Case study
Case study
Case study
Conservancy
Conservancy
Conservancy
How Borana turned managed grazing into a measured land-recovery record
How Borana turned managed grazing into a measured land-recovery record
How Borana turned managed grazing into a measured land-recovery record
About
Borana Conservancy
Borana Conservancy is a family-owned ranch in Laikipia, Kenya, managed by Michael Dyer since 1984. Covering 11,579 hectares of East African savanna, Borana operates across conservation, tourism, ranching and community enterprise, employing more than 500 people, 95% of them from the surrounding communities. The cattle programme, run by True Range, uses ultra-high-density mob grazing across managed blocks as a tool for rangeland restoration. Wildlife numbers are increasing year on year.
About
Borana Conservancy
Borana Conservancy is a family-owned ranch in Laikipia, Kenya, managed by Michael Dyer since 1984. Covering 11,579 hectares of East African savanna, Borana operates across conservation, tourism, ranching and community enterprise, employing more than 500 people, 95% of them from the surrounding communities. The cattle programme, run by True Range, uses ultra-high-density mob grazing across managed blocks as a tool for rangeland restoration. Wildlife numbers are increasing year on year.
About
Borana Conservancy
Borana Conservancy is a family-owned ranch in Laikipia, Kenya, managed by Michael Dyer since 1984. Covering 11,579 hectares of East African savanna, Borana operates across conservation, tourism, ranching and community enterprise, employing more than 500 people, 95% of them from the surrounding communities. The cattle programme, run by True Range, uses ultra-high-density mob grazing across managed blocks as a tool for rangeland restoration. Wildlife numbers are increasing year on year.
Kenya
location
Kenya
location
Kenya
location
11,806
hectares
11,806
hectares
11,806
hectares
4
sites
4
sites
4
sites
9
years of analysis
9
years of analysis
9
years of analysis
challenges
Proving what they already knew.
Borana has managed its land in partnership with nature for four decades. When wool and beef markets collapsed, the property survived by shifting toward tourism, employing local communities, and giving wildlife room to recover, an approach that delivered results across the landscape. In recent years, agents, clients, funders and certification bodies have increased pressure on Borana to evidence that success, because observation on its own no longer satisfies commercial or regulatory scrutiny. The commercial case for forty years of stewardship needed data robust enough to stand behind it.
challenges
Proving what they already knew.
Borana has managed its land in partnership with nature for four decades. When wool and beef markets collapsed, the property survived by shifting toward tourism, employing local communities, and giving wildlife room to recover, an approach that delivered results across the landscape. In recent years, agents, clients, funders and certification bodies have increased pressure on Borana to evidence that success, because observation on its own no longer satisfies commercial or regulatory scrutiny. The commercial case for forty years of stewardship needed data robust enough to stand behind it.
challenges
Proving what they already knew.
Borana has managed its land in partnership with nature for four decades. When wool and beef markets collapsed, the property survived by shifting toward tourism, employing local communities, and giving wildlife room to recover, an approach that delivered results across the landscape. In recent years, agents, clients, funders and certification bodies have increased pressure on Borana to evidence that success, because observation on its own no longer satisfies commercial or regulatory scrutiny. The commercial case for forty years of stewardship needed data robust enough to stand behind it.
challenge 1
Deliberate grazing for regeneration
Borana deliberately manages its cattle grazing by rotating herds to rebuild soil structure, hold more water, and thicken grass cover over time. The team could see the change on the ground, and guests noticed it too. What the lodge and conservancy could not produce was verified carbon sequestration data to support it. Eloise Dyer, who leads emissions reporting for the lodge and conservancy, explains that the grazing programme effectively offsets guests' carbon footprint, but without verified data to back that claim, it does not hold up to scrutiny.
challenge 1
Deliberate grazing for regeneration
Borana deliberately manages its cattle grazing by rotating herds to rebuild soil structure, hold more water, and thicken grass cover over time. The team could see the change on the ground, and guests noticed it too. What the lodge and conservancy could not produce was verified carbon sequestration data to support it. Eloise Dyer, who leads emissions reporting for the lodge and conservancy, explains that the grazing programme effectively offsets guests' carbon footprint, but without verified data to back that claim, it does not hold up to scrutiny.
challenge 1
Deliberate grazing for regeneration
Borana deliberately manages its cattle grazing by rotating herds to rebuild soil structure, hold more water, and thicken grass cover over time. The team could see the change on the ground, and guests noticed it too. What the lodge and conservancy could not produce was verified carbon sequestration data to support it. Eloise Dyer, who leads emissions reporting for the lodge and conservancy, explains that the grazing programme effectively offsets guests' carbon footprint, but without verified data to back that claim, it does not hold up to scrutiny.
