Elephants at a water point./Photo; courtesy
Three African conservation organisations have launched a toolkit to help governments and investors assess the economic value of wildlife and develop investment strategies that support conservation and sustainable development.
The Wildlife Economies Decision and Investment Support Toolkit was launched on November 3, 2026, by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), a nonprofit conservation organisation, in partnership with the African Leadership University (ALU) School of Wildlife Conservation and the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF).
The toolkit provides governments, protected area authorities, community institutions, investors and development partners with a framework for assessing, planning, financing and implementing wildlife economy strategies.
Its launch responds to gaps in how African countries account for the economic contribution of wildlife and healthy ecosystems in national statistics, public budgets and investment decisions.
“Africa’s wildlife economy has never lacked potential. What it has lacked is the evidence and coordination to show decision-makers what that potential is worth,” said Edwin Tambara, AWF’s Director of Global Leadership and Institutional Partnerships.
“This toolkit gives governments, communities and investors a shared basis for deciding which assets matter, which reforms are needed and which projects deserve finance,” he added.
The toolkit contains eight interconnected modules organised into two phases: understanding the wildlife economy and growing it.
These cover the assessment of wildlife assets, the policy and institutional environment, financing opportunities, investment planning and the development of strategies.
It also draws on the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation’s Wildlife Economy Investment Index, which uses 280 indicators from 34 datasets and has produced baseline reports for 54 African countries.
Dr Sue Snyman, Director of Research at ALU’s School of Wildlife Conservation, said integrating the index into the toolkit would help countries connect available data with policy and investment decisions.
“Integrating the WEII into the toolkit’s assessment modules provides a powerful bridge between data, diagnostics and action,” she said.
The framework also addresses challenges in attracting financing to wildlife-related enterprises and conservation initiatives. Its finance and investor module helps users map public, private, community and development finance, estimate funding gaps and identify suitable financing instruments.
Mark Gerrard, Africa Director at CSF, said many opportunities linked to sustainable wildlife economies were not adequately presented to attract investment.
“Finance plays a strong role in driving decision-making, and yet many opportunities aligned with sustainable wildlife economies are often poorly framed to attract such investment,” he said.
“The toolkit closes that gap by connecting economic analysis to project preparation, safeguards and accountability. It gives decision-makers a way to unlock the opportunities nature provides without liquidating the natural assets on which future growth depends,” Gerrard added.
The organisations say the framework is intended to complement existing national strategies and biodiversity financing initiatives rather than replace them. It can be applied at national, subnational, landscape, protected area, community and transboundary levels.
Following its launch, AWF and ALU School of Wildlife Conservation are scheduled to present the toolkit through the Global Wildlife Program Tool Talk Series, providing an opportunity to introduce it to governments and other institutions involved in wildlife conservation and financing.
