles waste management for Wildlife Works, gave a speech on the importance of recycling waste products into useable items.

The students also enjoyed learning how to make a homemade hand washing station by attaching a bar of soap and a reusable plastic container to a stick held up by two larger sticks planted in the ground. The stations looked similar to a cooking spit and provided everyone with a place to clean their hands.


Everyone seemed happy to pitch in and do their part. We hope these annual sessions will continue to bring  community members together to make their home a more beautiful place to live.

Kasim the gardener creates works of living art

Kasim has been a gardener at the Wildlife Works Rukinga Sanctuary for only a few months, but already his work speaks volumes.

Kasim is a true artist, blessed with an innate sense of beauty that allows him to create imaginative landscaping including fun, natural signage that create a warm welcome for staff members and visitors to the sanctuary.

The 47-year-old father of seven never got to finish his studies, due to lack of funds to pay school fees. He managed to get by, working security jobs at various institutions until he began working for Wildlife Works.

Kasim doesn’t let his lack of formal schooling interfere with his creativity. When he decided to spell out the word “carbon” in stones, he asked a friend to write the word on a piece of paper. Kasim them discreetly tucked away the paper and used it to copy the word into the ground.

Working at the Wildlife Sanctuary has taught Kasim the importance of trees to his country’s ecosystem and the need for sustainable jobs and better education for the people of Kenya.

Kasim feels moved to see the children in Rukinga progress with their studies. He said, “The youth are the leaders of tomorrow and if we let them waste away, our country will lack enough manpower for new innovations.”

WHAT IS WILDLIFE WORKS?

Protecting + Forests + Wildlife + Community since 1997.

Wildlife Works is the world's leading REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), project development and management company with an effective approach to applying innovative market based solutions to the conservation of biodiversity. REDD+ was originated by the United Nations (UN) to help stop the destruction of the world's forests.