Conservation
Investing in Nature: Financing Conservation and Nature Based Solution - A Practical Guide for Europe
Many developers of conservation and nature-based solutions projects have a very clear view on what they aim to achieve in terms of impact. They demonstrate enormous experience and expertise in implementing conservation measures. However, the expertise and know-how on setting up a financially viable project is much less developed. It is recognized by many working in #conservation finance @NatureVest @IUCN @CIPIC that this gap in financial expertise and project development know-how constitutes a major hurdle for more conservation and nature-based solution projects being developed and being able to attract financial investors.
To support conservation entrepreneurs and all those who aim at developing bankable conservation projects, NCFF has just published the guide “Investing in Nature: Financing Conservation and nature based solutions - A practical guide for Europe” – this is a cooperation project between the EIB’s Natural Capital Financing Facility (NCFF), LIFEprogramme and Systemiq LIFEprogramme. The guide provides an introduction to financing, pros and cons of different financing structures, an overview of legal structures, practical case studies and first steps on how to access NCFF and other financing sources. They hope that this practical guide will contribute to closing the knowledge gap and to the development of more bankable #conservation and #nature-based solutions projects being developed over time.
Author(s): NCFF
2018
The Political Economy of Biodiversity Policy Reform
This report provides insights on the political economy of biodiversity related policy reforms. It draws on existing literature and four new case studies covering the French tax on pesticides, agricultural subsidy reform in Switzerland, EU payments to Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau to finance marine protected areas via conservation trust funds, and individually transferable quotas for fisheries in Iceland. Each case study focusses on the drivers of reform, the types of obstacles encountered, key features of the policy reform, and the lessons learned from the reform experience.
Author(s): OECD
Published: April 2017
African Ecological Futures: 2015
This report is based on this premise that African ecological futures can be fundamentally altered by economic and development decisions made today. In order to better understand what these futures might be and how to manage their impacts, the report investigates key forces shaping Africa's today and tomorrow and draws a picture of how they come together across plausible scenarios to influence ecological futures. The report explores guiding principles for decisions and particular interventions by decision makers that may create the opportunity for more robust and resilient development.
Author(s): African Development Bank (AfDB) & WWF
Tuesday, May 26 2015
Biodiversity and Development Co-operation
This paper considers how development co-operation is addressing the twin objectives of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use on the one hand, and development and poverty reduction on the other. The paper showcases examples of how development co-operation is supporting conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It also identifies areas where more research is needed, such as sharing experience with the tools and good practices available for successful mainstreaming, and developing indicators to improve monitoring and evaluation to boost understanding of the effectiveness of biodiversity-related development interventions and of the relative performance of different mainstreaming approaches.
Author(s): Anna Drutschinin, Juan Casado-Asensio, Jan Corfee-Morlot, Dilys Roe
Friday, May 1st 2015
Public Incentives Harmful to Biodiversity
The impact of public subsidies on the environment has been drawing increasing attention over the last few decades, in particular within the OECD and the EU. In France, the Loi Grenelle I (Environmental Act of August 2009) explicitly provides that "the State, on the basis of on an audit, will review tax measures that are harmful to biodiversity and will propose new tools to allow a gradual transition towards a tax regime that will be more adapted to new environmental challenges. The report presents an identification of a number of subsidies, an assessment of those that are harmful to biodiversity and analysis of those measures in need of reform. It reaches pragmatic recommendations which, if applied, would reduce harm to biodiversity.
Author(s): Guillaume Sainteny (Centre d'Analyse Strategique - Republique Francaise)
Tuesday, Mar 31 2015
Shortfalls and Solutions for Meeting National and Global Conservation Area Targets
Governments have committed to conserving 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine environments globally, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity through ecologically representative Protected Area (PA) systems or other area-based conservation measures, while individual countries have committed to conserve 3.50% of their land area. The study estimates that PAs currently cover 14.6% of terrestrial and 2.8% of marine extent, but the majority of PAs have inadequate coverage. it would require nearly doubling to achieve, costefficiently, coverage targets for all countries, ecoregions, important sites, and species. Greater focus is therefore needed on alternative approaches, including community- and privately managed sites and other effective area-based conservation measures.
