i

Taken in Mar de Cortez, Baja California Sur, Mexico. —Cecilia Simon, 2014 Fellow

Apply for the 2022 Fellowship!

Resources

Resources about the practice of market-based conservation.

Carbon

How Markets Can Make a Difference in Forest Conservation

Originally Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest covered more than 1.3 million square kilometers--an area larger than the state of California. But today, less than 7% of this superbiodiversity-rich biome is left standing. The remaining forest is extremely fragmented, and it continues to suffer from deforestation and forest degradation with the encroachment of millions of people living in its surroundings. Presently, one of the most pressing factors contributing to the slow and steady degradation of the forest fragments is the use of wood as fuel for domestic cooking.

Conservation Finance

Cases in Conservation Finance

Learn about a range of conservation finance issues and tools through guest speakers and case studies.

Next session: December 8

Environmental Funds Report

The Conservation Finance Alliance released a major report last year called Conservation Trust Funds 2020: Global Vision – Local Action. Viviana Luján Gallegos, 2015 Kinship Fellow, acted as co-author of the impressive document while 2013 Fellow Camila Monteiro served on the Task Force. We caught up with Viviana and Camilla to get the skinny on this supersized report on CTFs.

Forestry

Unlocking Forest Streams

As the global freshwater deficit grows, a survey of 1,000 “environmental experts” from 77 nations asked why. Was it climate change, pollution, allocation, or rising demand? Predictably, 79 percent implicated the primary culprit as deforestation. The roots of that blame are broad, deep, strong, and old.

Assessing the Economic Value of Public Lands

The centerpiece of the debate on how to value America’s public lands is their contribution to job creation. The push for such job creation estimates accelerated in the years since the recession due to persistent unemployment and the need to justify agency expenditures in a tight budget climate.

Kinship Fellows Webinar Series

Building the Most Fabulous Board Ever

Now more than ever, nonprofits need to leverage their boards to expand their networks, identify innovative strategies, and secure additional resources.

Kinship Fellows Webinar Series

The Kinship Fellows webinars expand on themes presented during the month-long Kinship Conservation Fellows training program in order to provide global conservation leaders with access to case studies that demonstrate market-based tools. With mid-career professionals in mind, the series provides skills-based sessions on topics such as communications, marketing, and business.

Cases in Conservation Finance

Learn about a range of conservation finance issues and tools through guest speakers and case studies.

Next session: December 8

Adaptive Leadership Webinar Series

The Coronavirus pandemic calls for leaders with an ability to address complex adaptive challenges that do not have simple solutions. This series of three interactive webinars provides an introduction to Adpative Leadership frameworks and how they can be utilized during this crisis.

Land Management

Urban Natural Areas: Enhancing Human and Ecological Health

The Natural Areas Conservancy recently completed its first project, an ecological and social assessment of all significant natural areas under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks. This is the largest dataset of ecological health for any urban area in the nation, and provides us with a chance to shift from an opportunistic to a data-driven decision-making approach for restoration, conservation, and the creation of resilient landscapes.

Assessing the Economic Value of Public Lands

The centerpiece of the debate on how to value America’s public lands is their contribution to job creation. The push for such job creation estimates accelerated in the years since the recession due to persistent unemployment and the need to justify agency expenditures in a tight budget climate.

Leadership

Building the Most Fabulous Board Ever

Now more than ever, nonprofits need to leverage their boards to expand their networks, identify innovative strategies, and secure additional resources.

Grounding Adaptive Leadership into Systems Thinking

Today’s conservation projects deal with complex adaptive social and ecological challenges that must be addressed holistically if one is to re-establish the harmony that has been broken between communities and their natural environments. Adaptive leaders must be able to embrace and make sense of the whole complexity of their projects.

Adaptive Leadership Webinar Series

The Coronavirus pandemic calls for leaders with an ability to address complex adaptive challenges that do not have simple solutions. This series of three interactive webinars provides an introduction to Adpative Leadership frameworks and how they can be utilized during this crisis.

Learning Through Crisis: Reflections from a Global Pandemic and Social Justice Movement

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a seismic year for all of us. For conservationists it has involved responding to the impacts of the COVID pandemic on projects, figuring out how to do our jobs without community meetings or jetting around the world, and contemplating − in light of the year’s social justice movements − the drastic inequality in our sector. We’ve been forced to take a fresh look at the work we do, and to adapt.

Livelihoods
Marine/Water

Unlocking Forest Streams

As the global freshwater deficit grows, a survey of 1,000 “environmental experts” from 77 nations asked why. Was it climate change, pollution, allocation, or rising demand? Predictably, 79 percent implicated the primary culprit as deforestation. The roots of that blame are broad, deep, strong, and old.

The Third Paradox of Water: Monopoly (Part 3)

In a four-part series, James G. Workman explains the three paradoxes that obstruct water conservation: value, efficiency, and monopoly. In this article, Workman writes about the third paradox: monoply. Water conservation erodes a private or public utility’s revenues. To remain solvent, or grow, providers are forced to encourage and reward waste.

Resolving the Three Paradoxes of Water Conservation (Part 4)

In a four-part series, James G. Workman explains the three paradoxes that obstruct water conservation: value, efficiency, and monopoly. Water efficiency credits can become a conservation currency with a simple, self-interested, formula for success: Earn + Own + Trade = Restore.

Innovative Solutions to the California Drought

The California drought is in its fourth year, and clocking in as one of the worst droughts in our state’s history. Conflicts over water use and blaming certain sectors for their contributions to the problem are intensifying.

The Second Paradox of Water Conservation: Efficiency (Part 2)

In a four-part series, James G. Workman writes about the three paradoxes that obstruct water conservation: value, efficiency, and monopoly. In this article, Workman writes about the second paradox: efficiency. As long as people merely “rent” the resource, efficiency devices increase overall consumption. Frugally conserved water is lost through new demand by the system as a whole.

The Calming Waters of a Marine Biologist

While natural for Tanya Bryan (2010 Fellow) to sidestep praise, you can see her footprints in the field of marine conservation from coast to coast, and across the pond. So how did a girl from the land of the ice and snow, smack dab in the middle of the Great White North, find her life’s work in the marine environment?

Learning Through Crisis: Reflections from a Global Pandemic and Social Justice Movement

It goes without saying that 2020 has been a seismic year for all of us. For conservationists it has involved responding to the impacts of the COVID pandemic on projects, figuring out how to do our jobs without community meetings or jetting around the world, and contemplating − in light of the year’s social justice movements − the drastic inequality in our sector. We’ve been forced to take a fresh look at the work we do, and to adapt.

Urban

Urban Natural Areas: Enhancing Human and Ecological Health

The Natural Areas Conservancy recently completed its first project, an ecological and social assessment of all significant natural areas under the jurisdiction of NYC Parks. This is the largest dataset of ecological health for any urban area in the nation, and provides us with a chance to shift from an opportunistic to a data-driven decision-making approach for restoration, conservation, and the creation of resilient landscapes.

Apply for the 2022 Fellowship!
see map