The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) is excited to announce today that the French Facility for Global Environment / Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial (FFEM) and the MAVA Foundation have jointly awarded 701,114 Euros (822,315 USD) to support CFA.
The CFA network is supported by generous financial and in-kind contributions from its members. FFEM and MAVA will jointly fund the next stage of CFA. Both organizations are CFA members and have a long history of working to combat the world’s environmental challenges, as well as an enduring commitment to biodiversity conservation.
“The CFA members are a dynamic group, and the network needed to grow and evolve to meet the members’ needs for outreach, knowledge sharing, and collaboration,” said Sylvie Goyet, member of the CFA Executive Committee. “We’re excited by the opportunities that the FFEM and MAVA funding will make possible.”
Among the targeted uses for the funding, CFA will hire its first full-time Executive Director and a small staff to support programming and membership. It will build the network's capacity for administration and fundraising, and assess approaches to knowledge management and sharing to further support collaboration and cross-pollination among members. Additionally, CFA plans to create an Innovative Financing Mechanisms “Incubator” to enable members to develop new approaches to sustainable financing for conservation and protected areas.
“We are honored to host CFA and to be managing this generous donation made by FFEM and the MAVA Foundation,” said WCS Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science John Robinson. “This critical funding will be used to take CFA to the next level in promoting sustainable funding solutions for protected areas and the world’s biodiversity.” WCS is a co-founder of the CFA and currently serves as its host.
The CFA has several immediate projects underway and planned. Presently, CFA is updating a comprehensive resource guide on sustainable financing mechanisms in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme's BIOFIN program, a CFA member. It is also launching a workshop on investment management for Conservation Trust Funds in association with the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Environmental Funds (RedLAC), and renewing a series of knowledge-sharing webinars offered by members.
