The impact of carbon reduction projects

Eric Sagwe and Constance Mwandaa are patrolling the savannah. They look through their binoculars and spot a group of elephants drinking at a watering hole: Five adult animals plus one newborn. An idyllic scene they and their over 300 local staff members find worth protecting for future generations. Through the Kasigau Corridor Project, they help to safeguard over 200,000 hectares of dryland forest between Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks and an ecosystem that supports a herd of over 11,000 wild elephants.

If it wasn’t for Eric and his team, ivory poachers would still threaten the elephant herd and this critical piece of land in southeast Kenya would slowly turn into a desert. “When the project began, we had zero elephants in the area”, says Eric Sagwe, Head Ranger & Head of Security. “We looked after the trees [to stop logging activities], and consequently there was no more poaching. Finally, elephants started finding the Kasigau Corridor as a safe home.” By preventing illegal deforestation, the project aims to reduce over 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (tCO2e) annually over the 30-year lifespan of the project. It now also protects wildlife as an added benefit.

Tackling climate change and societal challenges 

The efforts of the rangers in Kenya are supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, being one of seven carbon reduction projects worldwide contributed to in 2022. Upholding the company’s environmental responsibility to enable better health is an integral part of its ‘Sustainable Development – For Generations’ sustainability framework: Boehringer Ingelheim is aiming to become carbon neutral in company operations by 2030¹  and is significantly working towards reducing its environmental footprint throughout the value chain². Since 2010, the company has reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 41 percent and currently has five sites certified as carbon neutral in operations.

“The development and production of pharmaceuticals require highly integrated and complex chemical processes and the reduction of GHG emissions, consequently, is a challenge. Still, we continuously work towards minimizing our environmental footprint”, states Ingo Weiss, Head of Global Environment & Sustainability Management. A fund of EUR 130 million has already helped to initiate more than 50 new environmental sustainability projects worldwide since 2020. “We partner with ClimateSeed, in order to contribute to concrete qualitative and certified projects that help mitigate the environmental impact of our currently unavoidable emissions. These in turn also help protecting biodiversity and important ecosystem services.” 

Moreover, these projects also create additional economic, educational or health benefits for the people living in the impacted communities. Such as for Constance, one of the rangers from Kenya: “In our society, women are not considered to be [worth] anything.”

Fortunately, the Kasigau Corridor project is challenging traditional social customs by offering ranger trainings to women, giving them a new understanding of their potential contribution to local communities. “I remember one day I arrested a poacher”, remembers Constance. “I didn’t realize that I could arrest a poacher. There were two, I caught one of them, took him to court and he was jailed. It was the best day of my life.”

Experiences like these bear a high potential to break existing norms and drive social change on a large scale. Overall, the wildlife conservation program currently invests in local communities with social programs impacting over 120,000 people. 

Joint efforts for sustainable livelihoods

Finding new ways of cooperation is at the heart of the Conservation Coast Project in Guatemala, which is the world’s largest grouped forest-based carbon project: hundreds of landowners have joined to protect 675 parcels of forest, making up a total of around 60,000 hectares.  It creates a significant contribution to protecting biodiversity, by safeguarding an important migratory corridor and habitat for 30 threatened species, including the Jaguar, West Indian Manatee, and hundreds of bird species.

ClimateSeed and their partners have helped enormously, bringing different stakeholders together and better leveraging their efforts, explains Marco Cerezo, founder of the implementing non-profit-organization FUNDAECO: “We went from trying to save a patch of forest to a large, protected area to a network of protected areas across Caribbean Guatemala. Eventually, we realized that our model of working through donations was not powerful enough. With the funds from the sale of carbon credits, we can finance our whole operation on the Conservation Coast.”  

The Conservation Coast project aims not only to develop sustainable activities that enable forest reforestation, but also ensure a better livelihood for women and girls. A second priority of the initiative is to improve access to education and health services for them, particularly in areas of reproductive healthcare. To date, 5.3 tCO2e have been avoided and more than 2,000 people reached by the project.

Despite the great diversity of the projects currently supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, it is exactly this holistic approach that unites all of them in pursuing the same goal: to leave future generations a healthy and prosperous world.

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About the partnership

ClimateSeed is Boehringer Ingelheim's strategic partner for climate contributions to carbon reduction projects that also benefit sustainable development. ClimateSeed carefully selects and offers a wide portfolio of internationally recognized Verified Emissions Reduction projects in over 20 countries, including in areas of reforestation, water and waste management. Boehringer Ingelheim has contributed towards 15 high-impact carbon reduction projects in 11 countries worldwide since 2019 – with more than 230,000 tCO2e captured or avoided. 

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Update: We published this story in March 2023. In November 2023 serious allegations against the Kasigau Project surfaced. Our partner ClimateSeed immediately removed this project from its platform, which means that Boehringer Ingelheim no longer invests carbon credits into this project. Investigation into the specifics of these allegations continue.

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