Profitable Land Investments with Wildlife Works

kenya

Is land restoration a viable business investment? The experience of Wildlife Works, a private, for-profit company registered in the United States, speaks for itself. For over a decade, the company has worked with local communities around Rukinga Ranch, in Taita Taveta County, southeast Kenya. The area is located between the Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks, which are Kenya’s large natural wildlife sanctuaries. A majority of the local people directly depend on natural resources for livelihoods, including those located within the project area. As a consequence, the local communities extensive harvesting of these natural resources had significant negative impacts on the environment.

Deforestation and slash-and-burn agriculture were rampant. Illegal activities such as bush charcoal production and bushmeat hunting were widespread and uncontrolled. The results were land degradation due to severe soil erosion, infrequent rainfall, and longer droughts. Initial analyses showed that the land would be completely deforested within 30 years.

In 2010, Wildlife Works successfully implemented a project under the REDD+ Project, which is a mechanism for financing large-scale forest conservation in the tropics. The consequent Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project abides by two of the most stringent and highly regarded environmental standards, and was the first project in the world to be validated and verified under both the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). Through these, the project is now able to raise funds through the sale of Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs). The VERs are calculated by determining how much of the carbon stored in a native forest would have been converted to greenhouse gases if the forest was destroyed. If Wildlife Works and the community can prove every year that they are protecting the forest, the project earns VERs, also known as carbon credits, for preventing the release of the forest carbon into the atmosphere. With the funds, the organization created the Wildlife Works Carbon Trust (WWCT), which finances projects that deliver tangible cobenefits to the surrounding communities. In addition, Wildlife Works has implemented a number of initiatives that directly address the main drivers of deforestation. Community projects include the provision of bursaries for education and local development, including constructing classrooms, providing school furniture, building water tanks, and renovating chiefs’ offices. In 2012, the WWCT’s bursary program sponsored 1,607 students for secondary school, university, and college education.

Today, more than 300 people are employed in various ventures of Wildlife Works, with the direct benefits flowing to about 1,800 people. In total, about 120,000 people benefit from the project’s activities and the WWCT. Sustainability is a core of its business model, and a large number of members are involved in facilitating knowledge transfer and empowering local actors. On the whole, Wildlife Works has alleviated pressure on 500,000 acres of land and helped secured a contiguous wildlife migration corridor between the Tsavo East and West national parks.

Web site: http://www.wildlifeworks.com