Announcement
Kumar Bhattacharyya
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Donate to the CFA!

Call for Small Projects from MedPAN

MedPAN has launched a Call for Small Projects to support the actions led in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Mediterranean. The Call for Small Projects aims to reinforce MPA management. Please note that the call has specific eligibility rules. You'll find all the details below.

The MedPAN Calls for Small Project is open to:

  • Organisations that are in charge of the management of MPAs;

  • Other organisations (NGOs, private companies, scientific institutions, etc.) working with authorities that are responsible for the management of Mediterranean MPAs.


The Call targets co-management approaches for MPAs.

The call is only open to the following six countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey and Albania.

The MPA management authorities and the organisations who wish to participate will need to send the Grant Application Form to the MedPAN Secretariat before February 5, 2020.

You will find all the details regarding participation eligibility, the type of projects that are required and the selection process in the Rules document of the thematic Call for Small Projects.

To submit a grant request:

  1. Carefully read the Rules and assess whether your structure and project are eligible.
    Download the Rules of the thematic Call for Small Projects on MPA co-management approaches.

  2. Fill in the Grant Application Form.
    Download the Grant Application Form.

  3. Send it with all the necessary documents to projet@medpan.org by February 5, 2020 midnight.


Don't hesitate to contact us for any question about this Call for Small Projects.

This Call for Small Projects is made possible through the support of the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Seeking Communication and Membership Assistant

Communication and Membership Assistant for the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA)

Washington DC

Temporary/Seasonal

GLOBAL CONSERVATION

Job Description

Reporting: reporting to David Meyers, Executive Director, CFA

Objectives: The CFA Communication and Membership Assistant is essential to ensure effective communication among members of the Conservation Finance Alliance and the CFA Secretariat, specifically in support of CFA programs and membership outreach. This role is critical to help with information sharing and logistical support for the CFA Secretariat.

Principal Responsibilities:

  • Developing, writing and sending CFA’s monthly newsletter to the members and newsletter recipients; actively soliciting news items from members for inclusion, and updating the CFA website and CFA’s social media accounts with newsletter elements. 

  • Monitoring the CFA Secretariat email account and responding to member emails or forwarding communications to appropriate CFA Working Group Chairs, Secretariat and Executive Committee members

  • Maintaining and updating the member database, including adding new members

  • Maintaining and upgrading the CFA websites including conservationfinancealliance.org (includes cfalliance.org), and conservationfinance.info:

    • Updating the websites content including the library, tool kits, conservation finance guide, and more as requested by the CFA Executive Director, Working Group Chairs and CFA Secretariat.

    • Updating the news section, events calendar, experts database, and other sections on a regular basis.

    • Updating and creating new web pages or websites as requested by the Executive Director.

    • Remaining in regular contact with the Executive Secretariats of RedLAC, CAFÉ and APNET as well as the Conservation Finance Network to identify content-sharing and cross-posting opportunities

  • Scheduling, organizing and providing logistical and technical support for webinars including assuring that presenters are comfortable with the technology and have shared presentations with the webinar host (Secretariat). Recording and posting all webinars online.

  • Supporting CFA task forces and Working Groups including but not limited to: establish and maintain list servers, scheduling meetings, sending meeting announcements, recording meeting, taking notes during calls, and disbursing meeting minutes following review from CFA Secretariat.

  • Reaching out to members and partners to solicit topics for knowledge sharing including documents, publications, relevant webinars, conferences, and more.

  • Schedule and assure logistics and communications for quarterly Executive Committee virtual meetings including preparing minutes from meetings

  • Schedule and assure logistics and communications for semi-annual Steering Committee virtual meetings including preparing minutes from meetings.

Qualification/Requirements

  • Bachelor’s Degree, strong research and writing skills a must

  • Previous social media and website experience and ability to communicate well with a globally-located, culturally-diverse team desirable

  • Understanding and familiarity with biodiversity conservation implementation and policy a plus

  • Detail-oriented with excellent organizational skills, including responsiveness to multiple, simultaneous projects and demands; ability to set and follow priorities and meet deadlines

  • Ability to work independently and without daily instruction and monitoring 

  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite of products, particularly Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint

  • Additional skills - Website creation and management (experience with Squarespace preferred), email communications tools including MailChimp.

To apply see the Jobs pages at WCS and search for Communication and Membership Assistant.

Global Environment Facility Approves USD 15m for the Food Securities Fund

From Clarmondial:

GEF Council approves support to the Food Securities Fund

Published: Monday, January 13th, 2020

The Food Securities Fund was one of the three Non-Grant Instruments (NGI) approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council in December 2019. The global emerging markets fund, which starts with a focus on Sub Saharan Africa, was deemed to be well-aligned with GEF focal areas, including on land degradation, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation.

In recognition of this, the GEF Council approved a commitment of USD 15 million to the Fund, with Conservation International acting as its agency. This funding will be unlocked by commitments from an anchor investor, which Clarmondial will announce in the coming weeks.

Clarmondial has designed the Food Securities Fund to create significant and measurable impact through its innovative value chain finance approach. Its targets include:

  • positively impact the lives of farmers – and especially smallholder farmers and women;

  • support local SMEs to grow the number of employees and training, notably for women and youth;

  • contribute to the restoration of agricultural land;

  • help to implement sustainable agricultural practices; and

  • mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Gustavo Fonseca, Director of Programs at the Global Environment Facility, said: “The Global Environment Facility is pleased to support this innovative blended finance strategy that demonstrates the opportunity to mobilize private sector capital at scale for urgent environmental issues.”

