Developing an insurance scheme to mitigate the impacts caused by wildlife
The case study comes from Kenya, where the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) started the Livelihoods Insurance from Elephants (LIFE) project with funding provided by the UK government's Darwin Initiative. The project started to explore the potential for insurance in mitigating negative impacts from human-wildlife conflicts. At the start of the LIFE project, IIED partnered with AB Consultants, an independent market driver seeking to increase insurance penetration in Kenya and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In the end of the project, the insurance scheme was formally approved by theInsurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), an insurance regulator in Kenya, in February 2021. The implementation plan was presented to the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife in October 2021 who approved it for implementation in 2022. It is hoped that the scheme will be piloted in five hot spot counties, including the research counties of Kajiado and Taita Taveta.
