Insurance is about protection against loss — and so, in many ways, is conservation. The similarities between these two industries mean both could gain from a closer relationship.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently announced the trial of an innovative insurance scheme for traditional herders in northern Kenya.

But it has been almost impossible for these pastoralists to take out insurance against the loss of livestock due to drought, largely because of the challenge verifying livestock deaths over vast remote areas.

To address this challenge, the ILRI trial uses satellite images to calculate vegetation cover, and offers insurance payouts when forage is so scarce that livestock stand a high probability of starving.

So what does this have to do with conservation?

Read more … (Nature Conservancy Blog)