New platform helps conservation get better at measuring what works

August 31, 2026

Dear subscriber, 

Conservation is attracting ever larger amounts of investment-grade funding. But how do organisations prove their work is delivering results? A new tool offers one possible answer. 

Treezer Michelle Atieno - Editor

Conservation in Africa is becoming more investment-driven and proving what works is even more important than before. As investors place greater emphasis on measurable outcomes, conservation organisations need even better ways to track the results of their interventions. A new open-access platform could help organisations do this.

  • The Conservation Monitoring Effectiveness Techniques platform, or COMET, is a free, open-access library of field-tested monitoring methods. Developed by the Conservation Measures Partnership, it helps practitioners select practical and cost-effective ways to measure conservation results. 

  • The past 18 months have seen several major conservation-finance developments, including a $132 million bond listed in Johannesburg, a $180 million Project Finance for Permanence initiative in Gabon and a $500 million debt-for-nature swaps pipeline. These are signs that conservation can and is attracting sophisticated capital and needs strong ways to measure results. 

  • Our take: Measurable conservation outcomes are funding requirement and COMET makes credible monitoring easier to adopt and share…Read more (2 min)

Africa’s wildlife economy is under growing pressure to generate more revenue from protected areas. But this increases the risk of making protected land easier to develop. Richard Vigne argues that the line between making wildlife more valuable and turning protected areas into commercial assets is beginning to blur, and there are consequences.

  • Richard Vigne is the Executive Director of the School of Wildlife Conservation at the African Leadership University. He writes:  "Some reasons for developing protected areas are valid. Africa needs development. Conservation needs money. But there is a line between making wildlife and wild landscapes more valuable, and converting protected land into commercial assets. That line is blurring, and Nairobi National Park is one of the clearest tests of where Africa chooses to draw it."

  • He adds that the wildlife economy must create value with protected areas intact and not by gradually making them available for development. 

  • Read the full opinion…Read more (2 min)

We have compiled 29 open mid and senior-level roles in conservation. Several roles are in geographic information systems management, data, community engagement and rights, carbon finance, resource mobilisation and more. Conservation organisations are evidently in need of more specialist commercial and technical experts. 

  • Southern Africa leads with 12 roles, followed by East Africa with 9, West Africa with 4 and Central Africa with 4. 

  • Wildlife Conservation Society the biggest recruiter, with seven openings in East and Central Africa, including roles in field operations and community engagement.  

  • Full list…Read more (2 min)

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Libya and IUCN launch five-year biodiversity roadmap to strengthen environmental governance and ecosystem protection 

 

Events

🗓️ Join the 12th Conference of Contracting Parties in Tanzania (October 5)

🗓️ Attend the WCN Wildlife Conservation Expo in USA (October 10)

🗓️ Join the South African Wildlife Management Association Conference (Aug 30)

Various 

🌳 South Africa adopts new strategy to protect seabirds from fishing impacts

🌳 New study identifies best conservation for Africa’s wildlife

🌳 Togo launches new national biodiversity finance strategy 

 

Seen on LinkedIn 

Lilian Spijkerman, the Chief Development Officer at Peace Parks Foundation, says, “Conservation in Africa is about far more than protecting wild places. It is an investment in regional stability, strong transparent institutions and economic resilience, with benefits that extend well beyond the continent.”_________________