M2PA and David Meyers Participate in Monaco Ocean Week

The Association for the Sustainable Financing of Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas – or M2PA for short – held a series of related events on Friday April 13th at Monaco Ocean Week with the participation of the CFA’s new Executive Director, David Meyers.  The main goal of the M2PA association is to establish a Conservation Trust Fund to provide targeted financing for Mediterranean protected areas with an initial focus on projects in Morocco, Tunisia and Albania. The Mediterranean has over 1000 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) but is in need of increased investment in the creation of new MPAs and in improved management and sustainable financing for many existing reserves.  It is hoped that the M2PA will succeed in becoming a strong advocate, source of financing, and fountain of knowledge for these important MPAs. 

The first conference event was a series of panels and presentations on Conservation Trust Funds with an initial talk and session moderation by the CFA.  Conservation Trust Fund experiences and best practices were shared by a range of CTFs and partners including BaCoMAB, PONT, MarFund, and RedLAC.  Other partner organizations presenting included CI’s Global Conservation Fund, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM), Agence Français de Développement (AFD), MAVA, MedPAN, and others.  The session was followed by the signing of the FFEM grant agreement with the Prince Albert II Foundation for the M2PA project.  The afternoon session was the launch of the GEF financed part of the project (with support of CI-GEF) and was followed by an evening session where 12 museums and aquariums showed their engagement in the project.  The Monaco Oceanographic Institute pledged a percentage of their entrance fees for the aquarium to the M2PA.

More information on the workshops is available here.

David Meyers to Become CFA Executive Director

The Executive Committee of the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) is pleased to announce that David Meyers will become the Executive Director of the CFA, effective April 13, 2018.
 
David comes to the CFA from the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) at UNDP, where he served as a senior technical advisor for the BIOFIN process in 14 countries and lead on the global BIOFIN methodology.
 
“David’s first-hand experience in the practice of conservation finance, combined with his professional relationships with so many CFA members and his own experience as a long-term CFA member, make him an ideal leader for the next phase of the CFA,” said Sylvie Goyet of the Executive Committee.
 
In prior roles, David has been consultant on various conservation finance, ecology, economic and environmental projects and initiatives, an entrepreneur in environmental ventures, and a lecturer at both Yale and Columbia Universities. David earned his Bachelors and Doctorate degrees from Duke University and his MBA from the Yale School of Management.
 
“I have greatly benefitted from the resources and network of the CFA since the early 2000’s and am honored to have the opportunity to lead the organization in this exciting phase,” said Dr. Meyers.
 
Currently based on the East Coast of the United States, David has lived for extended periods in both Europe and Madagascar.
 
David will step into the Executive Director role on April 13. Through September 30, 2018, he will be working half-time while wrapping up existing commitments to UNDP-BIOFIN; starting October 1 he will be leading the CFA full-time. During the transition period, Katy Mathias will continue to support the CFA Secretariat to ensure continuity in CFA projects and administration.

Blue Finance - New PPP Signed in the Dominican Republic

An innovative Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement for marine conservation was signed on February 23rd 2018 in the Dominican Republic. The agreement, facilitated by Blue finance, defines the co-management of 8000km2 of the Marine Sanctuary “Arrecifes del Sureste" between the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and a non-profit consortium/co-management body; comprised of local and international NGOs, private sector organisations, and the NGO Blue finance, among others.

See the full press release here.

*Text provided by Blue Finance

Asia-Pacific Conservation Trust Fund Network Launched

Representatives from six Conservation Trust Funds in the Asia-Pacific region met in Jakarta, Indonesia in early December 2017 to form the Asia-Pacific Conservation Trust Fund Network, to be known as “APNET.”
 
The new network, modeled on RedLAC and CAFÉ, will serve as a collaborative and knowledge-sharing platform for CTFs in the Asia-Pacific region, and will help to facilitate linkages with CTFs in other parts of the world.
 
Six founding members came together over three days in Jakarta, ably hosted by Yayasan KEHATI, to formally create the network, ratify the governing principles, elect the first Executive Committee, and select the Host Institution to house the Secretariat.
 
