Conservation Agreement Fund

A US-based nonprofit protecting some of the most important conservation resources on the planet

Supporting Long-term Sustainable Conservation

Established in early 2010 by Scott Cecil, a businessman and philanthropist, and Dr. Richard Rice, longtime chief economist at Conservation International, Conservation Agreement Fund aims to serve as a bridge between conservation funding and grassroots project implementers who might otherwise have great difficulty in successfully attracting, negotiating, and managing project finance.

Our Approach: Incentive-based Agreements

Effective protection of biodiversity requires strategies that make conservation economically viable and attractive to resource owners. Incentive-based conservation agreements are a key mechanism to address this need.

First piloted in the developing world by Conservation International, conservation agreements are transparent, fairly negotiated agreements in which resource owners commit to protecting specific habitats or species in exchange for a steady stream of concrete benefits. The type of benefits provided varies but may include technical assistance, support for social services, employment in resource protection, or direct cash payments.

Conservation Agreement Fund has adopted the conservation agreement approach as a model for all of the projects included in our portfolio. Conservation agreements position biodiversity preservation as a practical and competitive alternative to destructive resource development by linking global support for biodiversity with the people in a position to provide its conservation, in effect creating a new market for direct investment in conservation itself.

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In Brief

The Conservation Agreement Fund is the only nonprofit devoted entirely to supporting on-the-ground conservation agreements in developing countries. Our focus is on serving a select portfolio of world-class projects.

  • Providing technical support and project oversight
  • Monitoring conservation outcomes and agreement compliance
  • Providing funders with the assurance of a stable and reliable investment context
  • Ensuring long-term financial sustainability by hosting project-level endowments

Efficient and Effective Conservation

Under incentive-based conservation agreements, national authorities or local resource owners commit to protecting specific habitats or species in exchange for a steady stream of benefits. By making conservation itself a source of economic development, such agreements offer one of the few effective options for protecting biodiversity outside of national parks and other traditional protected areas.

animal-eyes-big-dangerous-87403 (1)

In Brief

The Conservation Agreement Fund is the only nonprofit devoted entirely to supporting on-the-ground conservation agreements in developing countries. Our focus is on serving a select portfolio of world-class projects.

  • Providing technical support and project oversight
  • Monitoring conservation outcomes and agreement compliance
  • Providing funders with the assurance of a stable and reliable investment context
  • Ensuring long-term financial sustainability by hosting project-level endowments

Efficient and Effective Conservation

Under incentive-based conservation agreements, national authorities or local resource owners commit to protecting specific habitats or species in exchange for a steady stream of benefits. By making conservation itself a source of economic development, such agreements offer one of the few effective options for protecting biodiversity outside of national parks and other traditional protected areas.

How You Can Help

Being “green” is too often defined in terms of doing less “bad,” such as engaging in less consumption or pollution, rather than any amount of “good” in terms of protecting species and habitats. For plants and animals that depend on specific areas for survival, this distinction is of critical importance because, unless protected, these areas are all ultimately at risk of being developed, and in the end, that means biodiversity loses.

The Conservation Agreement Fund offers supporters the rare opportunity to directly participate in doing “good” by funding effective, site-based agreements protecting some of the most important conservation resources on the planet.

World-Class Projects

Tetepare

Tetepare, Solomon Islands, the Last Wild Island

Support for local customary landowners, protection of the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific

Kenya

Predator Compensation Fund, Kenya

Vital financial support for Maasai herdsmen, the most effective lion conservation in Africa, protecting more than 1 million acres of communal grazing lands

Uaxactun

Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala

Community rainforest protection in the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest block of broadleaf forest north of the Amazon

Bonobo

Bonobo Peace Forest, Democratic Republic of the Congo

A constellation of community-based reserves and protected areas spanning more than 10 million acres in Africa’s Congo Basin rainforest