Two More Weeks to Submit Proposals to ILCN

The International Land Conservation Network will be accepting proposals for panels and presentations at their 2018 Global Congress. Proposals can be submitted here and will be accepted until July 21st.

Proposals for presentations or panels within any of these topic areas are welcome:

• Conservation finance
• Law and policy
• Organization and governance
• Land management, restoration, and stewardship

More information on the proposal process is available here.

The 2018 Global Congress will be held in Santiago, Chile on January 24-26, 2018.
Registration will open this fall. 

For more information on attending, submitting a workshop proposal, or about the Congress in general, please see the website here or contact Emily Myron, Project Manager for the ILCN at emyron@lincolninst.edu or +1 617-503-2212

News from the CTIS

For your consideration from the CTIS project: Conservation Trust Funds and other institutional investors who are thinking about ways to align your portfolios with your mission, especially around climate change issues, may be interested in recent work by Cambridge Associates and the Intentional Endowments Network. Their primary audience was US-based institutional investors, but the concepts are relevant to all institutional investors considering how to incorporate environmental issues into the investment policy. Their suggested framework -- Purpose, Priorities, Principles -- can offer a discussion approach for Investment Committees and a starting point for a CTF's further exploration with its investment professionals.

You can check out the full press release on the Intentional Endowments site here.

Events at Upcoming Ocean Conference

CFA members will be involved in a handful of events throughout the upcoming UN Ocean Conference in NYC from June 5th to the 9th. We have listed a few below. Also, a CFA meetup will be held during the conference where members can get together over coffee to discuss updates and announcements with the CFA ExCo. If you are interested in joining, please reply to this email to let us know.

Blue Finance Events:

Catalyzing Investments in SDG 14: Establishment of a Strategic Ocean Investment Ecosystem, 6 June, 1500-1630, Venue: Conference Room 6
Participants: Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), The Economist, UNDP, UNEP, GEF, R20 Regions of Climate Action, Blue Finance, Encourage Capital, Althelia Ecosphere and Climate Bonds Initiative.

Transition towards Blue Economy: From governance level to concrete coalition within the private sector, 7 June, 1100-1230, Venue: Conference Room 12
Participants: UNEP, France, Seychelles, AFD, Althelia Ecosphere, FAO.

UNDP Co-Hosted Events:

Financing for the Blue Economy in Small Developing Island States, 5 June, 1100-1230, Venue: Conference Room A, UNHQ

Accelerating SDG Implementation Through Impact Investments with SDG14, 8 June, 1700-1815, Venue: Conference Room B, UNHQ

Save the Date for RedLAC Assembly

After 13 years, the RedLAC Assembly will take place again in the Caribbean and for the first time it will be co-hosted by three members: the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF), Fundación Sur Futuro, and Fondo MARENA. This year’s Assembly theme will be the Blue Economy and we are delighted to invite you to our conference, which will be held from October 30th to November 2nd, 2017, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We will provide our audience with ours speakers vision of the future of Environmental Funds (EFs), especially how to see EFs should diversify funding mechanisms, combining different types of financial tools.

For further information, please check out the Save the Date flyer or send questions to info@redlac.org. 

New OECD Publication on the Use of CTFs for Marine Protected Area Financing

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has published a book on barriers to effective biodiversity policy reform. It includes a chapter on the use of conservation trust funds in funding marine protected areas, in Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau, through a mechanism akin to international payments for ecosystem services (chapter prepared by Fabien Quétier and Ariane Amin of Biotope).

The publication is currently available in e-book form, here. The print version should be available in the coming days. 

A Platform to Share Your News

While this newsletter serves as a place to read about news items from your fellow members, it also serves as a platform for you to share information with your peers around the globe. Beginning in May, CFA will send out our newsletter on the 1st and 15th of each month. In order for news items to be included, details on what you would like shared must be sent to secretariat@conservationfinancealliance.org four days prior to these dates.

What can be included in the newsletters? That's up to you! Send items that are interesting and helpful to your fellow members. Information on career openings, fascinating photos and videos, grant and scholarship opportunities, announcements, webinars, workshops, and more are all welcome. If any questions come up please direct them to our email, and we look forward to hearing from you!

2016 CTIS Update

The 2016 CTIS is now available in both French and Spanish. The PDFs are available for download in the Library section of the CFA website. 

WCS and USAID Launch Uganda Biodiversity Fund

     On the 1st of March, 2017, the WCS, with support from USAID, launched the Uganda Biodiversity Fund. This fund aims to help generate the resources needed to conserve Uganda’s wildlife and natural heritage. For further details on what will benefit from the fund, its future goals, and how you can become involved, please see the WCS News Release.