How Conservation Trust Funds Are Driving Progress for Nature

For the past three decades the GEF and allied fund organizations have striven to amplify the impact of their investments on behalf of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) goals. Financing, however, is only part of the equation. One of the biggest challenges—and opportunities—is to better link global funding with local organizations and communities in high biodiverse countries, who have been stewards of their lands and waters for generations, but often face obstacles to enact change at scale, such as limited financial support. One of the GEF’s strategies since 1991 thus has been to build in-country institutional capacity through Conservation Trust Funds. 

Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs), often called Environmental Funds in Latin America and Africa, are legally independent institutions that provide sustainable financing for biodiversity conservation. The core business of CTFs is to mobilize resources from diverse sources— including international donors, national governments, and the private sector—and to direct them, primarily through grants, to governmental bodies (such as national parks agencies), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and community based-organizations on the frontlines of the biodiversity crisis.

By partnering with governments and civil society organizations to provide sustainable long-term financing solutions to respond to biodiversity, climate, sustainable development, and environmental challenges, CTFs expedite the implementation of global conventions. 

Drawing on examples from across the world, the report highlights how CTFs manage to effectively link global and national funding with impactful local investments based on their long history of working with knowledgeable and committed government agencies, nonprofits, Indigenous organizations, and local communities.