Learn what it takes to build viable finance solutions and achieve impact at scale for conservation and livelihoods.

Tourism has one of the most direct routes to delivering sustainability and community impact, yet 90% of lodges and eco-camps still rely on scattered spreadsheets and self-reported claims. The result? Great stories, but little proof.
In this session, Dimitri Syrris, Founder & CEO of Baotree, explores how tourism organisations can turn data into their most valuable currency — credibility. Drawing from Baotree’s work across Africa, he reveals how verifiable sustainability data enables lodges, eco-destinations, and their Foundations or Trusts to measure and communicate authentic impact without greenwashing.
Discover how Baotree’s technology is revolutionising impact tracking through education, gamification, and engagement tools embedded in their software, enabling staff and communities to participate, learn, and report on sustainability initiatives in real-time.
Join us to discover how verifiable impact, powered by people and data, is reimagining the future of responsible travel.

This session will demonstrate the opportunities and challenges for private insurance to facilitate human wildlife co-existence. It will hear from actual pilots in Kenya, Zambia, Thailand, Nepal and elsewhere.   Practitioners from the private and public sector will share lessons and recommendations on scaling up through sustainable finance, risk pooling and alliance building.

To achieve sustainable conservation solutions, we must rethink the business of conservation. This session aims to engage attendees in exploring, with experts, how local communities can manage conservancies with modest budgets while ensuring that people and livelihoods remain central to conservation efforts.

BioTrade is where business meets biodiversity. As demand for sustainable, ethical, and natural products soars, this vibrant sector is taking off. Africa, home to some of the world’s oldest BioTrade value chains, is now stepping into the spotlight. Hosted by the African BioTrade Advisory Group, this session dives into bold new opportunities and innovations driving conservation through commerce and empowering rural communities.

This session will spotlight the critical role of young people in reshaping Africa’s conservation landscape, moving from ideas and theory to actionable strategies. The session will explore how youth-driven innovations are advancing inclusive, sustainable solutions that empower communities and safeguard wildlife, ensuring long-term economic and conservation benefits.

With the voluntary carbon market within Africa showing early signs of exponential growth it is critical that scaling takes place with a community-led approach and greater levels of integrity. Join Carbon Tanzania, developer of award winning projects, to learn how equitable revenue sharing is benefiting participating communities and local governments in Tanzania. Then envision what additional opportunities for sustainable development, land and resource rights and conservation could arise when access to carbon finance is scaled.

Discover the innovative and collaborative conservation business models that African communities are creating to safeguard nature and their own well-being. Hear the inspiring stories of community-private partnerships from Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia that are enhancing the income and agency of rural people in Africa. 

A deep dive into African finance solutions geared for the Blue Economy.

When developed and implemented responsibly, carbon finance can be a transformative, scalable revenue stream that directly supports community development across Africa’s protected areas. African Parks’ carbon credit programmes assign economic value to intact ecosystems and channel revenue back to local communities and governments, helping to build a conservation-led economy rooted in nature stewardship and equitable benefit sharing. As protected areas across the continent continue to face volatility in traditional funding, whether from fluctuating tourism markets or unpredictable donor cycles, there is an urgent need to diversify financing. Carbon funding, alongside broader nature-based finance instruments, provides an alternative to sustain long-term conservation while directly strengthening livelihoods and climate resilience for communities living in and around these landscapes. 

The public health benefits of healthy ecosystems is an emerging area of interest. Yet practical approaches for investing in health and nature together—and the business case this can create for investors—remain underdeveloped. This session explores how a range of financing mechanisms  - including placing large, upfront capital directly in the hands of households and communities - can unlock climate, ecosystem and health benefits simultaneously.

Good governance is vital for the success of community-led conservation initiatives, and global conservation efforts in general. This session will delve into the necessary investments and ongoing practices required to maintain effective governance, ensuring long-term success and community engagement.

 Igniting the conversation at the intersection of sustainable finance and community-led conservation- ensuring that finance flows to where it matters the most.

This session will spotlight the critical importance of African countries adopting a structured and standardized approach to assessing and building wildlife economies through an innovative decision support toolkit. Through a dynamic discussion with experts, policymakers, and stakeholders, we aim to draw valuable feedback and insights to help refine the toolkit to ensure its fit for purpose.

The bioeconomy can be the lever for the African continent to be a global leader on an economy and society wide just transition but requires major investment to realise that vision. This session will unpack what is needed to realise a sustainable bioeconomy in Africa.

This session will challenge conventional thinking about the Blue Economy and ask the hard questions: What would it take to make protecting the ocean the most profitable choice? It will unpack the value of blue carbon, biodiversity credits, blended finance, and blue bonds, and examine how seagrass, coral reefs, and mangroves can anchor real economic transformation for coastal communities.