Inside Nawiri Group’s Two-Decade Conservation Model

Nawiri Group brings together two companies: Asilia, a pioneering B-Corp that operates safari camps and collects a per-night conservation levy to fund impact projects, and Go2Africa, an award-winning tour operator that designs tailor-made safaris and conservation-focused tourism experiences across East and Southern Africa.

Both have become trusted voices in my articles. I featured Asilia’s Erebero Hills project in a story about who is leading regenerative travel in 2026, while experts from Go2Africa provided insights to stories about ethical wildlife tourism and conservation-led travel.

When I met Kate in person earlier this year, and we started talking about the scale of Nawiri’s work, what stood out was how much has happened, especially in the last two years.

Their work is not new; it started two decades ago. But in the last two years, the Nawiri Group has moved from smaller, project-by-project funding to longer-term, landscape-level programs that support community-led conservation across wider ecosystems.

In 2025, the group contributed $11 million toward nature protection and impact funding, with $4.5 million already allocated to impact projects over the next three years.

Why Conservation Cannot Stop At The Edge Of A National Park

The answer to this comes from Adrian Ghaui, head of impact and sustainability at Nawiri Group, who notes simply that the areas that keep ecosystems connected are not always the same places where camps, lodges or safari itineraries are.

"There are limits to what tourism alone can protect, and much of the land that matters most sits beyond those boundaries. Our focus is on the whole ecosystem, not just the parts people visit," he added.

Essentially, what happens outside the protected areas is just as important as what happens inside them.

"Movement, migration, and ecosystem function all depend on surrounding community land. Yet while tourism helps fund protected areas through park fees and conservation levies, those landscapes beyond their boundaries often have no consistent income, despite carrying much of the ecological weight," Kate noted.

Nawiri Group focuses on what it calls "working landscapes," where communities are under pressure.

"Population growth, climate variability, and limited economic options are making it harder for people to meet basic needs. Land is an important resource, and leaving wilderness areas intact comes at a cost," said Kate.

As tourists, we often expect local communities to protect wildlife without fully considering how difficult or costly it can be to live alongside it. We want everything to remain unchanged for the sake of the landscape or the safari experience, even though the countries we come from evolve economically.

"A single night of crop damage or livestock loss can threaten a family’s income and means of survival," said Kate, putting it into perspective.

Communities living along wildlife need ways for their land to generate value. They need strong local governance and education on how natural resources are used or how people and ecosystems can thrive together.

The impact became personal for Kate last year when she visited Kenya’s Naboisho Conservancy with her son and watched him see a pride of lions for the first time.

She recalled then that in the late 2000s, this land was divided, fenced and sold, while local communities saw little benefit from tourism. Wildlife numbers also dropped sharply.

In 2010, they helped change that trajectory by supporting locals in setting up the Naboisho Conservancy, pooling land, managing it collectively, while generating income through conservation-based tourism.

Today, the area supports one of the region’s highest predator densities, while hundreds of landowners receive regular lease payments.

"Conservation at scale isn’t about a single species or a single intervention. It's about people, land and long-term viability," noted Kate.

Long-Term Partnerships Can Create Financially Viable Systems

For Honeyguide Foundation, a long-standing Nawiri partner since 2007, the impact is tied to making community-led conservation financially viable.

Sam Shaba, CEO of Honeyguide Foundation, said in an email interview that Nawiri provides "catalytic, flexible, long-term funding" that allows them to move beyond short project cycles and build systems that can last.

In the Ruvuma landscape, that means helping Wildlife Management Areas shift from donor-funded conservation toward revenue-generating models through carbon markets.

Shaba said the goal is not simply to fund projects, but to build “a scalable system where conservation is financially viable, institutionally sound, and community-owned across Tanzania. A model that can be replicated elsewhere.”

A similar story unfolds at The Green Economy, a grassroots nonprofit working in Southern Tanzania to turn a regenerative agriculture model into a long-term program.

Philip Parmet, the organization’s director, said the partnership, which began in 2024, has been "nothing short of transformational," because it provides the flexible financing and time needed for complex landscape work.

In practical terms, it means that farmers in the region bordering the Selous-Niassa corridor have recorded bean yields increasing by 87% and rice yields by 133%, driven by improved seed access, stronger agronomic practices, and farmer-led extension.

In March 2026, more than 200 farmers planted 10,000 avocado trees across 50 acres. It is an agroforestry investment that they expect to generate at least $2,500 in additional annual household income.

30 households across four pilot villages have established integrated poultry-fish systems in which poultry waste nourishes fish in a closed, circular loop. A single pond stocked with as few as 500 fingerlings can generate at least $1,500 in additional income per year for the household.

To put it in perspective, the Global Living Wage Coalition’s 2025 reference value for a rural living wage in Tanzania is about $140 per month, or $1,680 per year. Earning an additional $1,500-$2,500 per year is significant.

Innovating Without Asking Travelers To Pay More

Nawiri is also looking for ways to increase impact funding without asking travelers to pay more. One example of such innovation is its electronic funds transfer, or EFT, option.

When a traveler pays by credit card, standard processing fees are built into the company’s operating model. But when a traveler chooses to pay by bank transfer or EFT, those costs are lower, even though the total trip price does not change.

Rather than keep the difference, Nawiri directs the savings into its impact funds.

It is a small operational shift, but it reflects a broader idea: impact funding does not always have to come from a new donation or surcharge.

"We are always innovating and looking for new ways to channel more funds into our impact projects, not by asking travellers to give more, but by making the systems around travel work harder," said Kate.