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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/philanthropy/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on philanthropy</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/philanthropy/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>What conservation looks like from the outside: A conversation with Adam Falk after his first year as CEO of WCS</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 13:22:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/10202416/Adam-at-Jahoo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325685</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Environment, Ex-situ Conservation, In-situ Conservation, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Other effective conservation measures (OECMs), philanthropy, Protected Areas, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Soon after becoming president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Adam Falk visited the giraffe keeper at the Bronx Zoo. What struck Falk was the source of the keeper’s commitment. If a giraffe needed help in the middle of the night, he said, the keeper would come in because of his bond with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Soon after becoming president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Adam Falk visited the giraffe keeper at the Bronx Zoo. What struck Falk was the source of the keeper’s commitment. If a giraffe needed help in the middle of the night, he said, the keeper would come in because of his bond with the animal. Falk recognized something familiar. Before joining WCS, he had been a theoretical physicist, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, president of Williams College, and president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Academics often pursue highly specialized work that matters deeply to them. A university leader has to support those individual efforts while helping the institution work toward shared goals. Falk found much the same challenge at WCS: leading people whose motivation is rooted in the work itself. Adam Falk with Joe Nappi, a Senior Keeper in the Mammal Department, and a Giraffe at the Bronx Zoo. Photo courtesy of WCS. He took over WCS in July 2025 without professional experience in zoology or conservation. That was unusual for the head of an institution founded in 1895, which now operates four zoos and an aquarium in New York alongside conservation programs in more than 50 countries. His first year gave him an outsider’s view of a field with its own history and assumptions. One of his early observations was that conservation work involves people as much as animals. Public campaigns often focus on wildlife, especially large and familiar species. Field programs depend on relationships&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325685</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A fraction of promised climate money reaches Amazon communities: Interview with Latimpacto’s leaders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 13:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Beverley Choo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08133405/Indigenous-peoples-sing-and-dance-as-they-participate-in-an-opening-ceremony-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Finance, Forests, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Law, philanthropy, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. Carolina Suárez Visbal and Juan David Ferreira know this pattern well. As CEO and programs director of Latimpacto — a Colombia-based network dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic and impact capital across Latin America — they have spent years navigating the gap between what the world promises the Amazon and what actually reaches the communities living within it. &#8220;One thing that worries us at Latimpacto about capital deployment is that people keep announcing funds and initiatives, but when you trace the record, this capital turns out to be very difficult to actually mobilize,&#8221; Ferreira told Mongabay at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore. &#8220;The investment thesis or the objectives of the fund do not align with the realities and the territories.&#8221; Latimpacto&#8217;s response has been to create infrastructure to build capacity for regional environmental funding. The organization&#8217;s Pan-Amazon Fellowship reshapes how capital is structured and deployed in the ecosystem by training funders to understand the Amazon not as a monolithic rainforest but as a heterogeneous and dynamic place with nine distinct national contexts, and both isolated Indigenous communities and cities of over 2 million people. Latimpacto&#8217;s initiative InNature Lab redefines what innovation means in an Amazonian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>FPC at a crossroads: clarity, credibility, and the cost of ambiguity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 09:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chip Fay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14085329/jambi_220686-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319390</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three years on, the Forests, People, Climate initiative is struggling to say what it is—and why that matters more than anyone wants to admit. Since the Glasgow Climate Pact&#8217;s 2021 pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, major philanthropic foundations have mobilised billions of dollars behind that commitment. The Climate and Land Use Alliance [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three years on, the Forests, People, Climate initiative is struggling to say what it is—and why that matters more than anyone wants to admit. Since the Glasgow Climate Pact&#8217;s 2021 pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, major philanthropic foundations have mobilised billions of dollars