Partners who work at the local level are in the best place to bring about lasting change in their communities. Local change is critical to all conservation successes. Funding these groups is one of the most significant contributions we can make to global conservation initiatives.
Last year, Conservation International distributed more than $30 million in funding to our partners to implement strategic conservation activities. That’s almost 31 percent of our annual expenses. That’s huge. And that’s just one year. Highlights include:
- Protecting more than 3,200 square miles off the coast of Colombia as part of a marine corridor comprising the largest no-fishing zone in the Eastern Tropical Pacific;
- Enabling communities to directly manage more than 267,000 hectares of wetlands in Madagascar, including lakes, rivers, marshes, rocky shorelines, and mangroves;
- Creating 22 community businesses designed to benefit both people and nature in South Africa.
Over the past six years, we have provided in excess of $97 million to fund more than 1,200 non-governmental groups as well as small businesses that employ nearly 15,000 local people. Several of our special conservation funds also support critical projects by our field programs.
Each success, large and small, is an important piece in the greater whole. We use every penny to achieve our goals.
Just think of the good we could do if six highly respected, world-renowned organizations and governments came together to fund conservation. Turns out, they already have.
In the farthest corners of the world, hardworking people are striving to conserve our environment. Funding their efforts is one of the greatest contributions we can make.
Granted, we're a huge organization. But Conservation International is well aware of the enormous power small businesses have in catalyzing change and conserving our environment.