Building partnerships and driving funding to protect nature

 

Conservation International protects nature for the well-being of humanity. Conservation International-Europe supports this mission through a combination of government partnerships, policy advocacy and industry engagement.

In partnership with committed national governments — including France, Germany, Norway and Sweden—and the European Union, Conservation International-Europe drives funding to protect and restore tropical forests around the world, increase protection and improve management of oceans, and produce and apply science-based evidence to promote nature-based development.

We work with European decision-makers to integrate nature-based solutions in national and international policies and support “green” economic stimulus packages. We help lawmakers design policies that address deforestation and ecosystem degradation, while connecting with international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

And we collaborate with industry leaders in key commodity sectors — such as coffee and palm oil production — to establish sustainable supply chains that do not contribute to deforestation.

 

Highlight project

© Benjamin Drummond

A 'package deal' for climate and nature

Recent U.N. climate talks in Dubai saw a new effort to promote investment in an often overlooked — and underfunded — climate solution: nature. The initiative, called “Country Packages for Forests, Nature and Climate,” aims to help countries protect forests, biodiversity and climate at the same time.

“In a nutshell, a ‘Country Package’ is pooled funding from governments, private donors and others to help developing countries with high levels of carbon and biodiversity meet their nature and climate commitments,” said Herbert Lust, senior vice president of Conservation International-Europe.

To jumpstart the initiative, Conservation International partnered with the government of France, the Rob Walton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, to launch a “Seed Fund” to provide early support and galvanize larger public and private investment. For each Country Package, the Seed Fund intends to start by providing up to about $8 million to an initial four countries — including Ghana, the Republic of Congo and Papua New Guinea — that are home to a wealth of ecosystems and biodiversity.

 

Where we work in Europe

 

News from Europe

News spotlight: Europe passes bill to fix nature and climate

© Dušan Cvetanović/Pexels

The European Parliament on Wednesday agreed on legally binding targets to protect and restore nature in the European Union, CNN reported

The law will also require countries to restore 20 percent of their lands and sea by 2030 — a significant step but short of the “30 by 30” goal that most conservationists and scientists have called for to stem the tide of species extinctions and climate change. 

The move came as Europe withers under intense heat, with summer temperatures in some places in Spain topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and records falling from Greece to Germany. 

The leadup to the bill’s passage was equally hot, as it was bitterly opposed and barely passed, with 336 votes in favor to 300 against (with 13 abstaining). 

Conservationists praised the news — but noted that much more action remains. 

"Codified targets for restoring degraded nature are a meaningful step forward,” said Herbert Lust, senior vice president at Conservation International-Europe. "But stepping is no longer sufficient — we must leap. While this is a marked improvement over no law, it falls short of the 30 percent target agreed to by all EU states, and it is less than what the European Parliament itself called for in 2020.” 

Next up: Negotiations on a final version could take months, The New York Times reported. But the vote essentially means the bloc is now required in principle to pass the measure into law, according to the Times.

“We hope that this law's passage will be just the beginning of exponential progress,” Lust said, “and that the EU will continue asserting its climate and biodiversity leadership through increasingly bold legislative action.”

Bruno Vander Velde is the managing director of content at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.

 

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Hear directly from Conservation International employees on the ground in Europe.