scene, the land was being used as a struggling cattle ranch, and poaching of the greatly diminished wildlife was common. Korchinsky explains that Kenya’s population boom had forced people onto land that was traditionally uninhabitable and that couldn’t provide more than subsistence living.

Wildlife Works changed all that with its T-shirt factory. Locals were hired to build the eco-friendly buildings using rammed-earth construction, which uses local soil rather than requiring wood and keeps interiors cool on blazing days.

KEEPINg IT WILD: Sales of Wildlife Works’ t-shirts help support the company’s animal sanctuary in Kenya. the distinctive shirts are popular among celebrities, including Charlize theron (right).

Then came two years of training: women who had never held jobs before learned to use sewing machines. “We provided intensive training,” Korchinsky says, “because we wanted them to know how to make high-quality products.” Wildlife Works also obtained a $20,000 grant

from the Kenyan government to build eight desperately needed classrooms for village children. Parents provided the labor.

As villagers began to reap the benefits of the new enterprise, they saw the value in sharing the land with wildlife. The Taita tribal elders of the surrounding villages got on board with enforcing anti-poaching policies. Wildlife Works and the community worked together to form a land cooperative, relocating people onto farmland outside the critical wildlife corridor.

Now wildlife is flourishing, and

so is the T-shirt business. The shirts are made of organically grown cotton, and the factory pays wages that exceed the minimums set by the Kenyan government. “The women are able to make a good living working close to home, rather than moving hundreds of miles away to Nairobi,” Korchinsky says. The factory currently has

85 workers, and only one has left since the business began.

A slew of celebrities, including Charlize Theron, Alicia Silverstone, and Robert Downey Jr., are big fans of the shirts. In May of last year, the first Wildlife Works retail store opened on San Francisco’s fashionable Union Street. “Now we have a venue for telling our story directly to consumers,” Korchinsky says. He’s also developing an eco-tourism business at Rukinga. In addition to the rustic camp that’s popular with young people and the training center for photo-safari guides, a new high-end eco-tourism program will open in 2009.

Korchinsky plans to apply his distinctive business model—which he calls “consumer-powered conservation” —around the world, helping other hot spots where the interests of humans and animals collide. He says with conviction, “Economic solutions are the way forward.” 0