We are excited to share stories from ILCN members. If you have a successful conservation initiative, story, event, or webinar to share, then please contact us at ILCN@lincolninst.edu.
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The formation of the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA)
Among the many important conservation success stories in Kenya in recent years has been the creation of Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association. The growth of conservancies—which in Kenya are defined as non- government owned tracts of land protected by private individuals, civic groups, or communities— in the 1990’s and 2000’s created a demand for networking, capacity building, and collective advocacy. And while conservancies had made efforts toward self-organization before, the inclusion of decentralized wildlife resource management as a goal in Kenya’s 2010 constitution and the formal recognition of conservancies in the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013 provided a new impetus for a national conservancy association. The fact that Kenya had lost nearly 70% of its wildlife in the previous 30 years provided added urgency.
Leading conservation stakeholders in Kenya including the Kenya Wildlife Service, Northern Rangelands Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and Laikipia Wildlife Forum began exploring the formation of a national conservation network. This effort included a study tour to Namibia to meet with the founders of the Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management Support Organisations (NACSO), which had created a successful model of how to connect communities and organizations focused on conservation. Upon their return to Kenya, representatives from the partner organizations met with more than 600 leaders from NGOs, community and private conservancies, and local and national government in each of Kenya’s conservancy regions. In 2012, the Kenya Widlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) was officially founded and received government recognition the following year.
The KWCA envisions its mission as three-fold: catalyze networking among conservancies, provide capacity building tools to its members to enhance their management and stewardship abilities, and be an advocate for conservation policy at the local and national government levels. The organization represents three types of conservancies in Kenya: private, community and group—the last of which is a collection of private landholders with tracts too small to constitute a conservancy on their own. In total, KWCA currently represents 160 conservancies ranging in size from 50-1,000,000 acres, which encompass 6.5 million total hectares (11% of Kenya’s land area) and 65% of the country’s wildlife that is outside of national parks.
The future is full of challenges and opportunities for KWCA. One challenge is that conservancies often do not  hold legal title or easement-type restrictions on the land they manage—relying on formal or informal agreements with landholders for their long-term management plans. The recent passage of the Community Land Act provides an additional challenge and opportunity. Communal lands, which until recently had been held in trust by county governments, can now be registered by the communities who reside on them. This will enable conservancies to work more easily and directly with these communities but may also provide an additional complication for their work because some conservancies stretch across the land of more than one community. KWCA seems primed to meet these challenges and help craft a vision for land conservation in Kenya for the next generation—the organization’s third annual Conservancy Leaders Conference was recently held in Nairobi and attracted more than 120 people from 28 counties in Kenya. (
A map of Kenya's conservancies (dark orange)) and National Parks (light green)
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Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) receives major grants for expansion
In 2011, seven conservation organisations comprising the Nature Conservation Trust of NSW, The Nature Conservancy – Australia Program, Queensland Trust for Nature, Nature Foundation SA, Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Trust for Nature (Victoria) and the National Trust of Australia (WA), established the Australian Land Conservation Alliance. The  intent of the Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) is to promote and implement approaches that ensure that private land conservation makes the greatest possible contribution to towards healthy landscapes and healthy communities in alignment with local, national and international biodiversity obligations.
In order to advance its mission, ALCA has adopted the following strategic approaches:
– Act as a National leader for private land conservation
– Improve consistency and best practice in private land conservation
– Promote mutual learning and information dissemination in the private land conservation sector
– Ensure and promote permanence in private land conservation
Starting in 2015, ALCA has hosted an annual National Private Land Conservation Conference, bringing together conservationists from all over the country for workshops, talks and a rich exchange of ideas and experiences. Over the past 12 months the members of ALCA have decided to further expand the efforts of the organization and have recently been successful in obtaining 2 major grants to support additional growth. Support from the National Australia Bank (NAB) and the State Trustees of Victoria, will see ALCA grow to include the key national and state private land conservation organisations in Australia. Creating this expanded network will set the stage for a step-change in ALCA’s approach and impact as it continues to press for national policies that promote and support private land conservation across the continent.
