Cases / Finance, funds and markets · Kenya · 2025
USAID funding for Kenya's Northern Rangelands Trust ended in 2025
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
USAID, the main donor to the Northern Rangelands Trust, ended its funding in January 2025, and the agency closed on 1 July 2025. At stake for nature is the conservation work that funding supported, which the sources reviewed do not measure.
What?
USAID funding to the Northern Rangelands Trust ended in January 2025, Mongabay reported, and about 100 staff were laid off. Mongabay
Where?
Northern Kenya Mongabay
When?
Aid frozen 20 January 2025; trust's funding ended January 2025; agency closed 1 July 2025
Who?
Gained
None on recordLost
- Northern Rangelands Trust — Nearly 20 million US dollars of USAID funding in 2015 to 2020; about 100 staff laid off Mongabay
Harmed
None on recordWhy?
The stated reasons for ending the funding are not in the sources reviewed.
How?
Donor funding ended; USAID had been the trust's main donor. Mongabay
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
Mongabay reported that USAID gave the Northern Rangelands Trust nearly 20 million US dollars in 2015 to 2020.
Mongabay reported that USAID funding to the trust ended in January 2025 and that about 100 staff were laid off.
The sources reviewed report that USAID's foreign aid was frozen on 20 January 2025 and that the agency closed on 1 July 2025.
Reports of more poaching after the cuts rest on estimates, and no measured data was found.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: USAID funded 375.4 million US dollars of biodiversity programmes in 2023 (Yale e360, 2025).
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: the US government provided on average 12.1 per cent of global biodiversity funding in 2015 to 2022.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: USAID funded 60 to 80 per cent of the budgets of Kenya's community conservation areas.
- None on record Not known: the outcome for wildlife and habitat after the cuts.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers
Press and investigations
- Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern KenyaMongabay · May 2025
- USAID cuts conservationYale e360 · 2025
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
- Northern Kenya Grasslands Carbon Project and the Isiolo court ruling Kenya · 2012–2026
- USAID (Government) — here: Donor whose funding ended; agency closed 1 July 2025; there: Donor to NRT (nearly $20m, 2015–2020; funding ended January 2025)
- Northern Rangelands Trust (NGO) — here: Kenyan conservation trust that lost its main donor; there: Project proponent and conservancy manager
- Kahuzi-Biega National Park: Batwa evictions and killings DR Congo · 1975–2024
- USAID (Government) — here: Donor whose funding ended; agency closed 1 July 2025; there: Funder
- Kenyan court rules two carbon conservancies were unconstitutionally established Kenya · 2012
- Northern Rangelands Trust (NGO) — here: Kenyan conservation trust that lost its main donor; there: Proponent and manager of the scheme
- Report says a man died after ecoguard beating in Republic of the Congo park Republic of the Congo · 2017
- USAID (Government) — here: Donor whose funding ended; agency closed 1 July 2025; there: funder named in the report
- WWF independent review (Pillay panel) and US funding suspension International · 2019–2020
- USAID (Government) — here: Donor whose funding ended; agency closed 1 July 2025; there: Source of the CARPE funds routed through the US Fish and Wildlife Service
- WWF-funded ranger units accused of torture and killings in Asia and Africa Multiple countries · 2006–2023
- USAID (Government) — here: Donor whose funding ended; agency closed 1 July 2025; there: Funder of Kahuzi-Biega park, per the Minority Rights Group report