behind that commitment. The Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), a collaborative of six philanthropies, pioneered the donor-collaborative approach and subsequently played a central role in creating the larger Forests, People, Climate (FPC) initiative. Together they shape the strategic alignment of some of the world&#8217;s largest private climate and land-use grant portfolios—determining which geographies and communities receive support and setting the terms of engagement between international philanthropy and forest-dependent peoples across the tropics. How these players collaborate has direct consequences for whether the global pledge to protect forests is met, and for the hundreds of millions of people whose lands, livelihoods, and futures depend on it. Over the past two decades, I have had a front-row seat to this evolution. I was there in the early days of CLUA, as we attempted something both pragmatic and ambitious: align strategies without surrendering institutional autonomy. FPC was born out of that lineage, as a recognition that the CLUA model might no longer be sufficient. The urgency of climate change had intensified. Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) had moved from the margins to the centre of discourse. And large-scale philanthropic commitments, particularly post-Glasgow, sought new mechanisms to do grant making differently. Three years on, however, FPC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319390</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 00:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014337/OceanImageBank_EllenCuylaerts_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318899</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystems, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, philanthropy, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base. Estimates suggest that ocean-focused philanthropy accounts for well under [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base. Estimates suggest that ocean-focused philanthropy accounts for well under 1% of global charitable giving, despite the ocean’s role in climate regulation, food production, and trade. In absolute terms, funding has grown. Annual contributions rose from roughly $430 million in 2010 to about $1 billion by 2022, with foundation funding reaching around $1.2 billion in recent years, according to a report published last November by CEA Consulting. Total Foundation Ocean Funding (2015–2024). Graphic from &#8220;Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding&#8221;. Ocean Philanthropic Funding from Legacy Funders and New Entrants (2015–2024). Legacy funders include grants data from any funders who began grantmaking in 2015 or earlier. New entrants include grants data from any funders who began grantmaking in the ocean space after 2015. Graphic from &#8220;Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding&#8221;. Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding estimates that foundation funding grew from roughly $633 million in 2015 before flattening over the past two years. Growth has come from larger commitments by established donors and the entry of new ones, though spending now appears to have leveled off. The field is concentrated. Very concentrated. A small group of foundations accounts for a large share&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318899</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How underinvesting in information threatens our collective well-being</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 14:21:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/16134741/peru-tigre_-3o17_-75o2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. Yet, it often overlooks the very social foundation those solutions stand on: a shared, reliable information environment. Today, that foundation is cracking. This fragility extends beyond the spread of falsehoods. It appears as indifference to accuracy, fatigue from complexity, and a growing difficulty in judging what deserves attention. In many places, facts still exist, but they travel poorly. They arrive late and out of context, their credibility stripped away before they even reach the public. The result is not always disagreement; more often it is disengagement. For donors concerned with climate change, biodiversity loss, public health, or democratic governance, this crumbling foundation puts even the best-funded programs at risk—a blind spot many donors haven&#8217;t yet addressed. Programs may be well designed and generously funded, yet fail to gain traction because the informational terrain beneath them has shifted. Projects that rely on public oversight, regulatory follow-through, or market response depend on the availability of trusted, usable information. Environmental harm offers a clear illustration. Deforestation, overfishing, and illegal mining tend to accelerate where monitoring is weak and scrutiny sporadic. This is not because laws do not exist, but because violations go unrecorded or unnoticed. When documentation does&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paul Brainerd turned computers into printing presses and fortune into conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2026 01:34:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/04012848/Paul-Brainerd-Aldus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315173</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Obituary, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Paul Brainerd did two things that rarely sit comfortably together. He helped make publishing cheaper and easier, then spent much of what he earned trying to protect the landscapes that were being consumed by growth. He died on February 15th 2026, aged 78, at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In the 1980s, when most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Paul Brainerd did two things that rarely sit comfortably together. He helped make publishing