4NatureWebinar

Practice guidance for protected and conserved area finance

Conservation Finance Alliance, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), and the Sustainable Finance Specialist Group hosted a special webinar to launch the new Practice Guidance for Protected and Conserved Area Finance. This resource provides practical tools, case studies, and insights to help conservation professionals develop sustainable finance strategies across public, private, Indigenous, and philanthropic sectors.

The event featured the authors of the guide, who presented key content—including 16 factsheets on major conservation finance mechanisms—and discussed how well-designed financial planning can lead to more durable, equitable, and effective outcomes for protected and conserved areas.

Speakers

  • David Meyers, Executive Director, Conservation Finance Alliance

  • Kathleen Fitzgerald, The Pew Charitable Trusts

  • Madhu Rao, Chair WCPA

  • Jessica Smith, UNEP Finance Initiative

  • Ross Dixon, Coast Funds

  • Hugo Van Zyl, Conservation Finance and Economics Expert

  • Lucy Emerton, Conservation Finance and Economics Expert

  • Thierry Lefebvre, Acting Head Protected and Conserved Areas Team, IUCN

 
 

Leveraging Economics & Finance for Nature

This webinar offered valuable insights into the critical role of economics in conservation and the innovative financial tools shaping the future of sustainable land and water management. The event brought together experts from Conservation Strategy Fund and the Conservation Finance Alliance—now working in collaboration—to share practical strategies for addressing climate change and biodiversity loss through effective conservation finance. Together, they highlighted how economics, finance, and conservation can work hand in hand to protect our planet.

Speakers

  • Pedro Gasparinetti, CSF

  • Stefanie Rakela, CSF

  • David Meyers, CFA

Moderator

  • Scott Edwards, CSF

 
 

Biodiversity Credits, Current Challenges & Opportunities

This webinar explored the most recent challenges and opportunities of Biodiversity Credits as an innovative tool for financing nature. Each panelist shared their latest updates on the application of biodiversity credits and any advice they have for conservationists.

Speakers

  • Sinclar Vincent, Verra

  • Toral Shah, Plan Vivo Foundation

  • Timothy Male, Environmental Policy Innovation Center

  • Grégoire De Warren, International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits

Moderator

  • David Meyers, Executive Director, Conservation Finance Alliance

 
 

The Business Case for HIFOR with WCS

This webinar introduced and explored the High Integrity Forest (HIFOR) Investment Initiative which aims to create a new climate and biodiversity asset class to help finance the protection of high integrity tropical forests — those that are least degraded by human impacts — on the basis of their role in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Can this new tradable asset incentivize the conservation of our last remaining high integrity forests? 

Speakers

  • Daniel Zarin Head of Forests and Climate Change Program at WCS

  • Ashley Camhi, Director of Innovative Finance, Forests and Climate at the Wildlife Conservation Society, WCS

  • Charlotte Streck, Co-founder, Climate Focus

Moderator

  • David Meyers, Executive Director, Conservation Finance Alliance