Author(s): S.H.M. Butchart et al.
Monday, Mar 2 2015
Expanding Horizons: Highlights from the National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation
The report summarizes the National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation - the first major conference on large landscape conservation in North America. It stresses a multi-disciplinary, networked approach to finding solutions that benefit human, wildlife, cultural and ecological health.
Author(s): Practitioners Network for Large Landscape Conservation, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, National Park Service Stewardship Institute et al.
Monday, Feb 16 2015
Cross-boundary collaboration: key to the conservation puzzle
Author(s): Sali Kark, Ayesha Tullock, Ascelin Gordon, Tessa Mazor, Nils Bunnefeld, and Noam Levin
Monday, Aug 11th 2014
Linking Conservation, Equity and Poverty Alleviation
This research sought to understand who continues to use Bwindi's resources illegally and why, despite ICD. They found that local feelings of injustice over national park conservation were as important a driver as rural poverty, and the more involved in decision-making people felt, the more benefit from an ICD intervention they reported. Their findings support current developments at the international level that focus on equitable management of protected areas not only as a moral obligation, but also as a necessity if conservation efforts are to be effective and sustainable.
Author(s): Medard Twinamatsiko, Julia Baker, Mariel Harrison et al.
Friday, Aug 1st 2014
Partnership in Practice: Engagement with Indigenous Peoples
Author(s): Laura Ledwith and Yoko Watanabe
May 2014
Green Growth Best Practice: Synthesis of key findings
This analysis adresses international assessment of lessons from experience of pursuing green growth, across all levels of government and all regions, concerning GGBP's work. It examined the design choices faced by practitioners in establishing plans and programs, and the lessons learned. It was carried out by 9 teams of expert authors from around the world (75 in all) who each focused on one of the topics, and between them looked at 60 specific government programs, as well as reviewing general lessons from the literature.
Author(s): Global Green Growth Best Practice Initiative
Tuesday, Mar 4 2014
RSPB Centre for Conservation Science Report
This report celebrates the launching of the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. Some of the institution's most influential scientific work from the last decade are addressed. The new initiative, launched in February 2014, will showcase, promote and build the RSPB's scientific programme, helping to discover solutions to 21st century conservation problems.
Author(s): RSPB
Wednesday, Feb 26 2014
Enforcing environmental laws for strong economies and safe communities
This report discusses how the World Bank Group (WBG) will mobilize to work better on ENRLE. Recognizing the evolving global context, a new and fully mobilized Community of Practice will put more emphasis on building a constituency within the WBG to work on the range of ENRLE issues, on building the capacity of WBG staff to provide investment and technical assistance on ENRLE, on strengthening analytical work to develop a pipeline of ENRLE investments, and on fostering demand among clients for Bank investment in ENRLE.
Author(s): World Bank
Saturday, Feb 1st 2014
The Status and Distribution of Freshwater biodiversity in the Eastern Mediterranean
Author(s): Kevin G. Smith, Violeta Barrios, William R.T. Darwall, and Catherine Numa
2014
Pan-African Youth Strategy on Learning for Sustainability
This report is a result of consultative meetings across Africa, culminating in a Pan-African Youth Conference on Learning for Sustainability held in Nairobi, Kenya during January 30 - 31, 2013. Over 100 youth from 35 countries, in all regions of Africa, actively participated and helped shape and develop this strategy to promote sustainable development and green economies in Africa.
Author(s): WWF and Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (SIDA)
Friday, Oct 25 2013
Indispensable Ocean: Aligning ocean health and human well being
This report suggests guidelines and procedures the authors believe will bring about indigenously developed solutions that lead to economic and socio-ecological sustainability.
