agricultural sector, AWC has also secured deals
with two other companies, representing different
sectors in two other African nations.
In northern Kenya, AWC provided financing to
Ol Pejeta Conservancy--a 90,000-acre private
conservation area that includes cattle ranching
and meat processing--to pursue a commercial
trading partnership with its pastoralist neighbors.
The arrangement allows pastoralists to sell their
aged livestock to Ol Pejeta, giving them regular
income and access to new markets. It also alters
the region's typical boom-or-bust reality of herd
management, where pastoralists amass large herds
of livestock--which damage the savanna ecosystem,
negatively impacting wildlife habitat--only to lose
them, and income, during times of drought.
Meanwhile, in Namibia, AWC has ventured into
the conservation tourism sector. There, AWC
investment is allowing Grootberg Lodge, the first
community-owned lodge in the country, to make
structural improvements to its facility with the goal
of accommodating more tourists, thereby increasing
revenues. In a region poor in monetary wealth, but
rich in endemic species and habitat diversity, the
Grootberg renovations have the potential to provide
additional employment, up to US$125,000 in wages,
and up to US$180,000 in community income per year.
The 1st payment
AWC's first round of financing of US$3 million for
conservation businesses came from select AWF
trustees. Just one year later, AWC made its first
payment back to this investor group.
q
Grootberg Lodge is located in a region poor in
monetary wealth but rich in endemic species.
The arrangement
alters the boom-
or-bust reality of
herd management
$
July 2012
FIRST pAymENT
TO INVESTORS
26