We are pleased to share the Awe for Nature Foundation’s 2025 Annual Impact Report, capturing the progress made through our flagship initiative in Chewore South, Zimbabwe, delivered in partnership with our implementing partner, the Chewore Conservation Trust.

2025 was our first full year of operations – and we used it to build the foundations that lasting conservation finance demands.

Among the highlights:

In September, we conducted our first baseline aerial census across 978 km² of Chewore South, recording 1,624 elephants and 875 buffalo – establishing the scientific foundation for biodiversity and carbon finance. We also launched two innovative finance projects: Animating the Carbon Cycle, developed by Yale University, and a Biodiversity Credits initiative, supported by the establishment of a Biodiversity Credit Committee within the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks).

On the community front, we installed a solar-powered water scheme now serving 1,500 people in Masoka, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mbire Rural District Council for a 22 km elephant- and predator-proof fence – a direct response to human–wildlife conflict causing annual crop and livestock losses of approximately $300,000.

This report tells the story of what conservation finance looks like in practice – on the ground, with real communities, in a real ecosystem.