Biodiversity Foundations: Addressing the Funding Gap
As the pressure on natural environments keeps on increasing, mobilizing funding for biodiversity conservation is a significant challenge. In this context, Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) are important tools for generating resources to support protected areas. We need to be aware of everything about it!
Financing Terrestrial, Marine, and Coastal Biodiversity Conservation
Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) are legal independent private institutions that aim to provide sustainable funding for conservation actions. Their main mission is to raise funds from international donors, governments, or the private sector, which are then invested diversely in capital markets to generate financial returns. Subsequently, these returns are distributed as grants to protected areas or biodiversity NGOs. These funds complement existing support and revenue derived from tourism.
Thanks to their stability and ability to generate long-term resources, biodiversity foundations contribute significant additional means for conserving terrestrial, marine, and coastal biodiversity. Lowly affected by local economic fluctuations, CTFs were able to continue providing grants during the global health crisis (2020-2021) when many national biodiversity funding sources were canceled.
Protected area managers recognize that biodiversity foundations are valuable sources of funding for their operations. Typically, they finance a portion of the long-term management costs of a country’s protected areas system, as well as conservation and sustainable development initiatives outside protected areas.
Challenges in monitoring funding impacts and ensuring ethical capital investments remain. In response, the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) has developed “best practice standards” to provide guidance on the design, management, and monitoring-evaluation of CTFs. These standards draw on the experiences of networks such as RedLAC (Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Funds Network) and CAFE (African Funds Consortium for the Environment).
Biodiversity Foundations in Madagascar
Two foundations are working to conserve biodiversity in Madagascar. Recognising the complementarity of their funding for protected areas, they have joined forces within the Coalition for Madagascar Protected Areas. Together, they advocate solid and sustainable financial and political support for the 123 protected areas on the island.
Tany Meva Foundation is a recognized environmental foundation established as a public utility in January 1996. Its mission is to mobilise and provide social and economic development actions for communities to ensure sustainable natural resource management. Its funding areas include improving living conditions, sustainable conservation, climate change, and behavioral change. In this regard, it significantly supports initiatives led by local communities adjacent to protected areas.
FAPBM (Madagascar Protected Areas and Biodiversity Fund), established in 2005, is a Malagasy private trust fund dedicated to biodiversity conservation in Madagascar. Its mission is to contribute to the sustainable financing of Madagascar’s protected areas system (SAPM), biodiversity conservation, maintenance of ecosystem services, community well-being, climate change mitigation, and promoting good management within SAPM. Contributors to its capital include the Malagasy government, Conservation International, WWF, the World Bank, the French government (through AFD), the French Fund for the Environment, and the German government (through BMZ/KfW). FAPBM covers approximately 30% of the budget for funded protected areas. Its funding aims to secure operational needs and also supports conservation and community development activities. To ensure the impact of its funding on biodiversity improvement, FAPBM has developed appropriate monitoring tools and supports the protected areas it funds. FAPBM is currently the largest conservation trust fund in Africa, regarding the endowment fund amount.
All these organizations, along with the participation of national associations and agencies, strive to maintain the survival and balance of biodiversity in ecosystems and our environment as much as possible.
