An innovative and concessional debt financing facility that combines microfinance, private debt, and technical assistance to address the underlying challenges to long-term sustainable and climate-resilient land management in and around Conservancies in Southern Kenya and beyond.

Driven by economic pressures and exacerbated by climate change, natural ecosystems in East and Southern Africa have experienced widespread fragmentation and degradation in recent years. Conservancies present a key vanguard to these compounding challenges, but inadequate access to finance for different Conservancy actors is limiting their functionality and ability to grow. Although various initiatives promoting sustainable practices target these groups, they do not offer an integrated solution.

The Climate Resilient Landscape Finance (CRLF) is a first-of-its-kind model where financiers, conservancy managers, and landowners collectively share the risks and rewards of sustainable land management activities. The instrument is designed to leverage existing structures and successful programs to finance and improve economic opportunities for landowners and conservancies to create at least five sustainable and non-correlated revenue streams and opportunities through tourism, livestock, carbon, agriculture and forestry, and landowner loans.

Platcorp, an established microlender and asset manager in East and Southern Africa, in partnership with Conservation Capital, estimates more than 18,000 individuals will benefit from the sustainable land use practices proposed in their first target area in Southern Kenya. The first landscape aims to cover an area exceeding 50,000 hectares, providing the region with enhanced resilience against droughts and floods while improving the livelihoods of local communities. This area is expected to sequester over 2.4 million tCO2e over ten years. Additionally, over this period landowners and communities are estimated to benefit financially to the amount of USD 46 million.