Kenya has embraced the conservancy model, now we must finance it

By Dickson Ole Kaelo

Kenya stands at a defining moment in its development journey. The country is investing heavily in roads, railways, energy, mining, housing and industrial growth to drive economic transformation. Yet there is another form of infrastructure – one that underpins tourism, agriculture, water security, climate resilience and livelihoods – that remains chronically underfunded. That infrastructure is nature.

Every year, governments and businesses depend on healthy ecosystems to sustain economic activity, yet conservation continues to be treated as a social responsibility rather than an economic investment. This contradiction is becoming increasingly costly.

Across Africa, local communities living alongside wildlife receive less than 10 percent of global conservation funding, despite protecting landscapes that sustain much of the continent's biodiversity. Scientific evidence shows that approximately 80 percent of wild plants and animals, and nearly 60 percent of large mammals, depend on habitats outside formally protected areas. These landscapes – owned and managed by communities and private landowners – have become the frontline of conservation.

Kenya understands this reality better than most.

Although Kenya is the third most biodiverse country in Africa, only about eight percent of its land is gazetted as national parks and reserves. The remaining wildlife habitat lies largely on community and private land, where wildlife coexists with livestock and people. These landscapes are increasingly threatened by land subdivision, expanding settlements, agriculture, infrastructure development and climate-induced droughts.

Recognising this challenge, Kenya embraced the conservancy model.

From just 78 conservancies in 2013, the country now has more than 230 conservancies spanning a total of over 10 million hectares across community and private lands. These conservancies have restored livestock and wildlife corridors, strengthened coexistence between people and wildlife, supported tourism, improved grazing management and generated thousands of rural jobs.

Yet one fundamental question remains unanswered: How do we ensure these conservancies survive and thrive long after donor-funded projects end?

The greatest threat to Kenya's conservancy movement is no longer community willingness. It is finance.

For decades, conservation financing has largely been driven by short-term donor projects with predetermined priorities, rigid timelines and limited investment in local institutions. While these projects have delivered important outcomes, too often they leave behind unmet expectations.

Communities continue bearing the cost of living with wildlife, such as crop destruction, livestock predation and restrictions on land use, while receiving only a fraction of the economic benefits generated from conservation.

Without predictable financing, even the best-managed conservancies risk being overtaken by competing land uses that may offer quicker financial returns but permanently degrade ecosystems.

If Kenya is serious about protecting biodiversity while accelerating economic growth, conservation financing must evolve from funding projects to financing local institutions.

That is precisely why the Kenya Conservancies Fund (KCF) represents a significant milestone in the country's conservation journey.

Developed through a partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife and the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA), with support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), UNDP and Conservation Capital, the Fund marks an important shift in how conservation is financed.

Rather than treating conservancies as temporary aid recipients, the Fund treats them as long-term investment partners capable of generating measurable ecological, social and economic returns.

Its objective is simple but transformative: Build strong, investment-ready conservancies that become engines of local economic development while securing Kenya's biodiversity.

During its first two years, the Fund will support competitively selected conservancies to strengthen governance, improve legal structures, develop management plans, design viable business models and prepare investment-ready enterprises capable of attracting additional private capital.

More established conservancies will receive support to strengthen commercial partnerships, develop benefit-sharing arrangements, and expand enterprises that create jobs while protecting nature.

Importantly, the Fund invests not only in projects but also in governance, institutional capacity, monitoring systems, communication capacity and transparent accountability.

These are precisely the foundations that private investors and development finance institutions seek before committing long-term capital.

The Fund has already demonstrated strong confidence from development partners.

Its first close has mobilised approximately $2.6 million (about Ksh330 million) from multiple partners, including the Government of Germany through GIZ's International Climate Initiative, the Global Environment Facility through Conservation International, the Maliasili Conservation Fund, and the European Union through WWF.

Together, these investments will support the first 38 conservancies across Kenya during the Fund's first phase.

This is an encouraging beginning, but only a beginning.

Kenya's estimated financing needs for community conservancies extend far beyond current commitments. Assessments indicate the conservancies need stands at between $16 million and $20 million over the next decade.

Reaching that ambition will require something conservation has historically struggled to attract: Domestic investment.

Government has an important role to play.

Public investment in conservancies should no longer be viewed as discretionary environmental spending. It should be recognised as strategic national investment.

Conservancies reduce future costs associated with bringing back dissappeared species, environmental degradation, human-wildlife conflict, drought vulnerability and declining tourism competitiveness. Together with gazetted wildlife and forest parks and reserves, they protect watersheds that sustain agriculture, maintain ecosystem services that support economic productivity, and contribute directly to Kenya's climate commitments under international agreements. Without conservancies, the national costs of actively managing insularised parks and reserves will more than double.

Every shilling invested in resilient conservancies reduces future fiscal liabilities and the associated costs of buying off spaces to act as connecting corridors. At the same time, Kenya's private sector has an unprecedented opportunity.

Businesses increasingly face expectations from investors, regulators and consumers to demonstrate responsible environmental stewardship. Global frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) are reshaping how companies identify and manage nature-related risks.

Nature is rapidly becoming a material business issue.

Investing in conservancies offers companies an opportunity to strengthen climate resilience, reduce biodiversity-related risks, secure supply chains and demonstrate measurable environmental impact.

These investments should not be viewed merely as corporate social responsibility. They are investments in economic resilience.

The Kenya Conservancies Fund has been deliberately designed to accommodate government, philanthropic and coorporate investments. Contributors can support specific conservancies, invest within particular landscapes or allocate resources nationally depending on their priorities.

This flexibility creates opportunities for philanthropic foundations, impact investors, corporations and development partners to align conservation investments with broader sustainability objectives.

The Fund also introduces a financing architecture capable of evolving with conservancy maturity. Early-stage conservancies receive grant support through a sinking fund to build institutional readiness. As enterprises mature, revolving finance will provide affordable capital for conservation businesses.Ultimately, an endowment component will generate long-term sustainability independent of project cycles.

This layered approach recognises an important reality: Successful conservation requires patient capital. It cannot be built through isolated grants alone.

As Kenya explores new biodiversity financing opportunities, including biodiversity offsets, carbon markets and emerging biodiversity credit mechanisms, investment-ready conservancies will become increasingly valuable national assets.

The conservancy model has already demonstrated that communities can successfully conserve wildlife while generating livelihoods. In the Maasai Mara ecosystem, recent data demonstrate that over 80 of the wildlife utilise conservancies in the wet season supported by a robust livestock grazing plan for tens of thousands of livestock, the region has nearly the same number of lions as the reserve, and landowners earn monthly returns from 50 tourism operators.

The next challenge is ensuring these conservancy instituions become financially resilient. The choice before us is clear.

We can continue financing conservation through fragmented, short-term projects that struggle to sustain results beyond donor cycles. Or we can invest strategically in locally governed institutions capable of protecting biodiversity while generating lasting economic value.

The Kenya Conservancies Fund offers a practical pathway towards that future. Its success will ultimately depend not only on international partners, but also on the willingness of government, financial institutions, philanthropists and the private sector to recognise that nature is productive capital.

Kenya has built a globally recognised conservancy movement. Now we must build the financing system that allows it to endure. Because when communities are empowered to protect nature, they are not simply conserving wildlife.

They are securing Kenya's tourism economy, strengthening climate resilience, protecting water resources, creating rural employment and safeguarding the natural capital upon which future generations will depend.

The question is no longer whether we should adequately invest in parks, reserves and conservancies. It is whether we can afford to rebuild them when they are gone. KWCA  invites contributors to walk this worthwhile  journey.

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Dickson Ole Kaelo is the CEO of Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association