challenge 2
No shared baseline data for a varied business offering
Borana operates across tourism, ranching and community enterprise at the same time, and that diversity in offering is what makes the business both resilient and hard to evidence. Each enterprise draws on the same underlying asset, the land, but none had access to a shared, independent view of how that asset was performing. Nature gain credits, carbon-neutral guest stays, and a community share stock programme each depend on independently verified data that shows land trajectory over time. Without a shared record, each pillar has to make its case on its own.
challenge 2
No shared baseline data for a varied business offering
Borana operates across tourism, ranching and community enterprise at the same time, and that diversity in offering is what makes the business both resilient and hard to evidence. Each enterprise draws on the same underlying asset, the land, but none had access to a shared, independent view of how that asset was performing. Nature gain credits, carbon-neutral guest stays, and a community share stock programme each depend on independently verified data that shows land trajectory over time. Without a shared record, each pillar has to make its case on its own.
challenge 2
No shared baseline data for a varied business offering
Borana operates across tourism, ranching and community enterprise at the same time, and that diversity in offering is what makes the business both resilient and hard to evidence. Each enterprise draws on the same underlying asset, the land, but none had access to a shared, independent view of how that asset was performing. Nature gain credits, carbon-neutral guest stays, and a community share stock programme each depend on independently verified data that shows land trajectory over time. Without a shared record, each pillar has to make its case on its own.
challenge 3
Traditional perspectives on cattle and credibility
Some safari operators still treat cattle on a conservancy as something to explain away, instructing guides not to point them out to guests. That instinct overlooks two realities. Livestock and pastoralism have shaped the cultural and economic life of the communities surrounding Borana for generations. Within Borana itself, cattle carry out the restoration work the land depends on. A conservancy that cannot support its grazing programme with data will struggle to substantiate its choices when guests ask questions, and communities depend on the answer.
challenge 3
Traditional perspectives on cattle and credibility
Some safari operators still treat cattle on a conservancy as something to explain away, instructing guides not to point them out to guests. That instinct overlooks two realities. Livestock and pastoralism have shaped the cultural and economic life of the communities surrounding Borana for generations. Within Borana itself, cattle carry out the restoration work the land depends on. A conservancy that cannot support its grazing programme with data will struggle to substantiate its choices when guests ask questions, and communities depend on the answer.
challenge 3
Traditional perspectives on cattle and credibility
Some safari operators still treat cattle on a conservancy as something to explain away, instructing guides not to point them out to guests. That instinct overlooks two realities. Livestock and pastoralism have shaped the cultural and economic life of the communities surrounding Borana for generations. Within Borana itself, cattle carry out the restoration work the land depends on. A conservancy that cannot support its grazing programme with data will struggle to substantiate its choices when guests ask questions, and communities depend on the answer.
Our response
Independent proof the trajectory is sound
We created a digital twin of Borana, measuring soil organic carbon across 11,579 hectares from January 2017 to today at 10 m x 10 m resolution, updated every 10 days. The result is an independent, continuous, audit-ready record of how the land has performed and what is still possible.
Our response
Independent proof the trajectory is sound
We created a digital twin of Borana, measuring soil organic carbon across 11,579 hectares from January 2017 to today at 10 m x 10 m resolution, updated every 10 days. The result is an independent, continuous, audit-ready record of how the land has performed and what is still possible.
Our response
Independent proof the trajectory is sound
We created a digital twin of Borana, measuring soil organic carbon across 11,579 hectares from January 2017 to today at 10 m x 10 m resolution, updated every 10 days. The result is an independent, continuous, audit-ready record of how the land has performed and what is still possible.
response 1
A continuous measurement record
Every 10 m pixel, every 10 days, across the full land area - giving the management team spatially explicit, historically grounded evidence of which blocks are improving, which are under pressure, and where the potential lies. That kind of granularity was not available to them before.
response 1
A continuous measurement record
Every 10 m pixel, every 10 days, across the full land area - giving the management team spatially explicit, historically grounded evidence of which blocks are improving, which are under pressure, and where the potential lies. That kind of granularity was not available to them before.
response 1
A continuous measurement record
Every 10 m pixel, every 10 days, across the full land area - giving the management team spatially explicit, historically grounded evidence of which blocks are improving, which are under pressure, and where the potential lies. That kind of granularity was not available to them before.
response 2
Separating weather from management
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, so without a long baseline it is impossible to tell whether an improvement reflects management or a good rain year. The nine-year dataset resolves that by tracking the long-term trend against the SPEI index to show, through drought years as well as wet ones, whether the land is structurally improving.
