Kenyan government and donors sign $160m conservation programme — TimesLIVE

The Kenyan government and a group of donors have signed a $160 million conservation programme. It is designed to run for 10 years and cover 17.3 million hectares of the country’s biodiverse landscapes, from the Great Rift Valley to the Maasai Mara reserve.

As TimesLIVE reports, dozens of donors, including heirs to the Walton and Cargill families, will provide $80 million. The Kenyan government is to allocate another $80 million. The initiative has been named Thamani Asili, which means “the value of nature” in Swahili.

Funding and land management

The funds are planned to be used to establish new protected areas and improve management of some existing ones. The programme will use the Project Finance for Permanence model, under which funding is tied to the government implementing key changes in public policy.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Kenya’s tourism and wildlife minister, Rebecca Miano, said the programme is intended to protect the country’s wildlife and support farmers and communities living in these landscapes. According to government estimates cited in a recent United Nations Environment Programme report, about 42% of Kenya’s GDP and 70% of employment in the country depend on nature in some form.

Four priority regions

The Nature Conservancy, which helped prepare the plan, said the initiative will initially focus on four regions. They include Tsavo, home to Kenya’s largest national parks, 40% of the country’s elephants and 20% of its critically endangered black rhinos.

Another priority region lies in the south along the border with Tanzania: it includes the Maasai Mara National Reserve and connects with the Serengeti. According to The Nature Conservancy’s estimate, Kenya’s figure stands at about 20–23%. The new programme is intended to bring the country closer to the global target of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030.