Conservation International

Conservation International (CI) works to empower societies to care for nature for the well-being of humanity. CI and its partners are advancing scientific understanding of the ecology of the aquatic ecosystems of the Lower Mekong and quantifying the impacts of hydropower, large-scale agriculture development, and climate change on the ecosystem. The intended outcome of the project is an improved policy framework in Cambodia, which minimizes and mitigates the impacts of these pressures on the Tonle Sap, its watershed and the Mekong River system.

Conservation International (CI) works to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature for the well-being of humanity. CI is a leader in the field of forest carbon financing, working with local partners and communities to develop over 20 forest carbon projects in 12 countries since 2009. The award contributes to addressing two key issues affecting the potential forests hold to play a significant role in climate change mitigation efforts: lack of financing for forest carbon conservation at scale and the limited number of forest carbon projects that can access market financing.

Conservation International works to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature for the well-being of humanity. Habitat loss, especially conversion to agriculture, is the greatest threat to biodiversity and sustainable development. The Vital Signs monitoring system tracks impacts of agricultural intensification and expansion. National teams, using up-to-date technology and trained to implement standard protocols, measure a suite of agricultural, environmental, and socioeconomic variables. These data enable decision-makers to evaluate trade-offs among agricultural development, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. This award enables Conservation International to extend the monitoring system to an eighth country: Rwanda.

Conservation International (CI) is a pioneer in linking nature and the well-being of humanity with a focus on water, food and climate security. CI strives to conserve biodiversity that sustains ecosystem functions. In conjunction with the Government of Rwanda CI will assess the feasibility of designing a payment for ecosystem services mechanism. This will include arranging an exchange visit to see firsthand the successful Socio Bosque program in Ecuador to learn from and replicate the lessons learned. This mechanism will be tested with the community neighboring Rugezi Marsh, through establishing pilot conservation agreements in collaboration with the International Crane Foundation/ Endangered Wildlife Trust Partnership.

Conservation International will develop and manage a Bird's Head Seascape Innovation Small Grants Facility, in consultation with provincial government staff and independent experts. Small grants to local groups will foster innovation in fisheries management and build the capacity of local conservation partners.

Conservation International is an international organization that has worked in Ecuador since 2001 on conservation corridor planning, focusing on coastal Ecuador and the southern Amazon region. The purpose of this grant is to create a web portal for archiving and accessing conservation data and strengthen provincial and municipal development planner’s capacity to effectively use these data to promote ecosystem conservation for human well-being in the Ecuador portion of the Mira watershed.

Conservation International (CI) works to ensure a healthy and productive planet for us all. This grant will support efforts to strengthen community-led efforts to sustainably manage marine resources at eight Locally-Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) around Ambodivahibe in western Madagascar. The project contributes directly to the foundation’s coastal marine goal to slow the decline of coastal ecosystem services from fisheries by building a policy and economic environment supportive of local fisheries management; building awareness of the threats to coastal fisheries and policies that support local management; and building capacity of communities to implement local fisheries management.

Conservation International (CI) empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity. It focuses on water, food, and climate security, and conserving the biodiversity that sustains ecosystem function. The purpose of the grant is to design a new program, Agriculture by Design, a collaborative framework for deciding how and where to increase food production and where and which ecosystems need to be conserved or restored for people to thrive. The project will produce a global map and strategy for Agriculture by Design, identifying concrete and spatially explicit scenarios for sustainable agricultural intensification.

Conservation International works in partnership with the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration to maintain fisheries productivity and conserve aquatic biodiversity in the Tonle Sap Lake. The grant will support efforts to demonstrate how improved resource management can reduce pressure on natural ecosystems and increase fisheries productivity in the Tonle Sap. The target area for the project is the Kampong Prak Fish Sanctuary and surrounding areas of community fisheries for three communities and flooded forest. CI will pursue this goal by demonstrating successful practices in target communities and leveraging those results with integrated conservation planning and policy development support.

Conservation International is working in partnership a coalition of NGOs to support Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs to reform the county’s elasmobranch fishery and bring national-level protections to key threatened species of sharks and rays. The grant will support efforts to raise awareness of a new ministerial regulation on shark and ray protection. Grant funds will be used to hold at least three large public consultations in key elasmobranch fishery regions (i.e., Papua, Lesser Sundas, and South Java); implement a major national outreach campaign (using both television and social networking with Indonesian celebrities as champions), and collect additional primary data to solidify the numbers on population sizes in Indonesia and current rates of decline.

Conservation International (CI) works to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature and global biodiversity for the well-being of humanity. The purpose of this grant is to design appropriate incentives for small scale farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices that improve the health of ecosystems in three key watersheds in the Great Lakes region which are targeted for agricultural intensification under the second Green Revolution. Within the selected watersheds, CI will establish models for incentives that promote environmental stewardship that is widely applicable in the Great Lakes region and to Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly; monitor the status and trends in the health of ecosystems and the services they provide across landscapes that are undergoing agricultural intensification; and share this information with a broad audience, including policymakers in the region.

