How do we create community livelihoods as the foundation to building a conservation economy that protects our planets last remaining vast wildernesses

I think we are mostly in agreement that donation driven fortress conservation has proven to be insufficient in itself, as a long term solution to protect biodiversity and endangered species..

?I believe we are also starting to realise that the high tech block chain/carbon credits/biodiversity certificate funding and associated complex measurement systems are not having any real impact on the ground, in providing long term sustainable and resilient solutions.

?Surely the solution must lie with the wilderness communities?

What if these communities could be transformed over the next 2 decades into a connected community of educated, informed and motivated conservationists, resolved and determined to protect their natural assets at all costs, for the pure reason that there are substantial and tangible benefits for them to do so?

?How could we do this??

?Well the answer is fairly simple yet complex. We have to help create new and alternative conservation livelihoods that bring employment and prosperity to every rural village and in doing so, we will be building a powerful and resilient African (and global) Conservation Economy.

?Then, following this same logic, how do you practically create livelihoods? The answer is by establishing and building substantial conservation centric businesses that create employment and in partnership with these very same wilderness communities.?

?And in order to build these conservation businesses , you firstly need a strict land use and management plan, and the necessary infrastructure in place to support these businesses. (Comprehensive land use planning and management structures are generally completely non existent in the wildernesses that surround our national and regional parks).

?This is where our Multiple Land Use, Multiple Revenue Stream, Community Conservancy Planning, Development and Management Model becomes a potentially vital and practical investment friendly framework for the establishment of an interconnected and managed portfolio of conservation businesses such as regenerative high value , low impact agriculture ;eco tourism ;renewable energy ; game meat value chains etc

?The setting up and management of these Community Conservancies requires patience , education, mentoring and of course impact funding and investment!

?So…

?What if all or a portion of all the available sources of climate and social impact funding was pooled into an Impact Fund that focused purely on wilderness land use planning and management , as measurable outcomes of a thorough and patient process of Comprehensive Communal Planning(CCP)??

?Through CCP, we would be setting up the building blocks for a sustainable and resilient solution for Africa and possibly the world, which would have significant far reaching and powerful consequences.

?I challenge the likes of policy makers , impact funding specialists, philanthropists, governments, big business , hedge funds and individual private wealth to come forward and be part of this solution.

?If we don’t take long term biodiversity land planning seriously and move forward together with integrity and determination, no amount of short term "Donate and help save the Rhino campaigns", relentless report generation and data collection will prevent wilderness communities from continuing, by necessity, to reluctantly destroy their precious nature and biodiversity, through over population (as a natural reaction to poverty and lack of opportunity), habitat destruction and poaching.

?The rationale for the setting up of a blended finance Impact Fund for biodiversity protection and livelihood creation is described briefly in the attached.?

?https://cwcafricaprojects.com/funding/

Kindly reach out to the author, should you be in a position to get involved.