Scaling What Works: Community-Led Models for Conservation and Climate Resilience

Community-led conservation is increasingly recognized as a promising approach to protecting ecosystems while strengthening livelihoods and climate resilience. But demonstrating that a model works in one place is very different from building the evidence, financing, partnerships, and local capacity required to take it further. Using Akashinga's women-led, community-driven conservation model as a live case study, this session will examine what it actually takes to move from a successful landscape-level intervention to a model that can operate across countries and contexts. The focus will be less on making the case for community-led conservation and more on confronting the practical questions that emerge when it begins to scale. What does credible, replicable evidence of impact look like across ecological, economic, and security outcomes? Which financing structures can carry an organization through the difficult space between pilot and scale, from blended finance and results-based payments to philanthropic bridge funding? And what does genuine local leadership and ownership require structurally, not just rhetorically? The conversation will bring together different perspectives on scale, including frontline practitioners, funders, and government partners. That mix matters: decisions about conservation financing, land, enforcement, and expansion can look very different depending on whether you are making them from a funding institution, a government office, or the landscape itself. The aim is to examine both the promise and the friction of scaling what works. How do you grow without losing the local ownership that made a model effective in the first place? Which elements should be replicated, and which need to adapt? And how can funders and partners support growth without turning a community-led model into something communities no longer lead? What to expect A practical conversation structured around three questions: evidence, financing, and local ownership. Akashinga's experience will provide a concrete starting point, with additional perspectives from people involved in funding, enabling, and delivering community-led conservation. Rather than a broad discussion of nature-based solutions, participants will dig into the operational realities and trade-offs of moving proven approaches beyond the pilot stage, with space to challenge assumptions about what “scale” should actually mean. Who this is for This session is for conservation and climate funders, government leaders, impact investors, practitioners, policymakers, and others interested in community-led approaches to conservation and the practical challenge of financing and scaling them without sacrificing local leadership. What you will get out of it A practical view of what it takes to move community-led conservation from proof of concept to greater scale Perspectives on building credible evidence across ecological, economic, and security outcomes Insights into financing models that can help proven approaches move beyond the pilot stage A deeper examination of what genuine local leadership and ownership require in practice Lessons on balancing replication with adaptation as models expand across landscapes and countries Hosted by Akashinga