Land Trusts
AWF strives to develop innovative mechanisms for conservation of land outside protected areas. The goal of these efforts is to enable landowners to access a variety of options for conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. One of AWF’s key innovations is the use of the land trust – a community entity with the legal rights of a private landowner.
Land trusts, comprised of representatives from local communities, act as a player in the private marketplace, creating economic incentives and brokering agreements to encourage the conservation-friendly use of private lands. Through a land trust, communities can negotiate easements on private land for wildlife, compensate individual landowners for the opportunity costs, and even purchase land outright.
AWF has facilitated two major victories for conservation and local communities through the establishment of land trusts in Tanzania and Kenya, and additional land trust efforts are underway. The is the first institution of its kind in Tanzania and is expected to become a regional model. AWF designed the trust so that it could secure an important wildlife dispersal area between Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks. Following Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa’s decision that the government-owned Manyara Ranch would be used to benefit the Maasai and to preserve this critical migration corridor, the ranch was turned over to the Trust with a 99-year lease.
In 2005, AWF announced the registration and incorporation of the Kenya Land Conservation Trust (KLCT) — the first national land trust in Kenya’s history. Overseen by a board of directors, with community representation, the formation of the KLCT was simply facilitated by AWF — its real ownership lies firmly in the hands of the local people. For the first time, an entity whose entire focus is on conservation exists in Kenya with all the legal rights of a private landowner. This is a first for Kenyan law, a landmark for Kenyan conservation — and a precedent-setting victory in the fight to conserve the lands that sustain life across East Africa. It creates a flexible new mechanism for private initiatives to supplement Kenya’s parks, some of which are too small to be viable for wildlife on their own.
