Using Enterprise Investments to Improve Local Community Livelihoods while Incentivising Conservation: evidence from the African Wildlife Foundation
At the core of AWF’s landscape model is a realization that conservation gains can be made when communities that live alongside wildlife are invested in saving the wildlife resource. This forms the premise of AWF’s conservation enterprise program, where AWF facilitates business development by communities in partnership with the private sector. More than 65% of these businesses have focused on tourism enterprises whose success is tied to the preservation of local wildlife and habitat. The partnership deal is brokered by AWF, rooted on equitable revenue sharing between the private investor and the local community, an approach that incentivizes communities to protect local wildlife and habitat resources and disengage from incompatible land uses like slash-and-burn agriculture, charcoal production and poaching.
In this presentation, the case of Satao Elerai Lodge in Kenya is described through detailed financial analysis. The $600,000 investment is a partnership between 250 households / community members and Satao Pvt (Ltd).
~ Jimmiel Mandima, Program Director, Policy