A specialist consulting company focused on
Unlocking Natural Potential
We believe in the potential of Africa’s natural places.
We help clients unlock that potential.
Keystone Conservation is a specialist consulting company helping clients achieve their conservation goals. We leverage analytical techniques, extensive datasets, and practical experience to provide solutions for protected area management and conservation across Africa.
Our specialty is financial and resource modelling for protected areas in Africa and beyond. Through our ground-breaking, dynamic modelling system – The Keystone Standard – we provide rigorous, detailed guidance on costs and resource deployment for effective conservation in protected areas.
We also undertake special projects that draw on our expertise in African conservation and skills in analytics, research, and communication. At the macro-level, we provide strategic guidance to clients through applied research and analytics that shed light on country-and continent-wide conservation patterns and possibilities. At the micro-scale, we help clients develop and maintain effective, efficient, and transparent on-the-ground conservation projects.
The Keystone Standard
Keystone Conservation helps stakeholders understand the management costs, required resources, and revenue potential for current or proposed conservation projects in protected areas in African and beyond. We do this with the Keystone Standard, a model to estimate resourcing for effective protected area management.
How do we do it?
We developed the Keystone Standard as a dynamic modelling system to calculate the cost and resources required to manage protected areas. Our system integrates >1,000 individual staffing, capital, and operating cost items with a causal network of quantity drivers and a database of country-specific costs. We create detailed, zero-based budgets for protected areas through a suite of proprietary algorithms and modules that consider each protected area’s individual context, goals, and desired standard of management. We developed our financial modelling system based on industry best-practice, rigorous science, cross-disciplinary expertise, and the latest data.
How is our system used?
We tailor the Keystone Standard system to each client’s unique project. We have helped plan for individual protected areas and for protected area networks spanning multiple countries. Some use-case examples include:
- Identifying resourcing and management shortfalls in protected areas
- Developing detailed, long-term resourcing plans for protected area projects
- Estimating funding requirements from different stakeholders in protected area management partnerships
- Investigating revenue potential for protected areas and assessing financial sustainability
- Integrating traditional management plans and effectiveness assessments (e.g. IMET/Green List) with standardized, protected-area-specific resourcing requirements to provide actionable, detailed roadmaps to improved outcomes
How do we help?
We deliver highly detailed, accurate, and context-specific assessments of protected area financing and resourcing in a timely and affordable manner to help clients meet their conservation goals. We have completed financial and resource modelling projects in countries across Africa and the Middle East including Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
Keystone Conservation offers industry-leading solutions to conservation challenges.
We help clients from the private, public, and NGO sectors achieve their conservation goals.
Government Agencies
We assist governments with auditing conservation operations, developing new conservation initiatives, and collaborating with conservation partners.
The Non-Profit Sector
Our services to the non-profit sector focus on conceptualizing new projects, conducting research, developing management plans, and auditing efficacy.
Private Enterprise
We help private enterprises benchmark conservation efficacy and ensure financial accountability and sustainability.
Our Team
Ashley Robson
Founder / Director
Ashley is passionate about Africa’s protected areas. From the requirements of field rangers to road grading schedules; from management benchmarking for a single protected area to integrated financial sustainability planning for an entire network—Ashley tackles the finest details and the big picture. He leverages his unique suite of financial, analytical, and creative skills to turn this passion into actionable conservation products for his clients and partners.
Ashley started Keystone because of his deep belief in the inherent value of Africa’s natural places and the role that he can play in unlocking that value. Ashley holds BSc, BSc(hons), and MSc degrees in the conservation field and was awarded President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African leaders in 2016. A believer in continual learning, he is currently completing his PhD.
Morgan Trimble
Research / Creative
Morgan thrives at the intersection of science and creativity. She is inspired by Africa’s wildest places. She has dedicated her career to helping people understand and appreciate biodiversity and natural areas to build constituencies for conservation. Morgan is an award-winning photographer and writer whose work has been published globally. She uses her scientific background to make complicated ideas accessible, whether through images, text, or infographics.
Morgan completed her PhD and MSc in conservation ecology at the University of Pretoria and completed a double major in biology and physics at MIT. She is an Associate Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers.
Claire Poole
Analyst
Claire’s work at Keystone includes research, data collection, and analytics. Driven by her love for nature, Claire joined Keystone to work towards improving conservation outcomes in Africa. A former science and mathematics teacher, Claire is also passionate about people and education.
Claire holds a BSc in biodiversity and ecology, a BSc(hons) in environmental management science, and a postgraduate certificate in education. She is currently working towards her MSc, focused on resourcing requirements of Africa’s protected areas and the drivers of these costs across countries.
Some Past and Present Clients and Partners
Areas of Expertise
Though our focus is financial and resource modelling for protected areas across Africa, we frequently undertake special projects for clients, drawing on our experience and expertise in African conservation and a variety of specialist skills in analytics, research, and communication.