CFA Webinar: Debt Conversions

Please join the us for a webinar on debt conversions (also known as debt for climate and nature swaps), a finance instrument that allows countries to reduce their national debt and reallocate funds for sustainable development and conservation projects.

Date: November 16th
Time: 11:00am EST
RSVP: Required

During the webinar, we will provide a brief overview of this instrument and some lessons learned from previous projects. We will also engage the authors of the recently released paper "Tackling the Triple Crisis: Using debt swaps to address debt, climate and nature loss post-COVID19" along with a Q&A session moderated by CFA's Executive Director, David Meyers. 

Miss the webinar? View it below!

Please join the us for a webinar on debt conversions (also known as debt for climate and nature swaps), a finance instrument that allows countries to reduce ...

Meet our panelists

Paul Steele - International Institute for Environment and Development

Paul Steele, chief economist for IIED, is focused on the linkages between environment, climate and poverty reduction and has more than 20 years' experience working for international organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Sejal Patel - International Institute for Environment and Development

Sejal Patel is an environmental economist who has worked in public policy analysis, climate finance and governance, and climate-resilient development. Her work concentrates on bridging international, national and local level climate policy responses and resourcing

Kevin Bender - The Nature Conservancy

Kevin Bender is TNC’s Acting Deputy Managing Director, NatureVest. He leads TNC’s initiatives to finance conservation and climate adaptation via the structuring of sovereign debt conversions globally.

SeyCCAT Webinar

Partnerships for ocean conservation and climate action.

This year, we celebrate 5 years since the establishment of SeyCCAT. SeyCCAT has successfully turned a blue economy vision into concrete impactful action. Within 5 years, the funds available for the sustainable financing of ocean conservation, sustainable fisheries and climate action, via the Blue Grants Fund, has more than tripled. So far, SeyCCAT has channelled more than SCR 6.9 million (approximately, US$ 500,000) to support marine protected areas and the Seychelles marine spatial plan. It continues to support Seychelles' ocean and climate ambition by supporting the marine spatial planning initiative and the integration of blue carbon into Seychelles' nationally determined contributions. SeyCCAT's success is intertwined with the support it has received from its partners. To commemorate SeyCCAT@5, its webinar is dedicated to partnerships for ocean conservation and climate action!

Africa’s Ocean Innovation Summit pitch opportunity!

Africa’s Ocean Innovation Summit pitch opportunity!

Ocean Innovation Africa is looking for African-based startups (or operating in Africa with local offices) with disruptive business models and/or innovative products and services with direct or indirect positive impact on the oceans to feature in the pitch competition at Ocean Innovation Africa 2020.

Know of a potential startup? Let them know!

Read more here

Job Opportunity: Fundraising Officer, Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust

Job Opportunity: Fundraising Officer, Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust

The Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust–PONT is a German conservation trust fund dedicated to conserving the PrespaOhrid ecoregion and its rich natural and cultural heritage by providing effective long-term funding support to

the national parks and conservation organizations in the region.

PONT is looking for a passionate, organized multi-tasker and creative Fundraising Officer for one year to develop and implement a Fundraising strategy.

Read more here

CFA webinar: Launch of the CFA’s “Conservation Trust Funds 2020: Global Vision, Local Action”

Date: November 12th
Time: 11am -12:30pm EST
RSVP: Required

Please join us on Thursday, November 12 for the long-awaited launch of "Conservation Trust Funds 2020: Global Vision, Local Action,"- a comprehensive analysis of Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) over the past decade and into the future.
 
During this 90-minute webinar, authors Paquita Bath, Amilcar Guzmán-Valladares, Viviana Luján-Gallegos, and Katy Mathias will share key findings from the report.

Thierry Renaud from the MAVA Foundation and Bryna Griffin from BirdLife, donors to the project, will share some remarks.

David Meyers will moderate the panel discussion 
 

Meet our panelists:

Natalia Arango, Executive Director, Fondo Acción 
Scott Lampman, Director, Tropical Forest Conservation Act Secretariat, USAID
Sean Nazerali, Director of Innovative Financing, BIOFUND

This 10-year review was produced as a project of CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group, by a consulting team of Wolfs Company and Aligning Visions, in partnership with a highly engaged CFA Task Force. RedLAC and CAFÉ were key project partners.
 
The study was made possible through funding from Asociación Costa Rica por Siempre, Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM), Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat, Master Capital LLC, MAVA Foundation, Trillion Trees (including BirdLife International, Wildlife Conservation Society and WWF-UK), and WWF-US.

We look forward to seeing you!

Photo credit: Jlhopgood

CFA Upcoming webinar – Release of revised Practice Standards for CTFs

As part of the upcoming RedLAC-CAFÉ Virtual Congress, the CFA together with diverse financial and technical partners will launch the revised CFA Practice Standards for Conservation Trust Funds

When?

October 8th, 2020 9AM - 11AM EDT

How to register?

Register for the RedLAC-CAFÉ Virtual Congress by clicking below!

Sustainable Finance for Conservation RedLAC / CAFÉ (Virtual Conference)

RedLAC and CAFÉ invite you to register to our joint virtual congress that will happen from October 6th to 8th, 2020, and will be focused on finding new opportunities for the planet in the post-2020 agenda.

The event will have multiple sessions with high-level speakers that will address the future of CTFs, fundraising priorities, the 30x30 goals, social and environmental safeguards, private sector engagement, and sustainable investment. There will also be opportunities for virtual networking between participants and cultural exchanges. All sessions (except for breakout rooms) will be translated to Spanish and French.

Register for free and engage with a global community of conservation finance practitioners, including environmental funds, donors, impact investors, NGOs, the private sector, and government authorities.

Beyond Tourism in Africa: Diversifying Community Livelihoods From Wildlife (Application Window Open)

The Luc Hoffmann Institute, the African Leadership University’s School of Wildlife Conservation and the WWF Regional Office for Africa are launching a global innovation challenge. This challenges aims to discover and incubate new revenue models that do not depend on tourism, but still enable local communities within African countries to obtain their livelihoods from wildlife, manage their natural resources sustainably, and improve their collective wellbeing. Participants have the chance to win a place in the African Leadership University’s incubation programme and access to seed money. 

Open from 1 September 2020 to 15 October 2020

Forum on Green Finance and Investment - OECD (Virtual Conference)

The OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment is the annual flagship event of the OECD Centre on Green Finance and Investment. Now in its seventh year, the Forum gathers senior policy makers and key public and private actors for action-oriented discussions on green and sustainable finance issues. 

When: October 6 - 9, 2020

Mobilizing Private Finance For Nature (World Bank Group)

This paper argues that governments and regulators, supported by financial institutions and multilateral development banks (MDBs), hold the key to mobilizing private finance at the scale needed to transform the way we build, produce, and consume in order to protect nature while fostering sustainable poverty reduction

The analysis looks at two key approaches to mobilizing private finance for biodiversity.

First, it assesses opportunities for ‘financing green,’ that is, the financing of projects that contribute—or intend to contribute— to the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity and its services to people.

Second, it looks at ‘greening finance,’ that is, directing financial flows away from projects with negative impact on biodiversity and ecosystems to projects that mitigate negative impact, or pursue positive environmental impact as a co-benefit.