South Asian apparel major MAS Holdings (MAS) has partnered with The Wildlife Foundation (TWF), Kenya, to conserve 6,250 acres of the Nairobi National Park Wildlife Dispersal Area.

This initiative enables MAS and TWF to collaborate with local landowners to conserve wildlife on community- and privately-owned land.The project commenced in March 2022 and is an extension of TWF’s ongoing conservancy model through which TWF leases lands from local owners to promote wildlife conservation and better land use practices. Through this partnership, MAS has been able to expand TWF’s existing conservancy of 5,000 acres to a total coverage of 11,250 acres.

The conservancy model utilizes both monetary and non-monetary incentives to encourage landowners and local communities to keep land unfenced for wildlife and livestock to move freely in the outskirt lands of the park. This is coupled with initiatives to raise awareness on community-based conservation, place community rangers to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, train youth and women on topics such as beekeeping, biogas, and promote the use of technology to innovate solutions for conservation challenges.

MAS and TWF provide financial incentives to landowners to keep private lands open and unfenced for wildlife movement. This contributes to reducing human retaliations against lions and other predators as well as supporting to improve the education of the children in the area by providing landowners with lease payments aligned to the start of the children’s school terms.