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 Carbon Markets and Land Conservation
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which the ILCN is a project of, is publishing a series of blog posts expanding on the themes of January's ILCN Global Congress in Santiago, Chile. Check out this one on "Tapping carbon markets for land conservation," by Will Jason, Communication Manager.
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 Natasha Wilson is the Advisor for Biodiversity Stewardship at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Trained in Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development at Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Stellenbosch University, she has a wealth of experience managing land programs and services and is a leader in South Africa’s conservation community of practice. Among the topics she focused on during her formal education was whether the country’s biodiversity stewardship approach was an effective conservation method for South Africa’s rural landscapes.
Before joining SANBI, Natasha served as Land Programme Manager with WWF South Africa, where she helped coordinate the organizations protected area expansion efforts with a focus on land purchase and land trust management . She has also worked as an Area Manager and Conservation Services Manager at Western Cape Nature Conservation Board, where she helped manage tourism and partnerships, developed conservation management as a strategy for local development, and was responsible for staff and finances within the organization.
In her current role she has become an important conduit between South Africa’s national and provincial environmental ministries and conservation-minded NGOs across the country. She is also a key facilitator for the country’s conservation community, most recently organizing and presiding over SANBI’s April Technical Working Group meeting in Kruger National Park. Natasha was one of the founding members of the International Land Conservation Network, attending its initial organizational meeting at the Lincoln Institute in September 2014.
Due to Natasha's significant professional responsibilities and her most important role as a new parent (congratulations!), she will be stepping off the Steering Committee and plans to participate on the Advisory or Friends council of the ILCN. We look forward to staying in close touch! |
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Mark Your Calendars: ILCN Conservation Finance Webinar
"Harnessing private investment capital to accelerate and expand land conservation: the role of impact investing"
On May 29 at 5pm ET, the International Land Conservation network will host a webinar on the role of impact investing and making use of private capital to expand land conservation. Our distinguished panelists have years of involvement with conservation finance and a range of practical experience on the subject. They include:
- Peter Stein – Managing Director, Lyme Timber Company
- James Fitzsimons – Director of Conservation, TNC Australia
- John Earhart – Chairman of the Board, Global Environment Fund
- Leigh Whelpton (moderator) – Program Director, The Conservation Finance Network
The webinar is open to the public, is offered free of charge, and will include a Q&A session after the presentations.
To sign-up for the webinar, e-mail Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler at jsobrinhowheeler@lincolninst.edu
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Upcoming Events:
 EU Green Week 2018
May 21-25, 2018
The 2018 Green Week will explore ways in which the EU is helping cities to become better and greener places to live and work. Showcasing policy developments on air quality, noise, nature and biodiversity, waste and water management, it will promote participatory approaches to urban development, networking schemes, and tools for sharing best practices, engaging local authorities and citizens, and encouraging them to share their vision of a sustainable future. More information is available here.
2018 Conservation Finance Boot Camp
June 18-22, 2018, Fort Collins, CO USA
The Boot Camp offers in-depth information on trends and opportunities in public funding, private investment
capital, bridge financing and loans, gifts and grants, income from the land, and monetized ecosystem services. There is a strong emphasis on practical, hands-on tools and lessons from relevant case studies. More information is available here.
 ELCN International Workshop on Legal Tools for Private Land Conservation
June 14-15, 2018, Arktikum, Rovaniemi, Finland
This first workshop of the LIFE ELCN project will investigate how private land conservation works under existing EU and national legislation and how new instruments could be legally codified to forster the concept of private land conservation. The workshop will focus on two topics: "conservation easements" and "privately protected areas". More information is available here.
See more on the ILCN's Calendar of Events.
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Many thanks to our content contributors for this newsletter: Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler (Project Coordinator for Land Conservation Programs, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy) , Laura Johnson (Director, International Land Conservation Network), Victoria Marles (CEO, Trust for Nature), and Jane Hutchinson, (CEO, Tasmanian Land Conservancy)
May 2018
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