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NURTURE - gente rica, paisajes saludables (ingl.)

The project is piloting a nature-positive, climate-resilient economic model in Northern Kenya. By unlocking the untapped potential of the honey and gum Arabic value chains, the project aims to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in fragile contexts while advancing ecosystem restoration. This is by incentivizing both communities and private sector and piloting innovative, nature-positive business models within the honey and gum Arabic value chains through the private sector.
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laikipia
0.3606063
36.7819505
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isiolo
0.355636
37.5833061
Kenya
Duración del proyecto
2025 - 2026
Financiado por
  • Wyss Academy for Nature

Northern Kenya’s Gambella region is facing an acute convergence of climate vulnerability, economic exclusion, and environmental degradation. Communities are highly dependent on pastoralism, but this livelihood is increasingly at risk due to unsustainable practices, frequent climate shocks, and weak market systems. The encroachment into wetlands and wildlife corridors in search of resources has accelerated ecosystem degradation and intensified human-wildlife conflict, undermining biodiversity. Limited technical skills and weak market linkages, coupled with cultural and nomadic barriers, particularly affect women, excluding them from formal finance and limiting sustainable income generation.

The project

Using a Market Systems Development approach, the project addresses complex, interrelated challenges—economic marginalization, climate vulnerability, and environmental degradation, addressing economic marginalization, climate vulnerability, and environmental degradation through integrated, market-based solutions. The initiative leverages contract farming, tailored technical training, climate-smart production, and inclusive finance and aggregation systems to create sustainable livelihoods and support the recovery of degraded ecosystems.

In first phase, the project works in three areas:  

  • Identifying and assessing private and public actors with the capacity to drive inclusive, nature-first business models in honey and gum Arabic value chains.
  • Strengthening technical skills, market access, and financial inclusion through co-implemented training, aggregation, and tailored financing solutions.
  • Documenting impact, sharing learnings, and engaging stakeholders to drive adoption and replication across public and private sectors.

Empowering Sustainable Livelihoods: Capacity Building, Market Integration, and Inclusive Finance for Ecological Stewardship

  1. Building Technical Capacity for Sustainable Production through participatory training, mentorship, and context-specific learning tools focused on sustainable harvesting, hive management, and ecological restoration practices.
  2. Strengthening Market Linkages & Aggregation Systems through formal contracting, shared aggregation infrastructure, and buyer-producer trust-building to improve access to consistent, high-value markets.
  3. Expanding access to finance through embedded credit & financing needs for women, youth, agents/aggregators through co-created financial solutions that align private sector incentives with environmental stewardship.

Expected results

  • Catalyse nature-first business models in honey and gum Arabic by partnering with the private sector to drive production that is commercially viable, ecologically restorative, and scalable. 
  • Increase income and resilience for 1000 women, youth and agents through structured training, market access, and tools that support a shift from subsistence to sustainable enterprise and strengthen collection of agents (dukawalas) 
  • Expand inclusive finance and enterprise development through embedded credit, group-based mechanisms, and catalytic grants that align business incentives with environmental sustainability. 
  • Restore dryland ecosystem, improving biodiversity, and promoting low-emission value chains that prove fragile landscapes can host thriving, climate-resilient economies. 
  • Strengthen collective action through group-based systems and equitable contracts that enhance producers’ bargaining power and long-term market participation.
  • Empower women as decision-makers and custodians of natural resources, embedding gender justice at the core of both economic participation and ecological stewardship