Bhutan to Permanently Protect Network of Protected Areas

The Royal Government of Bhutan, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), donors and partners from around the world announced their commitment to create a USD $43 million fund—the first of its kind in Asia—to permanently protect Bhutan’s network of protected areas.

This funding will be combined with USD $75 million from the Bhutan government, which will be contributed over a 14-year period, to support a new program called Bhutan for Life (BFL). The program, which is supported in part by a USD $26.6 million grant from the Green Climate Fund, will ensure that there is funding forever to properly manage Bhutan’s protected areas—which constitute 51 percent of the country, the highest percentage of land designated as protected in Asia. 

The press release can be found here. For further information, both WWF and USNews have provided web stories.

Request for Strategic Planning Consultant(s) for the Malawi Environmental Endowment Trust

The Malawi Environmental Endowment Trust is seeking the services of a Strategic Planning Consultant(s) due to the need that has arisen to demonstrate MEET‟s organizational, financial and operational sustainability in the medium to long term. It is envisaged that the development of the 2018 – 2022 Strategic Plan will enable MEET to identify institutional priorities to ensure they are aligned to MEET‟s mission and vision for institutional growth and aligned to national environmental policies and strategies for national development..

The main objective of this consultancy is therefore to develop MEET‟s five-year (2018 – 2022) Strategic Plan and Resource Mobilization Strategy in order to identify priority actions, order, schedule and resources to achieve the Trust‟s overarching vision.

A full description of the request as well as contact information is available here.

Proposals are due Friday December 8th, 2017.

CFA Professional Services Directory

In order to help CFA members find each other for consulting projects, we are introducing a new Professional Services Directory. Members who work as consultants can list themselves and the types of services they provide, and members who are looking for consultants will have an easy way to find who has a particularly specialty.

If you would like to be listed in the Professional Services Directory, please complete this form. In the interest of space, each entry will be relatively short, but can link to a webpage, LinkedIn profile, or other online presence where you can provide more information.

The page is now available on the CFA Site.

2016 Conservation Trust Fund Investment Survey Now Available

We are excited to announce that the tenth report of the Conservation Trust Fund Investment Survey (CTIS) series has been released and is available for download. The report overs the performance of Conservation Trust Funds during the calendar year of 2016 and relies on information provided by 38 Funds from 47 countries about endowments and sinking funds.

The 2016 CTIS is available for download here as well as in the CFA Library.

New CFA Professional Services Directory

In order to help CFA members find each other for consulting projects, we are introducing a new Professional Services Directory. Members who work as consultants can list themselves and the types of services they provide, and members who are looking for consultants will have an easy way to find who has a particularly specialty.

If you want to be listed in the Professional Services Directory, please complete this form. In the interest of space, each entry will be relatively short, but can link to a webpage, LinkedIn profile, or other online presence where you can provide more information. As submissions come in, the page will be launched shortly with a link included in the next newsletter.

CFA Book Recommendations

In a recent gathering of CFA Members it was suggested that we have a space to compile a list of books on conservation that are highly recommended by other members. Through this we would hope that our members would be inspired to read, learn, and share together through books on conservation. If you have a book you would like to recommend, please send the title, author, your name, as well as a description up to 150 words on why you suggested it to secretariat@conservationfinancealliance.org . As recommendations come in, they will be posted on the CFA Website.

MedPAN Has Launched Two Calls for Small Projects

MedPAN has launched 2 Calls for Small Projects to support the actions led in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Mediterranean. The Calls for Small Projects aim to reinforce MPA management.

The Calls for Small Projects are open to:

• MPA management authorities and organisations responsible or involved in MPA management, which are members or partners of MedPAN.
   
• and other organisations (NGOs, private companies, scientific institutions ...) collaborating with MPAs members of MedPAN.

Please note that the two calls have specific eligibility rules, application forms and deadlines. Please see the full email from MedPAN for specific information on the two calls.

This Call for Small Projects is made possible through the support of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the MAVA Foundation.

CFA to Hire First Executive Director

The Conservation Finance Alliance is now soliciting applications for its first full-time Executive Director, to lead the next stage of CFA's strengthening and growth as a network. The job description and application process can be accessed through the CFA website. Please help us spread the word to people who you think would be good candidates for the position. Applications are requested by November 15 via the WCS careers page.

Africa's First Community-Owned FSC Certified Sawmill for Sustainable Hardwoods From Natural Forests

The Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative has announced that some of the world’s poorest people have opened up a new and lucrative source of revenue through Tanzania's first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified community-owned sawmill. This is set to triple the incomes that rural villages are able to generate from responsibly managing their natural forests. It will contribute towards local economic empowerment and create incentives for forest conservation; this will help to meet global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals.

For further information on this exciting development the full press release is available online or as a PDF download.

SCCM Webinar Uploaded to Website

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our first webinar with Lestari Capital on the 24th. It was an informative and exciting session, and we look forward to hosting more webinars in the future. 

For those of you who were unable to attend, we have uploaded a recording of the webinar, with both audio and video of the presentation, to the website. We have also included a download of the slides so feel free to visit the website and check out what we learned about the SCCM.