Human-wildlife coexistence: novel financial mechanisms for conservation

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Conservation action is urgently required to mitigate increasing anthropogenic pressures levied on ecosystems and species while supporting human development. Biodiversity underpins human well-being, contributing to the provision of soil fertility, food, drinking water, and multiple additional intrinsic and existence values. Yet, a million species are now threatened with extinction and African lions have disappeared from over 90% of their historic range. These rangelands are a critical resource for millions of Africans, where ecosystem balance is underpinned by keystone species such as lions. However, those areas most important for biodiversity are often those with high poverty, highlighting the need to deliver effective and equitable conservation initiatives.Impactful nature-based finance is urgently needed to secure biodiversity and benefit local people. Despite the diverse global value of biodiversity, conservation projects often fail to pay their way. The estimated global funding gap for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change is US$ 3.5tn per annum. Annual funding of at least US$ 1bn is required to secure African lions in protected areas alone. A range of novel financial mechanisms attempt to support nature recovery, but significant knowledge gaps remain considering financial feasibility, ecological impact, and consideration for social impact. There is a critical need to better understand the potential mechanisms for equitable nature-based finance approaches which could deliver 'win-wins' for biodiversity and human livelihoods.My PhD at the University of Oxford aims to develop an innovative, measurable approach to understand both human and ecological impacts of nature-based investment mechanisms. My first objective is to develop a better understanding of nature-based finance for species conservation and identify specific knowledge gaps around social and ecological benefits, through a systematic literature review. My second and third objectives will be addressed later through empirical fieldwork, exploring the potential effect of financial incentives on community wellbeing and lion conservation in Laikipia County in central Kenya. Interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks, including the use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, will be utilised to assess the potential impact of these incentives on community wellbeing, and predict variation in attitudes toward wildlife. Subsequently, remote biodiversity monitoring technology (camera traps, acoustic sensors and drones) will be deployed to assess current lion populations and predict the effect of Lion conservation action in comparison with counterfactual assessments. We are unaware of another project considering both social and ecological impact data as indicators of success for a nature-based finance product focused on African lions. This project is not just academically novel, but innovative for nature finance markets as a whole with significant potential impact for biodiversity recovery.This project falls within the EPSRC circular economy research area, where an interdisciplinary approach aims to develop a more sustainable financial reality for conservation projects with significant benefits for people and the planet. To achieve this fieldwork, I have secured collaboration with local partners in Lion Landscapes and Natural State. Lion Landscapes has decades of ecological experience working in lion conservation across Laikipia and beyond, while Natural State are in the process of developing their own lion impact credit. This dual collaboration not only allows me to collect social and ecological data, but test this approach on an active credit for iterative development. This project has real world impact not only in our study area, but across global nature based investment market that has the potential to reverse biodiversity loss.