cheaper and easier, then spent much of what he earned trying to protect the landscapes that were being consumed by growth. He died on February 15th 2026, aged 78, at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In the 1980s, when most people still thought of computers as glorified typewriters, he helped turn them into printing presses. In the 1990s and after, as the Pacific Northwest’s wealth compounded, he tried to steer some of it into civic capacity: organizations that could win fights, not merely stage them. His money came from software. His method was closer to editing. Brainerd was born in Medford, Oregon, in 1947. He studied at the University of Oregon and later earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota. He worked in newspapers, but not in the romantic way. He was drawn to production, workflow, the awkward interface between an idea and a printed page. That interest took him to Atex, a company that built newsroom systems. When Kodak bought Atex and closed a research center in the early 1980s, Brainerd and several engineers found themselves unemployed and restless. In 1984 they founded Aldus in Seattle. Within a year they shipped PageMaker, software that, paired with Apple’s Macintosh and Adobe’s PostScript, let ordinary users design pages that printed as they appeared on screen. Brainerd coined the phrase “desktop publishing,” a neat bit of compression that made a technical shift feel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local communities are conservation’s most undervalued asset (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 00:08:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Damian BellJosé MonteiroMonicah MbibaMoreangels Mbizah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/07210434/restoration-workers-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315067</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Governance, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[African conservation stakeholders will soon gather for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, led by African Leadership University. As they build the case for investing in nature-based business, the focus is on markets, enterprise models and blended finance. However, a crucial question remains: what actually makes conservation investable, resilient and scalable? Conservation has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[African conservation stakeholders will soon gather for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, led by African Leadership University. As they build the case for investing in nature-based business, the focus is on markets, enterprise models and blended finance. However, a crucial question remains: what actually makes conservation investable, resilient and scalable? Conservation has attracted significant funding, and yet biodiversity loss and climate change continue to accelerate. As new financial tools are discussed and refined, it is also worth reflecting — as a network of conservation funders and doers — on whether the money poured in through the last 30 years has worked; whether we have solved the problems; and whether the current operating model will carry us through the next 30. The problem is not a lack of commitment or capital; it is a misreading of how conservation works in practice. In our experience, community-led conservation is more efficient and resilient than traditional top-down models because it places authority closer to those who depend directly on the land. By embedding rules within locally legitimate institutions, it reduces enforcement and transaction costs and strengthens compliance through social trust. A recent analysis of wildlife management areas (WMAs) is a good example. Pastoral communities in Tanzania’s Tarangire ecosystem use WMAs to defend their land and livelihoods, even without full devolution of management rights, showing how conservation can serve local interests while protecting wildlife habitat. If community-led models are genuinely more efficient, that advantage should be visible in how conservation is delivered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315067</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The power of cities over the seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2026 14:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/24233832/Abu-Dhabi-satellite-esa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314674</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Cities, Commentary, data, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Infrastructure, Marine, Oceans, Overfishing, philanthropy, Ports, Remote Sensing, Supply Chain, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape how ships fuel and operate at berth. Taken together, these levers suggest that coastal cities may exert more practical influence over the seas than is commonly acknowledged. Consider the modern port, which is less a waterfront than a complex regulatory zone. Ships cannot simply arrive and unload. They must comply with local safety, environmental, and operational requirements. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for instance, introduced a Clean Air Action Plan that has pushed shipping lines toward cleaner fuels, shore power, and newer vessels. The primary motivation was urban smog, not marine conservation. Still, the result has been a measurable reduction in greenhouse gases and particulate pollution across one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. When ports tighten standards, global shipping companies adjust, because the trade is too valuable to forgo. Procurement offers another underappreciated channel. Large metropolitan governments purchase enormous volumes of food for public institutions. If those buyers adopt sustainability criteria for seafood, they can influence supply chains in ways that national policy often struggles to achieve. Several U.S. cities now use guidelines informed by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. In Brazil, reporting revealed that shark&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314674</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation programs must embrace causal evidence when evaluating impact (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2026 18:19:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tanya O’Garra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/28194157/giraffe-puzzle-copy-e1687990363682-768x411.