Our Mission

The CFA’s mission is to promote awareness, expertise, and innovation in conservation finance globally.

Conservation finance is defined as “mechanisms and strategies that generate, manage, and deploy financial resources and align incentives to achieve nature conservation outcomes” (Meyers, D., et. al., 2020). Conservation finance instruments and solutions seek to leverage and effectively manage economic incentives, policies and capital to achieve the long-term wellbeing of nature and the services nature provides to society.

The CFA considers these solutions to be necessary elements of successful conservation and sustainable management of nature. Without adequate understanding and effective use of the conservation finance ‘toolkit’, nature conservation cannot compete with the relentless expansion of unsustainable economic activities.

Our collaborative network of volunteer members participate in CFA’s Working Groups (WG), Task Forces (TF), Executive Committee (ExCo) and Secretariat and promote knowledge and the effective use of conservation finance tools in their activities across the planet.

Environmental Funds Working Group

The EF Working Group was established in 2007 and is now comprised of 122 members from 33 countries.The focus of this group is the development of Environmental Funds as a mechanism for conservation finance. The mission of the CFA's Environmental Funds Working Group is to encourage promotion, knowledge transfer and exchange about environmental funds among relevant funds, donors and NGOs. The purpose of these environmental funds, and thus the WG’s aim as well, is the protection of global biodiversity.

Protected Areas Financing Working Group

The PA Finance WG is a diverse group of 102 members from 31 countries. Our goal is to advance global thinking and planning for sustainable financing of protected area systems, including the following broad activities:

• Help develop global guidance on key issues for PA financing systems

• Share information and best practices to support national level PA financing systems and projects

• Work with national governments to identify status of PA financing and initiate coordinated support program

• Act as the PA Finance Working Group for the WCPA / IUCN

Innovation Working Group

The Innovation Working Group is a dynamic group of 103 members from 30 countries. It is focused on the development–research and application– of emerging finance mechanisms to meet conservation objectives. This WG will review new approaches that seek to value ecosystem services and address sustainable development through community and private sector partnerships. Thus, it will explore pilot opportunities such as mortgage-backed securities, derivatives and effluent credit trading, and wildlife friendly commodity markets to protect threatened landscapes and species, demonstrating how new ideas can contribute to conservation.

The objective of Innovation Working Group is to identify, research, field-test and disseminate information about a range of finance mechanisms which can be applied to achieve conservation outcomes.  The CFA Incubator will be developed through a Task Force under the Innovation Working Group. 

Marine and Coastal Working Group

Marine and coastal ecosystems are extremely valuable and under severe threat.  Conservation finance solutions are essential building blocks to successful marine protected areas (MPAs), sustainable fisheries, and conservation of critical near shore and open water habitats.  Although some material has been written on finance for MPAs, there is still inadequate understanding, capacity, and use of conservation finance solutions in the marine and coastal space. 

 The Marine and Coastal Finance Working Group seeks to consolidate and share knowledge and experience around conservation finance solutions pertinent to these critical conservation targets.  The long-term objective is to build capacity among marine and coastal conservation and sustainable use practitioners in the knowledge and use of conservation finance solutions.  The solutions will seek to increase available finance, reduce pressures on the ecosystems through better aligning incentives, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of conservation actions.  Initial focus will be on coral reefs and related ecosystems (mangroves, sea grass) due to the urgency of this challenge.