How can governments, investors, development partners, and conservation practitioners make better decisions about Africa’s wildlife economies?
On 3 November 2026, the African Leadership University School of Wildlife Conservation (ALU SOWC), the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) launched the Wildlife Economies Decision and Investment Support Toolkit (Version 1, 2026) through a partner webinar. The Toolkit gives governments, protected area and landscape authorities, community institutions, investors and development partners a practical framework for assessing, planning, financing and implementing wildlife economy strategies.
The webinar explored how the Toolkit can support stronger policy decisions, inform investment, and contribute to the development of wildlife economies as drivers of conservation, sustainable growth, and livelihoods. Download the Toolkit and the webinar presentation using the buttons above, or watch the full recording below.
Key Discussion Points
Making nature’s value visible: Across Africa, wildlife and healthy ecosystems already support livelihoods, enterprise, public and community revenue, food and water security, tourism and climate resilience, yet much of this value remains invisible in national statistics, public budgets, investment strategies and land-use decisions.
Four gaps the Toolkit responds to: Invisible value, fragmented mandates across ministries, weak project preparation, and weak enabling environments such as uncertain tenure and inequitable benefit sharing, which raise conflict and investor risk.
Wildlife economies as a strategic development sector: The Toolkit shifts the narrative from nature as a fiscal cost to nature as productive capital for communities, landscapes and economies, rather than treating wildlife as a peripheral conservation activity or isolated tourism initiative.
How the Toolkit works: Eight interconnected modules are organised in two phases: Understanding the wildlife economy (process, wildlife assets, enabling environment, finance and investor landscape) and Growing the wildlife economy (strategy and investment blueprints, policy and institutional reform, reporting and investment platforms, awareness and capability). It can be applied at national, subnational, landscape, protected area, community and transboundary scales, and is aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Built on the Wildlife Economy Investment Index (WEII): The assessment modules draw on ALU SOWC’s WEII, which uses 280 indicators from 34 datasets and has produced baseline reports for 54 African countries, giving countries a consistent evidence base to identify gaps and investment opportunities.
From finance mapping to investment-ready pipelines: The finance and investor module helps users map public, private, community and development finance, estimate gaps by subsector, and identify suitable instruments and de-risking measures to attract blended public-private finance.
Complementing existing tools: The Toolkit is designed to work alongside national strategies, regional frameworks, natural capital accounting and the UN Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), not replace them.
About the Partners
ALU School of Wildlife Conservation (SOWC)
The African Leadership University School of Wildlife Conservation is dedicated to developing the next generation of conservation leaders in Africa and advancing innovative approaches to the business of conservation. SOWC equips African leaders with the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to address the continent’s conservation challenges.
African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)
The African Wildlife Foundation is focuses on ensuring that Africa’s wildlife and wild lands thrive alongside its people. AWF works across the continent to advance African-led conservation, connect conservation with sustainable development, and support governments, communities, and other stakeholders in making decisions that benefit both people and wildlife.
Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF)
Conservation Strategy Fund uses economics to benefit people and nature. Founded in 1998, CSF works with governments, conservationists, funders, and other stakeholders to strengthen decision-making through economic analysis, capacity building, and technical assistance. Its work focuses on understanding the economic value of nature, assessing the costs and benefits of development choices, and developing solutions that support both conservation and sustainable development.
Webinar recording
Thursday03Dec 2026
What’s next
From launch to global uptake: GWP Tool Talk Series
AWF and ALU SOWC will present the Toolkit to a global audience at the Global Wildlife Program (GWP) Tool Talk Series, managed by the World Bank and funded by the Global Environment Facility.