Author(s): Blue Ribbon Panel and Global Partnership for Oceans
Sunday, Oct 20 2013
Scoping a green economy: a brief guide to dialogues and diagnostics for developing countries
This guide aims to encourage early dialogue and diagnosis in and by developing countries on what a green economy would mean for their country.
Author(s): International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Monday, Sep 30 2013
USAID's Biodiversity Conservation and Forestry Programs, 2013 Report
This report describes the range and magnitude of USAID investment in these areas in fiscal year (FY) 2012, through highlights of results and in-depth project profiles.
Author(s): USAID
Monday, Sep 30 2013
Wildlife comeback in Europe:The recovery of selected mammal and bird species
The report describes how, why and where 37 mammal and bird species have recovered over the past 50 years, providing important lessons for the conservation of these and other species.
Author(s): Stefanie Deinet, Christina Ieronymidou, Louise McRae, Ian J. Burfield, Ruud P. Foppen, Ben Collen and Monika Böhm
Thursday, Sep 26 2013
Monitoring payments for watershed services schemes in developing countries
This paper discusses the monitoring and evaluation criteria behind transactional monitoring and effectiveness conditionality.
Author(s): Ina Porras, Bruce Aylward and Jeff Dengel
Friday, May 24 2013
This paper seeks to articulate the relevance of FPIC to company policy and practice, while also providing a balanced consideration of the relative responsibilities of government and civil society.
Author(s): Abbi Buxton and Emma Wilson
Friday, Mar 15 2013
Biodiversity Offset Design Handbook
Author(s): Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP)
June 29, 2012
Global Biodiversity Conservation and the Alleviation of Poverty
Author(s): Will R. Turner, Katrina Brandon, Thomas M. Brooks, Claude Gascon, Holly K. Gibbs, Keith S. Lawrence, Russell A. Mittermeier, and Elizabeth R. Selig
January 2012
Project Finance for Permanence: Lessons from landscape-scale conservation deals
This report covers lessons from PFP’s use as it has evolved through three deals: the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) in Brazil, the Great Bear Rainforest (Great Bear) in British Columbia, and Forever Costa Rica (FCR). It is based on documentation of the deals and roughly 50 interviews with deal participants, senior leaders, and other experts in the field of conservation, as well as Redstone’s own experience. More detail on the report’s methodology, the list of interviewees, and related items of interest can be found in the appendices. Separately, a PFP Assessments report further details the three examples.
Author(s): Redstone Strategy Group, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Linden Trust for Conservation
July 13 2011
Socioeconomic Conditions Along the World's Tropical Coasts: 2008
This report synthesizes data from individual socioeconomic assessments to quantify and qualify regional and global dependence on coral reef resources, perceptions of resource conditions, threats to marine and coastal resources, and support for marine management strategies such as marine protected areas. Data are included from 49 studies, representing close to 14,000 household surveys conducted in hundreds of communities in 27 countries. This information provides evidence of the need to conserve global coral reef resources to ensure food security and contribute to poverty alleviation.
Author(s): Christy Loper, Robert Pomeroy, Vineeta Hoon, Patrick McConney, Maria Pena, Arie Sanders, Gaya Sriskanthan, Sheila Vergara, Michael Pido, Ron Vave, Caroline Vieux, Innocent Wanyonyi
2008
Author(s): Redstone Strategy Group, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Linden Trust for Conservation
July 13 2011
Centers for Biodiversity Conservation
A publication by Conservation International on bringing together science, partnerships, and human well-being to scale up conservation outcomes.
Author(s): Peter Seligmann, Russell A. Mittermeier, Gustavo A. B. Da Fonseca, Claude Gascon, Niels Crone, Jose Maria Cardoso Da Silva, Lisa Famolare, Robert Bensted-smith, Leon Rajaobelina, Bruce Beehler
2007