Kenya faces significant environmental challenges, including climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss and pollution.

• Climate change: Kenya is highly vulnerable to droughts, floods and changing rainfall patterns, which affect agriculture, water availability and energy generation, particularly hydropower. The country is also a leader in renewable energy, including geothermal, wind and solar power.

• Land degradation and deforestation: Deforestation, overgrazing and unsustainable agricultural practices contribute to land degradation, soil erosion and desertification, particularly in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs).

• Biodiversity loss: Kenya's savannas, forests, wetlands and marine ecosystems are globally significant and host iconic wildlife, including elephants, rhinos, lions and giraffes. Threats include habitat loss, poaching, human-wildlife conflict and climate change.

• Chemicals and waste: Increasing plastic pollution, inadequate waste management in urban areas, and pollution from agricultural and industrial activities pose significant challenges.

• Underlying pressures: These challenges are driven and exacerbated by growing demand for land and natural resources to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population.

The Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program (GEF SGP) can support community-led initiatives that contribute to Kenya's national and global environmental commitments.

• National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): Support community-based wildlife conservancies, the sustainable management of forests and water towers (including the Mau Forest, Aberdares and Mount Kenya), and the restoration of degraded ecosystems.

• Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): Promote decentralized renewable energy solutions, including solar power, biogas and mini-grids, in rural communities; climate-smart agriculture; and landscape restoration to enhance carbon sequestration.

• National Action Plan (NAP) under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): Support sustainable land and water management in ASALs, agroforestry, and the restoration of degraded rangelands through community-led grazing management.

• National Implementation Plan (NIP) under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants: Promote integrated pest management, the safe management of chemicals, and community-based waste management and recycling.

• Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): Support community-led actions aligned with this landmark global framework, which aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, achieve a nature-positive world by 2030, and ensure that people live in harmony with nature by 2050.

• Community management of threatened ecosystems and species: Support community conservancies in rangeland management, wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism to help reduce human-wildlife conflict.

• Sustainable agriculture and food security: Promote climate-smart agriculture, agroforestry and sustainable farming practices among smallholder farmers, while strengthening value chains and food systems.

• Access to low-impact energy and co-benefits: Support community-scale renewable energy solutions, including solar power and biogas, for rural electrification, water pumping and productive uses.

• Local-to-global coalitions for chemicals and waste management: Work with farming communities to reduce agrochemical use through integrated pest management and organic agriculture.

• Sustainable urban solutions: Support urban agriculture, green infrastructure and food loss reduction in Nairobi, Mombasa and other urban centres.

• Blended finance for smallholder producers: Combine concessional, public or philanthropic funding with commercial capital to reduce investment risks and support agriculture and environmental restoration initiatives.