New IUCN Report Helps Choose the Right Tools to Assess How Key Natural Areas Benefit People

IUCN has just issued new guidance to help practitioners assess ecosystem services within important sites for biodiversity and nature conservation. The report reviews nine assessment tools, focussing on their application in Key Biodiversity Areas, natural World Heritage sites and protected areas. It includes a set of “decision trees” to save time on the complex process of selecting the most appropriate tool for one’s specific needs.

The report, "Tools for measuring, modelling, and valuing ecosystem services: Guidance for Key Biodiversity Areas, natural World Heritage sites, and protected areas", is part of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Best Practice Guidelines series. READ MORE

The guidelines have been prepared by IUCN’s World Heritage Programme and the IUCN-WCPANatural Solutions Specialist Group, and the Ecosystem Services and Key Biodiversity Areas expert working group supported by Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP), with funding and in-kind contributions provided by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (CCEA), Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at Arizona State University, Conservation International, SNAPP, and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Joyn-Coop Releases Study on Administrative Expenses and Conservation Trust Funds

A German-based consulting firm, Joyn-Coop provided this very helpful study to Blue Action Fund in connection with its deliberations on how it should think of and account for “administrative costs”.  The study was financed by KfW and presents a study of administrative cost ratios and coding of cost categories within Conservation Trust Funds.

The full study is available for download here.

Publication - Financing Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management

Blue Solutions is a global BMU-IKI project implemented jointly by GIZ, GRID-Arendal, IUCN and UN Environment. Over the past years, the Blue Solutions project has collated many success stories (solutions) of sustainable marine and coastal management, all of which are published on the PANORAMA platform. The new booklet is one in a series of “Solution-in-Focus” booklets looking at solution case studies of a specific topic in more detail. This version summarizes 18 different examples and approaches of financing marine and coastal management sustainably from all around the world – from a regional trust fund to small enterprises. We encourage you to browse through the variety of cases and hope you will be inspired to consider some of these approaches in your own work.
 
Find the PDF here.
 
Contact: Janina Korting
 

New Paper; Ocean Finance: Definition and Actions

The Pacific Ocean Finance Program is pleased to release the new paper entitled "Ocean Finance: Definition and Actions."

The purpose of the paper is to define ocean finance and summarise four actions that are necessary for effective ocean finance. 

The paper provides guidance for the implementation of the Pacific Ocean Finance Program, the aim of which is to increase the amount and efficacy of financial investments into Pacific ocean governance. You can learn more about the program by visiting the knowledge portal at www.pacificoceanfinance.org. 

Find the PDF here.

Funbio seeks a specialist consultant to develop a financial strategy for RedLAC and CAFÉ long-term sustainability: Project K – Knowledge for Action

Funbio is seeking a specialist consultant to aid in developing a financial strategy for RedLAC and CAFÉ long-term sustainability in "Project K – Knowledge for Action". 

This consultancy aims at developing a common financial strategy for both the RedLAC and CAFÉ networks as a way to ensure their long-term sustainability by strengthening the network members’ financing skills. This consultancy shall be carried out by one consultant with a balanced knowledge and experience regarding the development of financing and marketing strategies for EFs (or environmental organizations, biodiversity conservation initiatives), so that all requirements mentioned in this Term of Reference can be fulfilled. The full ToR is available for download here.

A full description of the position is available on Funbio's website. Consultants interested in this call are asked to send the resume (CV) and a cover letter showing previous similar professional experiences related to the activities, products and required competences. The cover letter should have a maximum of 2 pages. All CVs and cover letters shall be written in English and sent to projectk@funbio.org.br by May 25th, 2018.

Clarmondial Announces New Advisory Board Member

Clarmondial is thrilled to announce that Christian Speckhardt, ex Chief Investment Officer of ResponsAbility will join them as an active advisory board member, alongside the ex-CEO & CFO of Syngenta (John Ramsay) and ex-CEO of Adveq (Sven Lidén). 

For further information please visit Clarmondial's website.

New Book on Biodiversity Offsets

Biodiversity offsets and policies aimed at achieving no net loss or net gains of biodiversity are often promoted as innovative financing mechanisms for biodiversity. Numerous publications and analyses are based on the well-documented experiences of the USA or Australia. Europe has had biodiversity offset policies since the 1970s, but these are often only described in grey literature, and not always in English. A new book published by Springer contributes to filling this gap: it provides a comprehensive overview of the full range of offsetting principles in several European countries. Each country chapter gives the respective legal background, methods adopted as well as case studies. More information about the book is available on the Springer webpage. 

Launch of Environmental Impact Reporting in Agriculture (EIRA) with Clarmondial and Wageningen University

Clarmondial AG and Wageningen Environmental Research (WEnR), supported by EIT Climate-KIC’s Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Booster, have joined forces on a new initiative to promote transparency and science-based approaches to monitoring environmental impacts in agricultural supply chains.

EIRA (Environmental Impact Reporting for Agriculture) is a new reporting initiative designed to boost environmental stewardship across complex agricultural supply chains by aggregating and synthesizing key environmental impact metrics for agriculture. EIRA is intended to result in a new, low-cost, science-based tool to help financiers and agri-businesses benchmark and compare their environmental impact performance to inform better decision-making, to aggregate existing data sources, and to highlight critical research gaps.

Further information is available in the full press release.

Note from the Executive Director

Members and Partners of the Conservation Finance Alliance,
 
It is a great pleasure and an honor to address you as the first Executive Director of the CFA.  As someone who has worked in this field for many years, I have greatly benefited from the rich array of resources the CFA has developed and made available over the years and if you are reading this note, I imagine you have as well.  This wealth of knowledge on the CFA website – searchable published and grey literature resources, the Environmental Funds Toolkit – and in targeted publications such as the CTF Practice Standards, Conservation Trust Fund Investment Surveys, CFA’s webinar series, and at various meetings, trainings and workshops held at global and regional conferences – provides essential nutrients to the growing ecosystem of global conservation finance practitioners.  As members and partners of the CFA, you are the source of this knowledge and information and hopefully the beneficiary of these efforts as well.
 
I have begun reaching out to partners and members to gather background information and to harness your insights into how the CFA can optimize its historical assets and advance our shared objectives.  A more formal process will be developed shortly and we will organize an online “general assembly” to share recent developments and collaboratively plan a path forward.  Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements and communications.
 
Warm Regards,

David Meyers
Executive Director, CFA

New Report on Innovation for Coral Finance

The 2018 International Year of the Reef is an opportunity for the world’s media to highlight the many threats faced by coral ecosystems and the need to protect them. One of the main challenges faced when implementing coral conservation activities is the financing of it; the funds currently needed to achieve effective and lasting conservation greatly exceed the available funds, generating a substantial financing gap.

To explore ways of reducing this gap, the International Coral Reef Initiative releases a study of opportunities offered by innovative financing mechanisms for coral conservation. The seven most promising notions are presented. The report prompts for more integrated models, notably using a business-model approach. It introduces four example business models addressing specific coral-context challenges and how they can be used by local conservationists and decision-makers as a tool to make coral conservation sustainable. These examples are paving the way for dozens of customised coral business models still to be designed. We hope this first report will help renew the approach of coral finance.

The report is available here for download.