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313673</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Global Environmental Crisis, philanthropy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, Paul Ferraro and Subhrendu Pattanayak issued an urgent warning: conservation lacked the causal evidence needed to know what actually works. This mattered because decades of conservation efforts were failing to stall the decline in biodiversity around the world, suggesting that scarce funding was potentially being diverted to well-intentioned but ineffective efforts, rather than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, Paul Ferraro and Subhrendu Pattanayak issued an urgent warning: conservation lacked the causal evidence needed to know what actually works. This mattered because decades of conservation efforts were failing to stall the decline in biodiversity around the world, suggesting that scarce funding was potentially being diverted to well-intentioned but ineffective efforts, rather than toward approaches with demonstrable impact — hence the title of their paper, “Money for nothing?” The message was clear: conservationists needed to start examining whether their actions were actually causing the desired effects. A classic study published two years later showed why this mattered. In 2008, Kwaw Andam and colleagues, including Ferraro, found that protected areas were less effective at reducing deforestation than earlier research had claimed. The problem was that the earlier studies hadn’t accounted for the fact that protected areas are often created far from roads and towns, places where deforestation is already less likely. By failing to account for this location bias, protected areas appeared more effective simply because they were located in places that were less likely to be deforested in the first place. The protected area example illustrates the pitfalls of relying on correlation to infer impact. Most of us are familiar with the refrain that &#8220;correlation is not causation,&#8221; yet correlation remains seductive simply because it’s easier to observe that two things happen together, than to prove that one caused the other. We may observe that forests inside protected boundaries remain standing while surrounding forests disappear. But without ruling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When abandoned conservation projects are counted as progress, what are we protecting? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 18:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ajay Sawant]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/27180208/landscape-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311669</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, philanthropy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches. New research published in Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution by a team co-led by Matthew [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches. New research published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution by a team co-led by Matthew Clark at the University of Sydney’s Thriving Oceans Research Hub shows just how widespread the problem is. Across nine major community-based conservation programs studied in Africa, roughly one-third of participating groups stopped carrying out their conservation responsibilities because implementation simply fell apart. Clark warns that this figure is likely an underestimate, representing only a sliver of a much larger and largely undocumented global pattern. The scale of this problem is staggering. Between 1892 and 2018, governments around the world collectively undermined legal protections for conservation areas through 3,749 documented events, known as Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing and Degazettement (PADDD), affecting approximately 2 million square kilometers (more than 772,000 square miles) across 73 countries. To put this in a perspective, the total area stripped of protections is equivalent to the size of Greenland. Nearly two-thirds of these rollbacks were directly linked to industrial-scale resource extraction, including mining, oil exploration, and large infrastructure projects. But besides the formal and informal withdrawals, one thing that has remained consistent is the existence of these efforts as being “ongoing” if only on paper. Conservationists in the field must often make quick decisions, and reflecting on those decisions later can increase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311669</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 02:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Paul Barnes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/13221742/EDGE-CTC-c-Dr-Paul-Barnes-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309537</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, Funding, philanthropy, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, threats by extractive industries and abduction by narcotic gangs, the breadth of burdens on these young emerging leaders was astonishing. After three more similar workshops hosted by the project I lead — the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) EDGE of Existence program — and fast-forward a year, my inbox holds 1,700 applications for our annual fellowship call, a bewildering demand for perhaps 10 places and all for roles that encounter the burdens described in the workshops. This kind of demand is not unusual; I’ve heard similar ratios for other