The push for private-sector financing gained momentum with a strategic partnership between WWF-Kenya and KCB Group to mobilise climate finance The organisation reported that initiatives supporting nature-based enterprises, conservation employment, ecotourism and land leases generated Sh80.8 million for beneficiaries in the 2026 financial year.
/HANDOUT Conservation organisation WWF-Kenya is seeking greater investment from Kenyan businesses as pressure on traditional development funding forces conservation agencies to diversify their financing and find new ways to sustain environmental programmes. The organisation’s 2026 annual report shows that programme investments grew from Sh629.5 million in the 2017 financial year to more than Sh1.6 billion in the 2026 financial year, reflecting an expansion of its conservation activities since becoming an autonomous national office in 2016.
WWF-Kenya says it has mobilised more than $132 million (approximately Sh16.88 billion) in sustainable investments since 2020 through partnerships directing public and private finance towards nature-related initiatives. However, the report does not disclose how much of this funding originated from Kenyan businesses, foreign investors or public institutions, leaving the extent to which domestic capital can replace traditional donor support unclear.
The push for private-sector financing gained momentum with a strategic partnership between WWF-Kenya and KCB Group to mobilise climate finance through the bank’s Sh10 billion Green Climate Fund facility. The partnership, announced in Nairobi during WWF-Kenya’s 10th anniversary celebrations as a national office, will support nature-based enterprises, develop bankable conservation projects and mobilise public and private resources for climate resilience.
It will also cover landscape restoration, tree growing, institutional clean cooking, solarisation and the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into business and lending decisions. “Since 2020, we have supported the restoration of more than 278,000 hectares of diverse ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, riparian areas and rangelands.
We have also helped mobilise more than $132 million (Sh16.88 billion) in sustainable investments over the past seven years,” said WWF-Kenya chief executive Jackson Kiplagat. “This is the scale of impact that must now be accelerated through stronger partnerships with Kenya’s corporate sector,” he added.
The partnership builds on earlier collaboration between WWF-Kenya and KCB Group, including a case study on integrating nature-related risks into financial institutions’ governance structures and lending decisions.