Financing Fisheries Change: Learning from Case Studies
The report, based on eleven in-depth case studies, provides guidance to investors, project developers and NGOs on how to develop and incorporate innovative financing structures and partnerships into their conservation strategies. The Verde Ventures investment into Integradora in Mexico is featured in one case study.
http://www.mantaconsultinginc.com/?page_id=124
The Verde Ventures Fund (VV), an enterprise investment fund for biodiversity conservation at Conservation International Foundation (CI), is seeking to retain a consulting firm to prepare a feasibility assessment to determine the viability of a separate Verde Ventures Fund, independent of CI. The successful consulting firm will include experts on fund development, emerging markets, legal, financial and SME finance and development.
Our FY 10 highlights report!
Lots of interesting new deals, great ideas, and really, really great people, all working to make a difference on this small, blue planet of ours.
Enjoy!
Heading into the jungles of Madagascar in search of the world's rarest lemur—the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus)—was a gamble that paid off, said Damian Aspinall of The Aspinall Foundation. An expedition of scientists from the foundation,Conservation International (CI), Association Mitsinjo, and GERP (Groupe d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar) searched hundreds of miles of Madagascar forests and found evidence that the bamboo lemur lives in at least 11 sites not previously known to science.
How entrepreneurs can save the world’s most beautiful places
Loans and grants offer financial, social and environmental benefits around World Heritage sites
Washington, D.C. (September 10th, 2009) – An innovative finance program will help to protect seven of the world’s most precious and endangered natural wonders, the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Foundation and Conservation International announced today.
The $2 million program will offer grants and affordable loans for local entrepreneurs around World Heritage sites in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The goal is to promote the development of companies run by community members, while at the same time reducing poverty and conserving the biological diversity of the following places:
· Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (Belize), the largest barrier reef in the Northern Hemisphere and habitat for marine turtles, manatees and crocodiles
· Morne Trois Pitons National Park (Dominica), where lush-green tropical forest blends with extraordinary volcanic features, like hot springs and a “boiling lake”;
· Mount Kenya (Kenya), an extinct volcano that supports 12 glaciers, a bamboo forest, buffaloes, elephants, leopards and giant forest hogs;
· Sian Ka’an (Mexico), which contains 40 different sites of prehispanic cultures and is famous for its amphibians, reptiles and cats such as the jaguar, puma and ocelot;
· Puerto Princesa National Park (Philippines), home to the world’s longest underground river. Its tunnels and chambers are home to large populations of birds and bats;
· Kilimanjaro National Park (Tanzania), the highest point in Africa with its snowy peak looming over the savannah;
These World Heritage sites are considered of exceptional value to humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for their unique natural beauty or scientific importance.
The World Heritage Local Ecological Entrepreneurship Program (WH-LEEP) is a partnership among the United Nations Foundation, United Nations Development Programme / Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (UNDP / GEF SGP) and Conservation International’s Verde Ventures investment fund. The participation of Verde Ventures in the WH-LEEP is enabled in part by funding from Daiwa Securities.
The WH-LEEP is one of the few lines of credit to take a “blended capital” approach, which means that it provides loans and grants at the same time to help small businesses to develop to a big enough size that makes them eligible to borrow from commercial banks.
“We are providing these resources to enable community enterprises to grow and prosper, while at the same time ensure that people are thriving and the environment is healthy,” said Jennifer Morris, Senior Vice President of Ecosystem Finance at Conservation International.
Erika Harms, Executive Director for Sustainable Development at the United Nations Foundation, said: “we have worked for years bringing new market opportunities to sustainable community-based enterprises and have seen them struggle due to their inability to access affordable credit. WH-LEEP will help fill in this missing piece.”
Olav Kjorven, Assistant Administrator and Director of the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy, noted that “the WH-LEEP partnership is testing innovative new models to blend the comparative strengths of the United Nations in planning for sustainable human development with the acumen of private sector entrepreneurship”.
Examples of eligible businesses include sustainable agriculture, ecotourism services and harvest of forest products such as oils, nuts and fibers. The funds may be used to implement activities in a business growth plan, supporting activities such as marketing, product improvement and guide training and certification. Businesses that perform well may qualify for additional funding and progressively lower interest rates. Applications are open now for the sites in Belize, Kenya, Mexico and Tanzania. Businesses in Dominica, Madagascar and Philippines will be able to apply as of October 2010.
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Photos available here: http://bit.ly/W9uWG
For more information contact:
Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, Press Officer, Conservation International
Mobile: (+1) 202 906-0062
Office: (+1) 703 341 2471
Email: p.malentaqui@conservation.org
Shawn Parell, Communications Associate, United Nations Foundation
Email: sparell@unfoundation.org
WH-LEEP: www.unfoundation.org/global-issues/sustainable-development/wh-leep-resources.html
UNESCO’s World Heritage List: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
Verde Ventures is an investment fund managed by Conservation International to provide support for small- and medium-sized businesses that contribute to healthy ecosystems and human well-being. www.conservation.org/verdeventures
The United Nations Foundation is an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas, and capital to help the United Nations solve global problems. We build partnerships, grow constituencies, mobilize resources and advocate policy changes to support the UN’s work for individual and global progress. The UN Foundation’s work—focused on select global problems—is decreasing child mortality, improving disaster relief, protecting diverse cultures and environments, creating a clean energy future, empowering women and girls, and improving U.S.-UN relations. For more information, visit www.UNFoundation.org
The GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) is implemented by UNDP on behalf of the three implementing agencies of the Global Environment Facility. Launched in 1992, SGP is rooted in the belief that global environmental problems can best be addressed if local people are involved and direct community benefits and ownership are generated. In seventeen years of operation, SGP has worked with thousands of community-based organizations (CBOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in more than 100 countries. http://sgp.undp.org/
