Wilderness secures ‘green’ loan

Known as “principle-aligned nature conservation financing” the loan sealed between Standard Bank and Wilderness represents a first for the African market.

Standard Bank head of Corporate Financing Solutions in the Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division, Brydone Graham told BusinessWeek that while the quantum of the funding was not yet public information, the finance has been deployed across most of Wilderness' African footprint.

He said the funding was part of Standard Bank’s broader Sustainable Finance offering and carried preferential terms compared to traditional financing.

In a separate statement, Wilderness CEO, Keith Vincent, said the nature of the financing provided by Standard Bank contributes to the group’s strategy to ensure that the world, through sustainable conservation tourism, always has a version of its iconic wild places that are unfenced, untamed and unpredictable.

He explained that Wilderness’ mission is to double the amount of land it helps conserve in the next decade.

Born in Botswana more than 40 years ago, Wilderness is active in Zambia, Rwanda, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania.