In a move to address the chronic underfunding that plagues conservation efforts, a strategic partnership between an environmental NGO and a climate finance organization aims to raise long-term financing for conservation initiatives in the Galapagos Islands and its surrounding areas — while providing a blueprint for scalable, sustainable funding.
Shifting away from funding approaches that prioritize short-term projects, the partnership between the Charles Darwin Foundation and Oceans Finance Company will use money from commercial markets to unlock larger funding pools and help with long-term conservation planning.
“Most funders like to support something that has a tangible result … and then they want to move on to the next thing. But the reality in conservation issues is you often need decades to understand the dynamics,” said Rakan Zahawi, executive director of CDF.