2024 Transatlantic Media Fellow Daniel Plafker's reporting receives international attention
Daniel Plafker, an alumnus of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Washington, DC's 2024 Transatlantic Media Fellowship (TMF), has drawn international attention to a contentious debate with his work on carbon offset projects in Kenya.
As part of the 2024 Transatlantic Media Fellowship cohort, Daniel investigated the impact of market-based climate change responses like carbon credit trading schemes on the rights and livelihoods of indigenous communities in East Africa. Using aerial imaging techniques inspired by the German satellite-journalism initiative Vertical52, he specifically looked into the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project, a soil-carbon offset scheme that covers almost two million hectares of land. The project advertised itself to clients as "proof of concept for rangelands restoration and community-based development through the carbon market", a claim that Daniel's investigative journalism seriously challenges. Interviewing local nomadic herders and analyzing video drone footage, Daniel found that many locals have been excluded from the decision-making processes that established the project proponent's conservancies and are now locked out of their traditional pastures that lie within the carbon project area. His video report was featured by Deutsche Welle and can be seen online here or watched below. Following the release of the video, the Isiolo Environmental and Land Court in Kenya issued a judgment ruling the establishment of conservancies on one fifth of the carbon project's area as unconstitutional. This landmark decision, together with Daniel's report, received international attention. To hear more about his journalism and what happened since, you can also listen to Daniel's follow-up podcast interview, available here, and read the follow-up article here.
Through our annual Transatlantic Media Fellowships, we encourage up-and-coming or freelance journalists who work on issues related to social, economi,c and political justice and the green transition. This year's application window is open from now until March 24th, 2025. Click here to find out more and apply!