The purpose of this grant is to create a platform for discussion among African heads of state and the private sector on the subject of the role of natural capital in sustainable development. This platform and dialogue will continue over the next three years, and funds from the Foundation will support an initial six-month phase, including the convening of a high-level Summit for Sustainability in Africa and follow-up activities that support the long-term development of the dialogue.

Conservation International administers the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). CEPF is a donor partnership to which MacArthur has contributed $37M for CEPF to date. The grant will support local civil society through CEPF’s existing small grants mechanism with grants up to $20,000 in the four countries of the Lower Mekong Region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam).

To launch and place into operation the Pacific Oceanscape Framework, a large-scale ocean management initiative endorsed by leaders of fifteen Pacific island countries.

To update the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund Ecosystem Profile for Indo-Burma.

To monitor biodiversity and ecosystem services in the context of climate change and agricultural intensification (over three years).

To design, test, and monitor the effectiveness of site based ecosystem based approaches to climate change adaptation in Cambodia (over two years).

To safeguard globally threatened amphibians through the creation and improved management of protected areas designed to incorporate gradients of altitude and landscape features that will allow for adaptation to climate change (over three years).

To foster the sustainable development and financing of Fiji's Locally Managed Marine Areas network through targeted research, monitoring, and outreach (over three years).

To support efforts to protect a key biodiversity area in the Lower Mekong through scientific research, community engagement, law enforcement, and protected area status (over three years).

In support of climate change adaptation for conservation in Madagascar (over two years).

In support of integrating climate change into the Durban Vision in Madagascar (over two years).

In support of continuation of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (over three years).

To create the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund.

To support capital and core expenses to conserve threatened areas that are rich in biodiversity and to promote sustainable development among local populations.

To support a sustainable economic development program in the buffer zones of the Bahuaja Sonene National Park and the Tambopata Candamo Reserved Zone in southeastern Peru (over three years).

To develop and produce a map describing global priority areas for biodiversity conservation.

To support conservation awareness campaigns in several global priority countries (over three years).

To support a training program in conservation biology in Irian Jaya, marine conservation efforts in Papua New Guinea, and sustainable economic development activities in Melanesia (over three years).

To work with the Colombian Coffee Federation to develop regionally appropriate practices for sustainable coffee production in Colombia (over two years).

To reanalyze global priority areas for conservation of biological diversity and set priorities for conservation activity.

To support a conservation and sustainable development program in the Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone in Peru (over three years).

To support a resource extraction and conservation policy monitoring program (over two years).

To support conservation and sustainable development programs in the Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone in the Madre de Dios region.

To support a conservation policy program in Brazil's Atlantic Forest region (over three years).

To launch a shade coffee farming initiative in Mexico and Guatemala.

To support a conservation program in the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia (over three years).

To support a village-based conservation, training, and development program in Papua New Guinea (over three years).

To support biodiversity policy programs focusing on the Global Environmental Facility (over two years).

To support testing and use of training materials incorporating a gender perspective in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.

To integrate training for Latin American scientists into the activities of the Rapid Assessment Program (over two years).

To support the Peru program, addressing conservation and sustainable development issues in the Tambopata Candamo Reserved Zone of southeastern Peru.

To support ecological research and community development in the Palawan region in northeastern Luzon, Philippines (over three years).

To support the rapid assessment team of biological survey researchers.

To establish a regional network of NGOs in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to develop economic alternatives to deforestation by focusing on specific non-timber forest products (over five years).

To support the integrated conservation program in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, including land-use planning, resource management, environmental education, research, training for reserve guards, and conservation-based economic development (over three years).

To support an integrated Atlantic Forest conservation program.

To support a joint program by five conservation and scientific organizations to foster long-term conservation of Papua New Guinea's biological diversity.

To support a joint program conducted by four organizations to build the capacity of the smaller Melanesian countries (the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji) to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable economic development.

To support a debt-for-nature program.

For bridge support to the Rapid Assessment Program.

To support a Madagascar conservation program (over three years).

To support a rapid biological survey program to establish global conservation priorities (over three years).

To support the Tropical Andean Conservation Program (over three years).

$760, To support the Brazil program dealing with conservation science and action (over three years).

To support the Selva Lacandona Conservation Program (over three years).

To support the ecosystem conservation program (over three years).

To support the Puerto Rico component of the Caribbean Area Program and to build a center of excellence.

To support a program to train conservation professionals from the Neotropics and to support smaller conservation organizations in Central and South America, as well as in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands (over three years).