Opinion: Africa is rewriting the conservation narrative

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Richard Vigne is the Executive Director of the School of Wildlife Conservation at the Africa Leadership University and was previously the CEO of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa. He is organising the Business of Conservation Conference in Nairobi (March 4-7). His take from more than 20 years in conservation? 

• Biodiversity loss, climate instability and economic inequality are no longer separate crises. In Africa, they are converging on the same landscapes, the same communities, and the same political decisions. 

• Wildlife-rich areas are under pressure not because their value is unrecognised, but because that value rarely translates into livelihoods, revenues, or fiscal relevance at scale. Conservation, in too many places, still sits at the margins of the economy.

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This is why Africa is increasingly reframing conservation not as a moral obligation alone, but as an economic question. The central issue is no longer whether nature should be protected, but whether it can compete — credibly and fairly — with other land uses in a fast-growing continent. Without economic relevance, conservation remains dependent on grants and goodwill. Neither is sufficient for the decades ahead.

The idea of a wildlife economy has emerged from this reality. At its best, it is not about commodifying nature, but about aligning incentives with stewardship. It asks how wildlife, ecosystems, and natural capital can generate durable economic value — for governments managing protected areas, for communities living with wildlife, and for investors seeking long-term, impact-aligned returns. It also asks uncomfortable questions about governance, risk, and who ultimately benefits when nature enters markets.

These questions are now moving from theory to practice. Carbon markets, biodiversity credits, wildlife-based tourism, insurance mechanisms for human–wildlife coexistence, and blended finance structures are no longer fringe experiments. Yet many remain small, fragmented, or contested. Investors worry about scale and credibility. Practitioners worry about integrity and community rights. Policymakers worry about regulation and accountability. The gap between promise and delivery remains wide.

This is the context in which the Business of Conservation Conference (BCC), hosted by The African Leadership University's School of Wildlife Conservation, convenes in Nairobi in March 2026. Its relevance lies less in its size or profile than in the problem it is trying to address: how to move conservation from the periphery of economic thinking into the mainstream, without losing its ecological or social foundations.

The conference is shaped by institutions that operate at that fault line. African Parks brings experience from managing protected areas where conservation outcomes are inseparable from fiscal sustainability and community legitimacy. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) brings decades of work on inclusive development, governance, and the political economy of natural resources — particularly the risks of exclusion and elite capture when markets are poorly designed. Together, they reflect a growing consensus that conservation finance must work on the ground, not just on paper.

The agenda reflects this pragmatism. Discussions focus less on aspiration and more on constraints: how to reduce risk for private capital without diluting conservation outcomes; how to design markets that reward real ecological performance; how data, governance, and tenure shape investability; and how youth, communities, and African financial institutions are not beneficiaries of the wildlife economy, but its architects.

A defining thread running through these debates is a blunt reality: public and philanthropic funding will never be enough to sustain Africa’s landscapes at scale. If wildlife is to survive outside a shrinking network of protected areas, conservation must be able to absorb larger, longer-term pools of capital. Doing so responsibly is one of the hardest challenges the sector now faces.

What makes this moment distinct is that Africa is not approaching these questions as a passive testing ground for external ideas. African conservancies, governments, entrepreneurs, and financiers are increasingly shaping the models themselves — informed by lived experience of what works, what fails, and who bears the cost.

The real significance of gatherings like BCC lies here: In creating space for difficult conversations that cut across finance, conservation, and development — and in treating nature not as a charitable cause, but as a foundational asset in Africa’s economic future.

If the next era of conservation is to succeed, it will be because wildlife became economically indispensable without being ecologically diminished. Africa is now at the centre of that experiment — and the rest of the world is watching