Announcement
Kumar Bhattacharyya
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Coral Reefs

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Upcoming Webinar: Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management: Conservation Trust Funds and Impact Investing

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Presented by: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance and Nicolas Pascal of Blue finance
This webinar will be offered at two different times:

Description: Coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity and are gaining increasing attention from donors, philanthropists, and governments. This webinar will explore the use of Conservation Trust Funds and Impact Investing to support coral reef conservation. Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) are private, legally independent institutions that provide sustainable financing for biodiversity conservation. Impact Investing is investing in companies, organizations, and funds with the intention of generating measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Specifically, the webinar will discuss how protected area, national, and regional CTFs can raise, manage, and invest financing for coral reef conservation and restoration. The webinar will also review how impact investing can be used to manage coral reef areas through public private partnerships. This webinar is sponsored by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), an informal partnership which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world, as part of its collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance for promoting innovative financing for coral reef conservation.
Co-sponsors: OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News, EBM Tools Network) and the Reef Resilience Network
Register:

Photo by: Catlin Seaview Survey

Webinar Recap: Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with Tourism-Related Tools

This webinar originally aired on 17 July, 2019.

Coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity, and their value for recreation is one of the easiest to capture financially. This webinar will explore the range of existing and emerging tools that protected areas and site managers can use to capture funds from tourism for conservation and management. Specifically the webinar will discuss the use of: 1) entry, activity, and special use fees; 2) commercial concessions; 3) departure taxes; 4) partnerships with hotels; and 5) voluntary donations. This webinar is sponsored by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), an informal partnership which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world, as part of its collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance for promoting innovative financing for coral reef conservation.

Presented by: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance

Co-sponsors: OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News), the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe), and the Reef Resilience Network

File(s):

coralreef_tourism_finance_july_17.pdf

Click here to download a copy of this webinar from OCTO’s Vimeo page

Click here to watch this video on YouTube

Photo Credit: FABRICE DUDENHOFER / CORAL REEF IMAGE BANK

Upcoming Webinar: Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with Tourism-Related Tools

Presented by: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance


Coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity, and their value for recreation is one of the easiest to capture financially. This webinar will explore the range of existing and emerging tools that protected areas and site managers can use to capture funds from tourism for conservation and management. Specifically the webinar will discuss the use of: 1) entry, activity, and special use fees; 2) commercial concessions; 3) departure taxes; 4) partnerships with hotels; and 5) voluntary donations. This webinar is sponsored by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), an informal partnership which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world, as part of its collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance for promoting innovative financing for coral reef conservation.

Co-sponsors: OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News), the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe), and the Reef Resilience NetworkConservation Finance Alliance
 This webinar will be offered at two different times:·      

Viewing 1: Wednesday, July 17, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC·      

Viewing 2: Wednesday, July 17, 9 pm US EDT/6 pm US PDT (Thursday, July 18, 9 am Australian WST/11 am Australian EST/1 am UTC)

Register:

·       Viewing 1: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jNI0kihxTYuh6Je3MGFalg

·       Viewing 2: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5Wf9DQjtToCWS-SCe_PbIg

Photo Credit: Warren Baverstock

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Upcoming ICRI Webinar, June 5th- Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: An Overview

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Presented by: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance and Venkat Iyer of UN Environment

This webinar will be offered at two different times:

·       Viewing 1: Wednesday, June 5, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC

·       Viewing 2: Wednesday, June 5, 9 pm US EDT/6 pm US PDT (Thursday June 6, 9 am Australian WST/11 am Australian EST/1 am UTC)

Description: The Wildlife Conservation Society, in collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance and in support of the 50 Reefs initiative, recently released "Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: A Guide" as a resource for protected area managers and others charged with managing and financing reef conservation. The report describes 13 types of finance tools which have either been proven successful at or have great potential to support reef conservation and sustainable management. Some of the finance tools to be covered in this overview webinar include various tourism-based fees, biodiversity offsets, bonds, debt swaps, and conservation trust funds. This webinar will share key findings and recommendations from the report and invite discussion from participants. This webinar is sponsored by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), an informal partnership which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world, as part of its collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance for promoting innovative financing for coral reef conservation.

Co-sponsors: OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News), the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe), and the Reef Resilience Network

Register:

·       Viewing 1: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BoVvSwLgQ-GqO7osvPc4YQ

·       Viewing 2: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RhZKT0S4SQW3DPJ3K0XNXg

Photo Credit: Jayne Jenkins

CFA Publication - Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: A Guide

This past December several CFA members released a paper on Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation. The paper is available for download below, and information from the webinar held about the paper in January 2019 is available on the webinars page.

Download: Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: A Guide

Coral reefs are critical ecosystems that are home to more than 25% of all known marine species, while occupying less than one quarter of 1% of the Earth’s marine environment (IUCN, 2013). In June 2018, the 50 Reefs initiative culminated with the publication of a scientific study on coral reefs that are least vulnerable to climate change and have the greatest capacity to repopulate other reefs over time. To contibute to 50 Reefs, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) worked in conjunction with the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) to create a working guide on the financial tools available for coral reef conservation. Financial tools are a means of securing reliable funding for conservation activities such as creating new protected areas, restoring ecosystems, and promoting sustainable tourism or aligning incentives of actors to improve conservation outcomes. This guide is intended to serve as a reference and resource for protected area managers and other professionals charged with achieving conservation and protection of coral reefs, and ensuring adequate financial means to do so.

Author(s): Venkat Iyer, Katy Mathias, David Meyers, Ray Victurine, & Melissa Walsh
December 2018

Photo credit: HANNES KLOSTERMANN / CORAL REEF IMAGE BANK

Cornerstone Partners to Launch a Global Fund to Save the World’s Coral Reefs

The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and Vulcan, Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s company and philanthropy, hosted a workshop in September 2018 to explore the creation of a Global Fund for Coral Reefs.

At the conclusion of the workshop, leading conservation finance experts unanimously recommended establishing a Global Fund with a dual focus:

  • Facilitate the use of innovative financing mechanisms, including private, market-based investments in coral reef conservation and restoration; and

  • Unlock financing for coral reef-related climate adaptation through the Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, and the multilateral development banks (MDBs).

For further information on the Global Fund please see the full story from ICRI hereordownload the PDF flyer.