fellowships and small grant schemes. In the same month, numerous blows to funding pipelines for organizations, both large and small, worldwide, have surfaced. Now, like many others, we find ourselves facing a sharp juxtaposition: an overwhelming demand from talented, dedicated teams working on urgent conservation projects that are ready for implementation, contrasted with decreasing, fragile and unpredictable upstream funding. Many young conservationists like Lucero Vaca, shown here conducting a jaguar study, have struggled to make a career in the sector, yet as she told Mongabay in 2017, &#8220;If we stop underestimating people based on their age and [help] young conservationists [carry] out their innovative ideas, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309537</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between people &#038; planet (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 16:12:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mary Robinson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/11081601/jambi_220653_2560px-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309000</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Development, Ethics, Finance, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Funding, Governance, philanthropy, Social Justice, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bill Gates has long been a leading voice in the global response to human health and climate change. His climate investments and advocacy have helped drive innovation, expand access to clean energy and push climate action higher on the world’s agenda. However, his recent essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bill Gates has long been a leading voice in the global response to human health and climate change. His climate investments and advocacy have helped drive innovation, expand access to clean energy and push climate action higher on the world’s agenda. However, his recent essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that could undermine that contribution. Gates writes with admirable nuance, and his proposed shift to focus finance on outcomes that reduce human suffering, rather than emissions reduction, projects a tone of reason and compassion. However, I read his reflections with concern and believe that his framing risks reinforcing three misconceptions that could slow, rather than accelerate, progress at a critical moment for the planet and its most vulnerable populations. First, the suggestion that the world must choose between financing development and financing climate action falsely presents a zero-sum situation. By suggesting that we must prioritize one over the other, Gates assumes that we live in a world where our current scarcity of development and climate resources is fixed for all time. While cuts to overseas development budgets in countries like the United States, France, Germany and the U.K. have decreased resources at the moment, there are numerous strategies to reverse that trend that we must seek to advance. This should begin with public pressure for governments to restore and enhance their aid budgets. Countries should also follow through on their collective commitment to remove the more than $1 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies and the $500&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 23:40:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/20222757/ca_20251019_231241427z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, Journalism, Mongabay.org, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other beats into environmental reporting—the gap between curiosity and capability can be decisive. Bridging it is not charity; it is strategy. When newsrooms shrink, environmental coverage is often the first to go. Science desks are absorbed, travel budgets vanish, and reporters who once covered courts or crime are suddenly asked to decipher climate policy. Many bring deep investigative instincts, but not the technical literacy to interpret satellite data, read environmental and social impact assessments, or distinguish credible science from spin. Without support, their reporting risks being shallow or silenced. With it, they can become powerful chroniclers of how environmental change reshapes lives and economies. This is where structured opportunities—paid fellowships, editorial mentorship, and global professional networks—matter. Programs such as Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship, which has supported about 40 early-career journalists since 2022, show how targeted investment can transform both journalism and environmental governance. The idea is simple: pair local knowledge and experience with professional guidance, and the result is sharper, more trusted storytelling. Mongabay Latam&#8217;s program for Indigenous communicators in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first cohort included two Shuar reporters and one Kichwa reporter. Fellows from Indonesia to Nigeria have uncovered illegal mining,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why independent journalism is a strategic investment for philanthropy (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2025 21:06:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/26204649/philanthropy-should-fund-journalism-v2-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is not a substitute for policy or enforcement, yet it supplies the conditions those actions require, credible information delivered in time and in public. It can convert private harm into shared knowledge, and shared knowledge into collective pressure. For philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, supporting journalism may seem peripheral compared with protecting land, funding clean technology, or reforming supply chains. In practice, it is a high-leverage investment that strengthens and multiplies the effectiveness of all the above. Environmental damage thrives in opacity—unrecorded deforestation, unverified carbon credits, unexamined subsidies. Independent reporting drags those risks into daylight, creating the accountability that allows other interventions to work. Consider the case of United Cacao in Peru. When the company raised $10 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund a “sustainable” cacao plantation, it presented itself as restoring the rainforest. A short series of investigative reports, supported by satellite imagery and local sources, revealed that more than 2,000 hectares of Amazonian forest had already been cleared. The reporting itself represented a modest portion of the newsroom’s overall budget, yet its consequences were vast. The Peruvian government revoked the permit; the company was later delisted, curtailing the planned expansion that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trust-based philanthropy: Lessons from MacKenzie Scott and Laurene Powell Jobs (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2025 22:18:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/20221304/Starling_Murmuration-2501x1668-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307984</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than eight hundred years ago, Maimonides wrote that the highest form of giving is to make charity itself unnecessary. That wisdom feels newly relevant today as questions about power and purpose continue to shape modern philanthropy. Last week, writing in The Wall Street Journal Laurene Powell Jobs revisited the idea, warning that too often [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than eight hundred years ago, Maimonides wrote that the highest form of giving is to make charity itself unnecessary. That wisdom feels newly relevant today as questions about power and purpose continue to shape modern philanthropy. Last week, writing in The Wall Street Journal Laurene Powell Jobs revisited the idea, warning that too often wealth becomes a substitute for participation. In her words, “giving that expects control is anything but generous.” When donations become instruments of direction—when benefactors seek to decide what matters and who gets to belong—philanthropy drifts from “love of humanity” toward a contest for influence. MacKenzie Scott offered another image: a murmuration of starlings, millions of birds moving as one without a leader. Their direction, she noted, emerges from continuous response to one another’s movements. Her metaphor captures what the next evolution of philanthropy might look like—decentralized, adaptive, and animated by trust. Both women are describing, from different vantage points, a common transformation. Powell Jobs warns against power disguised as generosity; Scott imagines generosity as shared participation. Each challenges the notion that change flows downward from donor to recipient. And both point toward what many frontline and movement leaders across the Global South have long understood: real and lasting progress happens through proximity, not prescription. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler Philanthropy rarely lacks ambition or compassion, but its operating systems often remain transactional. The habits that define much of institutional giving—short cycles, risk aversion, and an insistence on measurable outcomes—shape behavior even among those trying to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Supporting frontline leadership in a time of crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2025 16:15:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/12131930/ca_nisene_marks_17068-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307454</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Funding, Green, Indigenous Peoples, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work. Their reflections highlighted dynamics that merit further exploration. &#160; Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work. Their reflections highlighted dynamics that merit further exploration. An invitation The conservation field is facing a radical new reality: accelerating ecological decline, shrinking civic space, and shifting political and financial landscapes. At Mongabay, we believe this moment demands not only reporting, but reflection. We are inviting voices from across the sector to contribute commentaries that ask hard questions and explore how crisis can also be opportunity. If you work in conservation, what lessons, pivots, or strategies do you see emerging? Where is adaptation already happening—and what should come next? We welcome your reflections as part of a broader discourse on how conservation can meet this era with creativity, courage, and clarity. To submit a commentary for consideration, please see the guidance under Commentaries/editorials on our submissions page. &nbsp; Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in a ‘love of humanity’, yet its operating systems are often transactional. Of course, “philanthropy” encompasses an extraordinary range of actors, from small family foundations to major multilateral donors, and not all fall into the same patterns. Still, the prevailing norms that govern much of the sector—short grant cycles, risk aversion, and an emphasis on measurable outcomes—tend to shape behavior even among those trying to work differently. For many frontline conservation and climate justice groups, already juggling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307454</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tony Pritzker’s patient strategy for the planet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2025 01:28:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/05222902/tony-pritzker-06-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307076</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Education, Environment, Environmental Policy, Green, Green Design, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, philanthropy, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by ideology than by pragmatism, he