APNET’s founding members are Arannayk Foundation of Bangladesh, represented by Farid Uddin Ahmed and Dr Muhammed Quddus; Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation, represented by Dr. Pema Choephyel and Singye Dorji; Forest Foundation Philippines, represented by Jose Andres Canivel; Foundation for the Philippine Environment represented by Oliver Agoncillo; Micronesia Conservation Trust represented by Lisa Ranahan Andon; and Yayasan KEHATI of Indonesia represented by M.S. Sembiring, Indra Gunawan and Fardila Astari.  The Phoenix Islands Protected Area Trust and Tasmanian Land Conservancy are also founding members but were unable to attend the meeting in person.
 
Farid Uddin Ahmed, Lisa Ranahan Andon, Pema Choephyel, Jane Hutchinson, and M.S. Sembiring were elected to the Executive Committee.
 
Yayasan KEHATI was selected as the first Host Institution of the network, and will serve as the base for the Secretariat.
 
APNET plans to hold its first Assembly in March, 2019.
 
Other meeting attendees included Nety Riana and Mozaika Hendarti of Yayasan KEHATI, Robert Baigrie of Conservation International, Katy Mathias of Wildlife Conservation Society, and Roman Czebiniak of EcoNusantara.
 
Funding for the meeting and the initial formation of APNET was provided by Conservation International, Fonds Français for l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) and the MAVA Foundation.

WCS Announcing 2018 Request for Proposals through Climate Adaptation Fund

The Wildlife Conservation Society has announced the next round of grant-making through the Climate Adaptation Fund.  Learn more about this year's Request for Proposals here, and check out the informational video included below.

Interested organizations should carefully review the guidelines outlined in the Request for Proposals posted HERE on their new website.

Pre-proposal applications are due by Friday, April 7th 2018, by 5:00 PM EST. To apply, create an account for your organization or log in to a previously created account and submit your application in their online system.

Book Recommendation Page is Now Live

For the past few weeks we have been gathering recommendations for books relating to conservation that our members might enjoy or find informative. We have compiled a list of these books that is now up on the CFA site. Each listing contains the title, a short description, and the name of the member who recommended it.

Moving forward, we would love to post more recommendations! if you have a book you would like to include on the site, please send the title and a few sentences on why you think your fellow members should check it out to our secretariat.

Updates from the RedLAC Assembly

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, was the host city for the 19th RedLAC Assembly on November 2017. This is one of the most important meetings about cooperation among environmental funds and financing for conservation in the region. For the first time three funds hosted the Assembly Fundacion Sur Futuro, Fondo Marena and Caribbean Biodiversity Fund.

One hundred and sixty-two attendees from four continents were able to exchange during four days information and experiences thanks to this valuable networking taking place during the Assembly.

This year’s Assembly theme was the Blue Economy, focusing in particular on the importance of coastal and marine ecosystems for sustainable development and how Environmental Funds can play a crucial role in this agenda. Thematic panels discuss the concepts of the Blue Economy, its perspectives, the relationship with the tourism sector and actions to adapt to climate change. As every year, the agenda was complemented with panels dedicated to financial, investment and environmental fund management issues.

Presentations, photos, and information from the assembly will be available on the CFA Site later this week.

New Clarmondial and WWF Report on Conservation Investments

Clarmondial and the WWF Landscape Finance Lab have produced “Capitalising Conservation”, a new report exploring how conservation organisations and their partners can mobilise private investment in conservation. The report provides a framework to guide the identification, structuring and execution of investments in conservation. It describes various roles conservation organisations can play to unlock investment capital and supports effective investor engagement.

The publication highlights how leading conservation organisations have pioneered investment strategies and structures in conservation finance, illustrated by case studies involving Conservation International, NatureVest (The Nature Conservancy), Rewilding Europe, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Works and WWF. It features a foreword by Naoko Ishii, the CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the perspective of corporates and investment partners including Nespresso and Finance in Motion.

The Capitalising Conservation report is available here.
The press release regarding the report is available here.

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.

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.