05/03/2026
AICA was represented in the Business of Conservation Conference 2026 in Nairobi this week, contributing to key conversations on building sustainable conservation economies.
On March 4th, AICA’s Coordinator, Bupe Banda who is also a member of the Zambia Community Resources Board Association- (part of the Community Leaders Network of Southern Africa) facilitated a Solutions Room session titled “Wildlife and Wealth: Crafting Economies that Benefit Nature and Communities.”
The session explored a critical question:
What must be true for community-led conservation to be genuinely investable?
The discussion surfaced some uncomfortable but necessary truths:
• Many community conservation initiatives across Africa are surviving, not thriving, due to structural donor dependency.
• Conservation finance often rewards compliance rather than performance.
• And “community-led” or “community based” does not automatically mean investable.
Together with experts Dickson Kaelo (Kenya), Daniel Sopia (Masai Mara), and Andrew Mariki (Tanzania), participants explored practical pathways to investability, ranging from revenue diversification and strong governance to transparent benefit-sharing. Groups also stress-tested real-world scenarios and proposed bold recommendations that could form an “investability checklist” for community conservation enterprises.
On March 5th, Bupe Banda also participated in Plenary Session 9: “From the Ground Up: Business Models in Community Conservation,” sharing lessons from Zambia’s community conservation experience.
With over 86 Community Resource Boards (CRBs) and over 180 Community Forest Management Groups (CFMGs), progress has been driven by:
• Strengthening grassroots governance through capacity building and peer learning via the CRB Association
• Greater inclusion of women in conservation-linked enterprises
• Communities negotiating as informed equity partners
However, an important challenge remains: the disconnect between conservation priorities and community livelihood needs.
As Bupe emphasized:
“Models must deliver consistent economic benefits, trusted governance, and predictable returns over long-term cycles, not short grants. We must move beyond protecting wildlife from people or people from wildlife, to building economies where Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities co-design outcomes and are trusted partners.”
