Faswitha piaossion

Wildlife Works’ stylish T-shirts and casual clothing protect wildlife in Africa and provide villagers with a livelihood BY BONNIE MONTE

Mike Korchinsky hit on a profound truth as he considered how to create a safe haven for wildlife in Africa: It’s vital to help the local people as well. “Conservation is about the future,” Korchinsky says. “If people don’t believe they have a future, conservation is meaningless to them.” So when Korchinsky founded Wildlife Works in 1997, he not only established an 80,000-acre animal sanctuary in southeastern Kenya, he also built an eco-factory there that provides a livelihood to villagers who were barely scraping by. (See a video.)

The Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary serves as a vital animal migration corridor for elephants and other large mammals between Kenya’s two largest national parks. When Korchinsky’s group came on the

MORE WAYS TO SHOP: Mike Korchinsky (second from right) opened Wildlife Works’ first retail shop in San Francisco.