I first went to Il Ngwesi in 2024, drawn by a question that had sat with me for years: why do communities who protect some of the world's most important ecosystems remain so poor?

Il Ngwesi's 3,000 Laikipiak Maasai have spent three decades managing 9,300 hectares of Laikipia rangeland, maintaining grasslands, protecting wildlife and generating carbon credits. The conservancy brings in over $800,000 a year. Yet most community members, particularly the pastoralists asked to keep their cattle off protected land, see very little of it. During consultations with 1,186 community members in 2024, the message was consistent: poverty is the biggest barrier to deeper conservation commitment.

The Climate Commons Fund is our answer to that. Working with the Il Ngwesi community board, GiveDirectly, Global Resilience Partnership and the University of Wageningen, we are combining two things that have never been put together before: unconditional cash transfers to give individual families real capital right now, and a community-owned investment fund that pays a permanent Conservation Dividend from its returns.

This year, 100 community members, selected by public lottery with equal representation for women and youth, will each receive a lump-sum cash transfer. At the same time, the fund will be legally established, invested, and begin generating returns. Within 18 months, we expect to see families investing in drought-resistant crops, water harvesting and livestock diversification, and the first dividend payments flowing to all 3,000 adult members.

The goal is a model where conservation pays for itself, permanently, in the hands of the people who make it possible.