Conservation Influencers

Conservation Alliance of Kenya

Kenya

Conservation Alliance of Kenya (CAK) was founded in 2015 by a large group of well-resourced NGOs based overseas and a few local groups which they fund. CAK describes itself as an umbrella organization. One half of CAK’s mission is to be the catalyst for exchanging information on wildlife and environmental issues. The other consists of popularising a list of commitments that every animal activist NGO already endorses, as a substitute for critical thinking or having anything specific to say about the unique problems on the ground. In other words, CAK sticks to motherhood and apple pie statements about maintaining natural resources and wildlife, while claiming to be countering threats to biodiversity and conservation at all levels of governance.

Conservation Alliance of Kenya’s founding members included the USA-based International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the USA-based The Nature Conservancy, UK- and USA-registered charity Amara Conservation, USA-based Big Life Foundation, USA-based Elephant Voices, USA- and UK-based Born Free Foundation, UK- USA- and Kenyan-based David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, African Conservation Centre, Ewaso Lions, the Kenya- and US-registered charitable organization WldlifeDirect, and WWF Kenya, global headquarters in Switzerland (full list here).

Conservation Alliance of Kenya has a seat at CITES’ meetings because the latter’s framework mandates that it guarantee the participation of local communities as official observers in its processes and meetings.

Leaders

Steve Itela – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Governance

Conservation Alliance of Kenya is a limited liability membership organization (Ltd). Membership is open to registered International Non-Governmental (INGO), domestic Non-Governmental (NGO), Civil Society (CSO) and Community Based Organizations (CBO). Its governance structure consists of Board of Directors, Council of Advisors and Secretariat. Board is headed by Lucy Waruinge.

Finances

Unknown.

About the directory

Conservation Influencers is a searchable directory of the animal activist, environmental and ecological lobby. It examines the history, mission, methodology and reputation of NGOs to assess their impact on the global conservation cause.

Featured

Franz Weber Foundation

From 1990 until 2015, Franz Weber Foundation (FFW) managed the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park in Togo, which was, according to an in-depth investigation by Duke University, ‘established by forcing the local communities off their land and without taking into consideration their point of view’. That same study cited convincing evidence from reports published in 1990, confirming that competition for land use was already ‘creating conflict between the local communities and park managers’. In 2015 Togo refused to renew FFW’s contract because, the report says, ‘local communities were still excluded from the management of the natural resources of their land’ and FFW had ‘failed to fulfil its contract’. Franz Weber Foundation plays a major role within CITES because it funds and manages from Switzerland the African Elephant Coalition (AEC), which represents 32 African range states, some of which have barely any elephants and others none at all. Contrary to the wishes of the range states in Southern Africa, which manage most of the world’s wild elephant populations, the AEC at CITES’ CoPs repeatedly tables proposals to put all of the world’s elephants in appendix I. And the AEC uses its voting power to keep in place prohibitions on ivory sales and all other trade in elephant-related derivatives, including skins and hair, which Southern African nations wish to legalise.

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