Press Release: Launching the Maasai Landscape Conservation Fund

Driving more resources to leading local conservation organizations

A core Maliasili goal is to get more money to the best local organizations at the frontlines of African community conservation. They are the ones bringing about real change and impact, yet they often struggle to get the resources they need to keep going and achieve their goals.  

To address this issue, we’ve increased our efforts over the past year to build partnerships with funders that share our vision of getting more funding to outstanding African conservation organizations. Working with the BAND Foundation and Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation, and with additional support from JPMorgan Chase and Acacia Conservation Fund, we’ve designed a new Maasai Landscape Conservation Fund that will invest in community-based organizations in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Together, we plan to invest at least $3 million over the next three years to accelerate impact across one of Africa’s most important conservation landscapes.

The first grants from this fund have just gone to Southern Rift Landowners Association (SORALO) and Honeyguide, to strengthen their pioneering efforts to sustain open landscapes, catalyze conservation enterprises, and build the capabilities of community management bodies in line with their organizational missions and strategies.

This new initiative aims to not only address critical conservation needs in East Africa, but to develop a working example of how to get more private conservation funding- through a pooled and collaborative model- to local African conservation leaders. 

Learn more about this initiative: maliasili.org/mlcf