response 2
Separating weather from management
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, so without a long baseline it is impossible to tell whether an improvement reflects management or a good rain year. The nine-year dataset resolves that by tracking the long-term trend against the SPEI index to show, through drought years as well as wet ones, whether the land is structurally improving.
response 2
Separating weather from management
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, so without a long baseline it is impossible to tell whether an improvement reflects management or a good rain year. The nine-year dataset resolves that by tracking the long-term trend against the SPEI index to show, through drought years as well as wet ones, whether the land is structurally improving.
response 3
The foundation for new commercial products
The lodge is incorporating Downforce figures into its emissions reporting and GER re-accreditation submission. Borana is also in discussions to launch a nature gain credit product verified against the independently measured SOC data. The share stock programme that gives pastoralist communities a shareholding in a regeneratively managed herd and structured grazing access in times of drought, uses Downforce verification to prove the cattle are delivering the ecological outcomes claimed.
response 3
The foundation for new commercial products
The lodge is incorporating Downforce figures into its emissions reporting and GER re-accreditation submission. Borana is also in discussions to launch a nature gain credit product verified against the independently measured SOC data. The share stock programme that gives pastoralist communities a shareholding in a regeneratively managed herd and structured grazing access in times of drought, uses Downforce verification to prove the cattle are delivering the ecological outcomes claimed.
response 3
The foundation for new commercial products
The lodge is incorporating Downforce figures into its emissions reporting and GER re-accreditation submission. Borana is also in discussions to launch a nature gain credit product verified against the independently measured SOC data. The share stock programme that gives pastoralist communities a shareholding in a regeneratively managed herd and structured grazing access in times of drought, uses Downforce verification to prove the cattle are delivering the ecological outcomes claimed.
Key findings
Evidence at work
Key findings
Evidence at work
Key findings
Evidence at work
01
The cattle story now has data behind it
At Borana, mob grazing is the mechanism by which degraded rangeland is being restored and wildlife habitat is improving. The data gives guides and the commercial team the evidence to make that case. As Eloise Dyer described: “Being able to give the guide the confidence and the toolkit to turn around and say, this is why cattle belong here, this is what they’re doing for the land - that changes the conversation entirely. It is not just another game drive. It is conservation you can see.”
01
The cattle story now has data behind it
At Borana, mob grazing is the mechanism by which degraded rangeland is being restored and wildlife habitat is improving. The data gives guides and the commercial team the evidence to make that case. As Eloise Dyer described: “Being able to give the guide the confidence and the toolkit to turn around and say, this is why cattle belong here, this is what they’re doing for the land - that changes the conversation entirely. It is not just another game drive. It is conservation you can see.”
01
The cattle story now has data behind it
At Borana, mob grazing is the mechanism by which degraded rangeland is being restored and wildlife habitat is improving. The data gives guides and the commercial team the evidence to make that case. As Eloise Dyer described: “Being able to give the guide the confidence and the toolkit to turn around and say, this is why cattle belong here, this is what they’re doing for the land - that changes the conversation entirely. It is not just another game drive. It is conservation you can see.”
02
One measure across the whole network
Ciara Hubble, Borana’s data and analytics lead, has built a combined ecological health index integrating cattle GPS, wildlife sightings, rainfall, infiltration rates and ground cover data across the conservancy network. Downforce SOC raster data is being incorporated as a weighted metric - adding the below-ground carbon picture to what was previously a surface view of land health. The same methodology is applied consistently across multiple conservancies, so that properties can compare their performance against one another for the first time.
02
One measure across the whole network
Ciara Hubble, Borana’s data and analytics lead, has built a combined ecological health index integrating cattle GPS, wildlife sightings, rainfall, infiltration rates and ground cover data across the conservancy network. Downforce SOC raster data is being incorporated as a weighted metric - adding the below-ground carbon picture to what was previously a surface view of land health. The same methodology is applied consistently across multiple conservancies, so that properties can compare their performance against one another for the first time.
02
One measure across the whole network
Ciara Hubble, Borana’s data and analytics lead, has built a combined ecological health index integrating cattle GPS, wildlife sightings, rainfall, infiltration rates and ground cover data across the conservancy network. Downforce SOC raster data is being incorporated as a weighted metric - adding the below-ground carbon picture to what was previously a surface view of land health. The same methodology is applied consistently across multiple conservancies, so that properties can compare their performance against one another for the first time.
03
Resilience through drought
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, and the drought of 2021 to 2022 produced the lowest recorded stocks in the dataset. The trend line across nine years runs upward regardless. As Ciara described it: “If their soil organic carbon is going up, then they’ve got stronger, healthier grasses, which means resilience.” The mob grazing programme is building structural soil health that persists through dry years.