insists that “science is science and it’s fact-based,” and that durable solutions come from setting clear goals, gathering evidence, and persisting until results are visible. Growing up in northern California and later raising a family in Los Angeles, he was never far from the state’s landscapes—from Lake Tahoe’s ski slopes to Santa Monica Bay. “I’m also a swimmer,” he says, recalling the moment when his love of the ocean turned into action. “I wanted the bay to be super clean because I swam there.” That instinct brought him to Heal the Bay two decades ago, where he joined the board under the leadership of Mark Gold. What began as an effort to keep a beach swimmable became a lesson in how to harness science, advocacy, and civic partnerships. Gold, he says, “really was my mentor.” The template endures. For Heal the Bay the goals were simple: gather the science, train teachers, bring children to the ocean, and press policymakers. Out of such apparently modest steps came infrastructure investments such as stormwater treatment at Hyperion, which now filters hundreds of millions of gallons of runoff a year. Along the way the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307076</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Navigating conservation’s crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/navigating-conservations-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/navigating-conservations-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Sep 2025 13:23:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18204309/indonesia_160271-25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306225</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Economics, Environment, philanthropy, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Call it a crossroads. Ecological decline is accelerating in too many places at once; institutions that once limited the damage are wobbling; the information channels we rely on to coordinate action are clogged. In tropical forests alone, annual primary forest loss has climbed by 50% in the 2020s relative to the 2000s. Fires, drought and fragmentation have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An invitation The conservation field is facing a radical new reality: accelerating ecological decline, shrinking civic space, and shifting political and financial landscapes. At Mongabay, we believe this moment demands not only reporting, but reflection. We are inviting voices from across the sector to contribute commentaries that ask hard questions and explore how crisis can also be opportunity. If you work in conservation, what lessons, pivots, or strategies do you see emerging? Where is adaptation already happening—and what should come next? We welcome your reflections as part of a broader discourse on how conservation can meet this era with creativity, courage, and clarity. To submit a commentary for consideration, please see the guidance under Commentaries/editorials on our submissions page. Call it a crossroads. Ecological decline is accelerating in too many places at once; institutions that once limited the damage are wobbling; the information channels we rely on to coordinate action are clogged. In tropical forests alone, annual primary forest loss has climbed by 50% in the 2020s relative to the 2000s. Fires, drought and fragmentation have amplified each other, turning routine burns into regional infernos and pushing ecosystems toward limits toward limits scientists once thought hypothetical. The numbers are not abstract; they are acreage, species and livelihoods. Politics has not been neutral. Aid budgets have been cut or frozen; in the United States, the dismantling or suspension of major funding streams left conservation programs scrambling, with knock-on effects across ranger salaries, monitoring and community incentives from the Congo Basin to Indonesia. Meanwhile, some philanthropies have stepped up, yet the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/navigating-conservations-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/navigating-conservations-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Funding is needed to save Samoa’s ‘little dodo’ from extinction (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gianluca Serra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18152124/manumea-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands and Samoa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bioacoustics, Birding, Birds, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Ethics, Extinction, Funding, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Islands, philanthropy, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls from an unseen pigeon hidden in the dense canopy. Moe mutters, “Nah, the intervals between the calls are too irregular. That’s got to be a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls from an unseen pigeon hidden in the dense canopy. Moe mutters, “Nah, the intervals between the calls are too irregular. That’s got to be a lupe,” referring to the much more common Pacific imperial pigeon (Ducula pacifica). “Are you still using the number of coo calls per sequence to distinguish lupe from manumea?” I ask per the latter bird and the object of our search: the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), also called “the little dodo.” “Not anymore,” she replies. “Turns out lupe can have sequences of up to 40 calls &#8230;” “Damn,” I sigh. A bird &#8216;hide&#8217; or &#8216;blind&#8217; built in Uafato in hopes of facilitating an extremely rare sighting of an adult manumea, Samoa&#8217;s critically endangered &#8216;little dodo.