Agustin Silvani, Senior Vice President of Conservation Finance at Conservation International, said that “Conservation International takes an active role in supporting new investment vehicles that can contribute meaningfully to environmental objectives. We look forward to supporting Clarmondial on the implementation of the Food Securities Fund.”

Fred Werneck, co-founder of Clarmondial, said that “The Global Environment Facility and Conservation International will provide critical support to the Food Securities Fund. Their commitment highlights the social and environmental credentials of the Fund”.

* This announcement does not constitute an offer or solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction to purchase or sell any shares. No information in this announcement should be construed as providing financial, investment, tax or other professional advice.

View the full announcement on Clarmondial’s website.

American Forest Foundation Seeks Chief Financial Officer

Eighty years of work with landowners has earned us respect and credibility, but our future will be defined by our ability to create sustainable solutions to problems that are far bigger than us. We view our CFO as a social entrepreneur, helping us develop and launch a portfolio of new products and services.

 Solving some of the most urgent environmental and economic issues of today—cleaning our air, filtering our drinking water, sequestering carbon, creating wildlife habitat, reducing the risk of wildfires, increasing biodiversity, and supplying sustainable sources of wood—requires careful stewardship of our forests. Because individuals and families own 270 million acres of America’s forests (more than government and more than corporations), empowering family forest stewardship is an essential yet often overlooked piece of the forest puzzle. The American Forest Foundation (AFF) is leading the way in empowering family forest landowners to tackle these urgent issues and achieve significant impact.

 Building on our 80-year legacy of family forest stewardship, AFF is entering a new phase of rapid innovation. In our trusted position at the center of the family forest network and with the financial strength of $160 million in reserves, we’re developing and deploying sustainable business models that support forest owners as they address these important environmental, social, and economic issues. The technology company we acquired has helped us significantly increase our ability to connect private landowners with nonprofits, technical experts, government agencies, and conservation organizations. We’re reinventing the carbon market for family landowners and we’re helping companies that source wood from family forests do so sustainably. Our partners are some of the leading companies and financial institutions, the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy.

A full description of the position is available for download here or on their website.

Recording of the first CFA Incubator Information Webinar is now available

The Conservation Finance Alliance Incubator seeks to identify, support and promote innovative ideas and solutions to conservation finance challenges that have significant positive conservation impacts. Innovation is essential to identify and develop conservation finance solutions and is especially urgent given the current rates of biodiversity loss. This virtual incubator will identify and support five concurrent projects for incubation for periods of 9 to 12 months. Support will be in the form of grants and mentorship by CFA members.

This info session answers questions posed by members and gives further information on the Incubator program.

Consulting Opportunity in Cairo, Egypt

Strengthening Protected Area Financing and Management Systems

Project Consultancy services to deliver training course on tourism revenues management within protected areas

Please find at the link TORs for consultancy services for an international consultant to deliver a training course on effective mechanisms within protected areas to raise funds from tourism.

The deadline to apply is 12 January 2020

https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/union/files/doc/5-1-2019-epasp.tor_revenues_020120_ext.pdf


The consultant is expected to focus on a range of tasks which involves, but is not limited to: (1) opportunities for generating revenues directly or indirectly from tourism within PAs; (2) structures for protected area management and implications for financing; (3) protected areas funding methods; (4) how to develop and implement effective tourism management plans for PAs; (5) how to match appropriate types of tourism to particular sites within PAs, taking into account conservation goals and tourism markets; (6) procedures for effective implementation of revenue raising mechanisms within PAs.

As outlined in the TORs, application should include a Technical Proposal and Financial Proposal. Submissions should be received by 15:00 (Cairo time) on 12 Jan 2020. Proposals should be clearly marked “Consultancy services to deliver training course on tourism revenues management within protected areas” and addressed to Dr. Khaled Allam at email: info@epasp.org; mobile: 01001288508. All queries should be directed to Dr Allam.

2020 Conservation Finance Boot Camp Applications Now Open

Applications are now open for Conservation Finance Network’s 14th annual Conservation Finance Boot Camp! The course will be held June 22nd-26th, 2020, at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in New Haven, CT. They are not only excited to return the course to its founding location, but also to host with our partners at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. New England is a dynamic landscape for conservation funding and finance, exhibiting leadership in philanthropy and innovation in the land trust and land conservation movement. They are excited to complement the national perspective of the Boot Camp with case studies from the region.  

Please see the Boot Camp webpage for more information, and be sure to submit your application by January 31st!

What We're Reading: COMBO - Reducing Infrastructure Impacts on Biodiversity

By Hugo Costa, Hugo Rainey & Ray Victurine | December 16, 2019

Over the past four years, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), together with its partners Forest Trends and Biotope, have been operating an innovative program called Conservation, Impact Mitigation and Biodiversity Offsets (COMBO) in Africa. The programs overarching aim is as simple as it is ambitious: to reconcile economic development with the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

To learn more about this project please view the full article here.

What We're Reading: Investing in Nature - Private Finance for Nature-based Resilience

The Nature Conservancy joined forces with Environmental Finance to better understand what major investors are looking for, what obstacles they face and what can be done to help them scale up investments in projects that protect or enhance natural capital. They conducted a global survey of asset owners, asset managers and financial intermediaries (including banks, investment advisors, consultancies, government agencies and NGOs) and attracted responses from 168 institutions. This was complemented by 23 one-to-one interviews.

The full article is available from the Nature Conservancy here.