Conservation Finance Program

With the establishment of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Conservation Finance Program (CFP), WCS has strengthened its capacity to address the long-term financial needs of its biodiversity conservation projects and those of its partners throughout the world.  The Conservation Finance Program complements a set of well-established and proven capabilities of WCS to deliver biodiversity conservation in the field with the capacity to deal with the challenges of financial sustainability.

Statement of Purpose
The WCS-CFP provides information, technical assistance, and direct support to initiatives aimed at creating funding opportunities, generating revenue and stabilizing income flows. We assist people and governments in choosing development approaches and investments that benefit wildlife and wild places. We invest in business plans, feasibility studies, long-term funding mechanisms, new markets, and other innovative approaches to ensure generation of much-needed revenue for sustainable conservation programs. By developing market-based approaches, WCS creates an essential link between its conservation activities and the local and regional economies where it works, gaining greater support for conservation by local communities and government leaders.

Strategic Objectives
Create Funding Opportunities: The WCS-CFP works closely with WCS International Conservation programs, WCS partners in the field, and other organizations to develop long-term funding opportunities for biodiversity conservation. Funds come from a variety of sources including government institutions and bilateral and multilateral agencies. For more details on our collaborative efforts to increase long-term funding, see the Conservation Finance Alliance website at www.conservationfinance.org.

Generate Revenue: To diversify the funding base of projects in the field, the WCS-CFP works with project staff, partners, and consultants to develop and implement innovative revenue-generating activities addressing medium- to long-term financial needs of biodiversity conservation projects in the field.

Stabilize Income Flows: Although limitations in funding opportunities are serious threats to the viability of field projects, another serious threat comes from the fluctuations of income flows. To help WCS programs and partner organizations address this challenge, CFP assists with institutional strengthening for development and enhancement of their strategic planning, decision-making, fund-raising and management capacity.

The goal of the Conservation Finance Program is to help create sustainable funding sources over time. The graph above shows this goal of raising the base amount of funding and dampening the oscillations.

Projects and Partnerships
Markets for Ecosystem Services
Global concerns about climate change and reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere provide sustainable financing opportunities at a variety of WCS landscapes around the world. Intact forests play a key role in carbon sequestration.  Protecting these forests prevents the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, thereby helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.   Reducing emissions from deforestation also provides significant financing activities from the sale of emissions reduction credits in the voluntary carbon market.  Planting trees for restoration or to promote reforestation to benefit livelihoods also provide carbon market opportunities in both voluntary and Kyoto sanctioned markets.  

WCS is working to develop long-term funding opportunities from the sale of emission reduction and other credits in carbon markets to ensure achievement of  co-benefits: CO2 emission reductions, protection of biodiversity, and investment in community livelihoods.  WCS works to ensure that funding generated from the marketing of emissions reductions and carbon offset credits directly benefit the conservation of the landscape and the people living in it.  WCS currently coordinates the marketing of emission reduction credits from the Makira Forest, a WCS managed protected area in Madagascar.

Product Marketing and Enterprise Development
WCS addresses the causes of unsustainable use of natural resources by working with the private sector to create markets for natural products, new businesses linked to conservation, and even new products. Some examples of WCS supported products include brands such Elephant Pepper  and  It’s Wild, as well as Tiger Friendly  certified sustainably harvested products, all of which are aimed at promoting wildlife conservation.

Conservation Endowments and Trusts
WCS continues to work with governments and private organizations to design and establish conservation trust funds in many countries throughout the world. WCS is currently involved in creating conservation trust funds in Central and East Africa and Madagascar and works directly with already established funds to help them increase their capital and funding. This involves raising money to capitalize these funds and develop strong partnerships with local conservation institutions to finance program implementation and create long-term funding commitments and incentives for people to sustainably manage and conserve their resources.