Protected areas are the cornerstone of efforts to protect the Earth’s biological riches.

Our Global Conservation Fund (GCF) finances the creation, expansion, and long-term management of protected areas in both healthy areas of the world and damaged ones. We support partners in biodiversity hotspots to help places in peril reverse course. We fund projects in wilderness areas to help ensure the world’s more pristine regions stay that way. We also support efforts in important marine regions.

As of April 2008, GCF has given grants to CI’s regional programs and more than 40 incredible partners – from Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and The Nature Conservancy to the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group.

It's thanks to a $100 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that we’re able to spread such wealth – and make a difference. GCF partners have succeeded in helping protect more than 196 million acres of the world's most remarkable regions.

Make no mistake: We do more than finance efforts to declare these regions "protected." Our goal is to also create financing mechanisms for effective management that will last long into the future.

We provide financial support to partners for one reason: We all share one goal. All of us work to leave the world a healthier place for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

For more information about GCF, visit www.conservation.org/gcf

Learn about our other conservation funds.