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The foundation of Walmart heir Rob Walton is among the donors expected to fund a $160 million program to protect wildlife and support rural communities across 17.3 million hectares of Kenya over the next decade.
The Government of Kenya, The Nature Conservancy and Enduring Earth unveiled the Thamani Asili initiative on Oct. 21 in Taita Taveta county, home to much of Tsavo, Kenya's largest protected wildlife area. Philanthropic donors are expected to put up $80 million, and the Kenyan government will match that with $80 million of its own over 10 years.
The Rob Walton Foundation appears on a list of 16 anticipated funders published by The Nature Conservancy. The others include Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the Palladium Foundation and several individual donors. The size of each donor's pledge has not been disclosed.
17.3 million hectares
The program is designed to bring about 2.7 million hectares of new land under conservation, working with communities and other landowners. It will also improve the management of about 11 million hectares of existing parks and reserves and help communities manage another 6 million hectares more effectively.
The work will focus on the Tsavo to Coastal landscape, Greater Ewaso in the north, and the Greater Rift running to western and southern Kenya.
Organizers expect about 1.6 million people to benefit directly, with 3.9 million more gaining from better land governance and nature-based businesses such as ecotourism, sustainable grazing and carbon projects. The plan is projected to create about 7,800 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs, and to open new income sources for up to 80,000 people. It is also expected to avoid about 7.5 million tons of carbon emissions by 2035.
"Our communities are not separate from conservation; they are its heart," said Erustus Kanga, director general of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
The initiative uses a model known as Project Finance for Permanence, which ties long-term funding to agreed conservation targets and government policy commitments. Donor money will be held and paid out by the Thamani Asili Fund for Kenya, a newly created independent trust that will also track progress. Kenya has committed to conserving 30% of its land, inland waters and near-shore ecosystems by 2030, and the program is meant to help it get there.
Thamani Asili is the tenth such program backed by Enduring Earth and the third in Africa. Enduring Earth was set up in 2020 by The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund and ZOMA LAB, and has since drawn support from the Bezos Earth Fund and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Walton's conservation giving
Walton, the eldest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was chairman of the world's largest retailer from 1992 to 2015. He remains one of the richest people in the world through his family's controlling stake in Walmart, and in 2022 he led the group that bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion.
His giving has increasingly turned to African wildlife. In 2021 he committed $100 million to African Parks, the Johannesburg-based nonprofit that manages national parks and protected areas on behalf of governments across the continent.
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