03
Resilience through drought
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, and the drought of 2021 to 2022 produced the lowest recorded stocks in the dataset. The trend line across nine years runs upward regardless. As Ciara described it: “If their soil organic carbon is going up, then they’ve got stronger, healthier grasses, which means resilience.” The mob grazing programme is building structural soil health that persists through dry years.
03
Resilience through drought
SOC fluctuates with rainfall, and the drought of 2021 to 2022 produced the lowest recorded stocks in the dataset. The trend line across nine years runs upward regardless. As Ciara described it: “If their soil organic carbon is going up, then they’ve got stronger, healthier grasses, which means resilience.” The mob grazing programme is building structural soil health that persists through dry years.
04
Rising soil organic carbon
Soil organic carbon stocks rose from 417,768 tonnes in 2022 to 501,653 tonnes in 2025, with the largest single-year gain between 2023 and 2024. All four sites are improving, and the trajectory is still upward. The land is doing what forty years of management intended - and now there is a number to support those efforts.
04
Rising soil organic carbon
Soil organic carbon stocks rose from 417,768 tonnes in 2022 to 501,653 tonnes in 2025, with the largest single-year gain between 2023 and 2024. All four sites are improving, and the trajectory is still upward. The land is doing what forty years of management intended - and now there is a number to support those efforts.
04
Rising soil organic carbon
Soil organic carbon stocks rose from 417,768 tonnes in 2022 to 501,653 tonnes in 2025, with the largest single-year gain between 2023 and 2024. All four sites are improving, and the trajectory is still upward. The land is doing what forty years of management intended - and now there is a number to support those efforts.
05
Substantial sequestration potential remains
At 68% of its estimated sequestration capacity, Borana is performing well but there is still room for growth. That potential is what makes nature finance viable here as the land has not yet reached its ceiling, and the data now shows exactly where the gap is.
05
Substantial sequestration potential remains
At 68% of its estimated sequestration capacity, Borana is performing well but there is still room for growth. That potential is what makes nature finance viable here as the land has not yet reached its ceiling, and the data now shows exactly where the gap is.
05
Substantial sequestration potential remains
At 68% of its estimated sequestration capacity, Borana is performing well but there is still room for growth. That potential is what makes nature finance viable here as the land has not yet reached its ceiling, and the data now shows exactly where the gap is.
customer perspective
As a farmer, a rancher, a land steward - you get a bit locked into what you think is okay. We run these cattle commercially in a regenerative way, using them as ecological tractors to improve rangeland health. We make sure that it is regenerative by working with Downforce independently to verify that the trajectory is sound.
Michael Dyer
Owner and Director, Borana Conservancy
customer perspective
As a farmer, a rancher, a land steward - you get a bit locked into what you think is okay. We run these cattle commercially in a regenerative way, using them as ecological tractors to improve rangeland health. We make sure that it is regenerative by working with Downforce independently to verify that the trajectory is sound.
Michael Dyer
Owner and Director, Borana Conservancy
customer perspective
As a farmer, a rancher, a land steward - you get a bit locked into what you think is okay. We run these cattle commercially in a regenerative way, using them as ecological tractors to improve rangeland health. We make sure that it is regenerative by working with Downforce independently to verify that the trajectory is sound.
Michael Dyer
Owner and Director, Borana Conservancy
On-farm outcome
Borana sits at the edge of what well-managed land can look like in East Africa. Walk the boundary and the difference is immediate: on Borana’s side, knee-height red oat grass and recovering rangeland; on the other side, the ground reflects what happens when land carries more than it can sustainably hold. What the Downforce data does is make that work legible to those who need to understand what it produces - and to the guides who can now point at the cattle and explain exactly what they are doing there.
On-farm outcome
Borana sits at the edge of what well-managed land can look like in East Africa. Walk the boundary and the difference is immediate: on Borana’s side, knee-height red oat grass and recovering rangeland; on the other side, the ground reflects what happens when land carries more than it can sustainably hold. What the Downforce data does is make that work legible to those who need to understand what it produces - and to the guides who can now point at the cattle and explain exactly what they are doing there.
On-farm outcome
Borana sits at the edge of what well-managed land can look like in East Africa. Walk the boundary and the difference is immediate: on Borana’s side, knee-height red oat grass and recovering rangeland; on the other side, the ground reflects what happens when land carries more than it can sustainably hold. What the Downforce data does is make that work legible to those who need to understand what it produces - and to the guides who can now point at the cattle and explain exactly what they are doing there.