MAS Holdings collaborates with The Wildlife Foundation Kenya

The Wildlife Foundation (TWF), Kenya and MAS Holdings (MAS), a South Asian clothing company, have joined together to protect 6,250 acres of the Nairobi National Park Wildlife Dispersal Area. This innovative program enables MAS and TWF to work with regional landowners to protect wildlife on community- and privately-owned land, in keeping with the MAS Plan for Change goal to restore 25,000 acres of habitat.

58 landowners from the Athi-Kaputiei region took part in a land-lease collection ceremony in March 2022, which marked the start of the project. The undertaking is a development of TWF’s ongoing conservancy concept, in which TWF leases the property from local owners in order to further animal protection and improve land use procedures. Through this collaboration, MAS has been able to increase the 5,000-acre reserve that already exists at TWF.

The conservancy approach makes use of both monetary and non-monetary incentives to persuade local people and landowners to maintain unfenced property so that livestock and wildlife may roam freely in the park’s surrounding areas. Additionally, there are programs to encourage the use of technology to develop novel solutions for conservation issues, install community rangers to reduce human-wildlife conflict, and teach young people and women in themes like beekeeping and biogas.

MAS and TWF offer financial incentives to landowners through the conservancy concept, which is jointly supported by MAS’ strategic business divisions MAS Intimates and MAS Kreeda, to maintain private properties open and unfenced for animal migration. Giving landowners lease payments that coincide with the beginning of the children’s school terms, helps to reduce human retribution against lions and other predators and supports efforts to enhance local children’s education.

In 2020, MAS opened a manufacturing plant in Kenya through its affiliate MAS Intimates. MAS Intimates Kenya (EPZ) Ltd., which employs 3,200 Kenyans, is a significant producer and supplier of intimate clothing and accessories to important markets in the USA, Europe, and Asia. The Machakos and Kajiado counties, where the majority of the MAS Intimates Kenya team resides, are the ones that lease the lands in the conservancy concept.

This conservation project has given MAS the chance to interact holistically with the local Kenyan community while also making a significant contribution to its goal of rehabilitating 25,000 acres of habitat. The MAS Plan for Change, the organization’s sustainability strategy, focuses on 12 commitments under the three headings of product, lives, and the planet. These commitments include promoting biodiversity and fostering vibrant communities.

With the shared goal of elevating and inspiring the people to aid in transforming our world for the better, MAS and TWF have agreed to work together on this special conservation initiative over the following five years.