Conservation International was founded in 1987 in Washington, United States, under the status of a non-profit organization, with an innovative approach to the conservation of biological diversity on the planet. Since then, biologists, economists, educators and other professionals have worked with hundreds of partners in more than 40 countries, located on five continents, where the areas of greatest biological wealth in the world are found.
In Colombia, Conservation International begins work on December 17, 1991. In an initiative of José Vicente Rodríguez and Rod Mast, they contributed to the conservation and sustainable use of the national natural and cultural heritage. With an institutional vision framed by the concept of "support institution", which technically and financially supports national initiatives, both public and private.
From this framework, CI-Colombia's objective is to strengthen the institutional development of non-governmental environmental initiatives, support their activities, and serve as an international point of contact to channel efforts for the benefit of the country's conservation objectives.
Among the first donors are the Mario Santo Domingo Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, with whom work began in Chocó and the Amazon. In Chocó, sustainable markets were developed for non-timber products, such as tagua, wax and fibers, and the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor was created, which is located within Colombia and Ecuador. A biodiversity program was also developed in the Amazon region, where there are two biological stations, the Environmental Center in La Pedrera and the Mosiro Itajura-Caparú.
Since then, CI has been working not only in Colombia, but also in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama, where marine conservation and sustainable use of resources is supported in the Marine Corridor of the Eastern Tropical Pacific, an oceanic territory larger than Mexico. . It has also established REDD + methodologies in Colombia, and REDD + forest carbon activities are currently being implemented in La Guajira and Amazonas.
