Kenya seals $160 million conservation finance deal

Kenya's government and a group of donors have ​signed a $160 million conservation programme aimed at protecting 173,000 ​square km (17.3 million hectares) of some of ‌the ​most complex and least disturbed natural environments on Earth.

The Thamani Asili initiative, which means "value of nature" in Kiswahili, will focus on key biodiversity hotspots from the Great Rift ‌Valley to the Maasai Mara which are home to thousands of elephants, rhinos, lions and other species. Details on Wednesday showed it will combine $80 million from dozens of donors including billionaire heirs of the Walton and Cargill families, with a similar amount ‌from the Kenyan government over the next 10 years.

The money aims to fund new conservation areas and improve management ‌of some existing ones using a "Project Finance for Permanence" (PFP) model, which binds funding to key government policy changes. Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Rebecca Miano, said it would both protect the country's wildlife and help farmers and communities that share the landscapes.

A recent UN Environment Programme ⁠report cited ​past government estimates that around 42% ⁠of Kenya's GDP and 70% of employment in the country depends on nature in one form or another. Kenya's environmental credentials have been thrust ⁠into the spotlight in recent weeks after President William Ruto and Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, broke ground on a new $16 billion dollar ​oil refinery being built on the country's coast.

The PFP model is gaining popularity. Brazil and Gabon both announced ⁠similar agreements last year, while others are in the works in both Namibia and Botswana. Ruth Masha at The Nature Conservancy, which helped put together ⁠the ​plan, said it would initially focus on four key regions.

One of them, Tsavo, is home to the country's largest national parks, 40% of its elephants and 20% of its critically endangered black rhinos. Another in the south along ⁠the border with Tanzania includes the Maasai Mara national reserve and connects into the Serengeti. It is also set to get ⁠the government closer to ⁠the global target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. TNC estimates Kenya is currently at around 20%-23%.

"There is a substantial gap that would be ‌largely closed," the head ‌of TNC's PFP programme, Ryan Bidwell, said.