A series of three webinars were organised after the Wildlife Conservation Society, in collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance in support of the 50 Reefs initiative, released “Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: A Guide” as a resource for protected area managers and others charged with managing and financing reef conservation. The report describes 13 types of finance tools which have either been proven successful at or have great potential to support reef conservation and sustainable management. All three webinars were sponsored by ICRI.
The first of the series entitled “Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: An Overview” was hosted by David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance and Venkat Iyer of the UN Environment. The webinar shared key findings and recommendations from the report and finance tools including various tourism-based fees, biodiversity offsets, bonds, debt swaps, and conservation trust funds.
Watch the webinar here: Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: An Overview
The second of the series entitled “Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with Tourism-Related Tools” was hosted by David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance. This webinar focused on the fact that coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity, and how their value for recreation is one of the easiest to capture financially. It explored the range of existing and emerging tools that protected areas and site managers can use to capture funds from tourism for conservation and management. Specifically, the webinar focused on the use of: 1) entry, activity, and special use fees; 2) commercial concessions; 3) departure taxes; 4) partnerships with hotels, and 5) voluntary donations.
Watch the webinar here: Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with Tourism-Related Tools
The third and final webinar “Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management: Conservation Trust Funds and Impact Investing” was hosted by Katy Mathias of the Conservation Finance Alliance and WCS and Nicolas Pascal of Blue finance. This webinar explored the use of Conservation Trust Funds and Impact Investing to support coral reef conservation. Conservation Trust Funds (CTFs) are private, legally independent institutions that provide sustainable financing for biodiversity conservation. Impact Investing is investing in companies, organizations, and funds with the intention of generating measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Specifically, the webinar discussed how protected area, national, and regional CTFs can raise, manage, and invest financing for coral reef conservation and restoration. The webinar also reviewed how impact investing can be used to manage coral reef areas through public private partnerships.
Watch the webinar here: Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management: Conservation Trust Funds and Impact Investing