&#8217; Image courtesy of Samoa Conservation Society. It’s been a few years since I last joined a manumea search, and I’m glad to be here again. The rainforest of Samoa still enchants me — its timeless atmosphere, stifling humidity, slippery trails, and chorus of bizarre bird calls. Towering tree ferns, giant leaves, dangling lichens, parasitic orchids and humongous strangling ficus (“the kings of the forest,” or aoa in Samoan) all surrounded by a cacophony of pigeons, doves and honey-eaters. Among them, the high-pitched whistles of the ma‘oma‘o (Gymnomyza samoensis), an endangered and endemic giant honey-eater, pierces the stillness. It’s one of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small island nations provide big environmental solutions but need finance partners (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 20:09:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gaston Browne]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15155827/Saint_George_Antigua_and_Barbuda_-_panoramio_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302547</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antigua and Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Finance, Governance, Islands, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[These are turbulent times for the global economy and multilateralism. Uncertainty lies at every turn, yet for Antigua and Barbuda — and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like ours — navigating uncertainty is not new. It is our lived reality. I have witnessed firsthand how cascading shocks — climate events, market volatility, geopolitical fragmentation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[These are turbulent times for the global economy and multilateralism. Uncertainty lies at every turn, yet for Antigua and Barbuda — and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like ours — navigating uncertainty is not new. It is our lived reality. I have witnessed firsthand how cascading shocks — climate events, market volatility, geopolitical fragmentation — strike our shores harder and faster. But while the world grapples with rising division and fraying international cooperation, small island nations are building stronger bonds and leading by example. For us, sustainable development is not ideological or aspirational — it is the foundation of our survival and the only viable path to a just, secure future. Though we represent less than 1% of the global population, SIDS manage nearly 19% of the world’s ocean space. We have emerged as natural leaders in marine stewardship, even as we face the gravest consequences of a crisis we did not cause. What may be manageable for larger economies can be devastating for us. My nation, which was devastated by a category 5 hurricane, Irma, in 2017, stands shoulder to shoulder with nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu, which may witness entire islands disappear beneath the waves. Yet the consequences of inaction ripple far beyond our borders, from coastal displacement to food insecurity and economic instability. And still, we lead. Damage from Hurricane Irma, Barbuda, 2017. Image courtesy of Bennylin via Wikimedia Commons. Despite our vulnerabilities, small islands are driving global solutions. A year ago, Antigua and Barbuda&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Refocusing conservation funding on trust &#038; community leadership after USAID freeze (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2025 20:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leona M. Bhuyan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/02183620/amazon_201478-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The abrupt suspension of USAID’s recent international funding sent shockwaves through the global conservation community. With more than $375 million disbursed in 2023, this freeze disrupted critical biodiversity programs across Kenya, Namibia, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia, halting ranger salaries, community conservation, and anti-trafficking operations. But beyond its immediate damage, the freeze has illuminated a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The abrupt suspension of USAID’s recent international funding sent shockwaves through the global conservation community. With more than $375 million disbursed in 2023, this freeze disrupted critical biodiversity programs across Kenya, Namibia, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia, halting ranger salaries, community conservation, and anti-trafficking operations. But beyond its immediate damage, the freeze has illuminated a long-standing structural flaw: the conservation sector’s deep dependence on external donors. It’s a wake-up call to reimagine how we finance environmental protection, not simply how to replace lost aid, but how to build resilient, locally anchored systems that endure. For too long, conservation finance has operated on a donor-centric model. External institutions determine priorities, metrics and timelines. Local organizations often implement strategies, but without the autonomy to shape them. This framework creates a culture of compliance, not innovation. Pleione praecox orchid. Image courtesy of Kumar Paudel. This imbalance reflects deeper power asymmetries. As Edgar Villanueva argues in Decolonizing Wealth, the structure of philanthropic aid often mirrors colonial dynamics, concentrating control in donor capitals while communities at the frontline remain dependent on short-term, project-based support. To move forward, conservation finance must be restructured to prioritize collaboration over control. Donors should invest in long-term capacity, offer flexible support, and enable local actors to co-design solutions. There are models that already demonstrate the power of such community-led conservation. Namibia’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program enables more than 80 conservancies to manage communal lands. One of them, the ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy, has effectively reinvested revenue from wildlife tourism into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298294</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can the Cali Fund provide a rights-based remedy for biopiracy? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/can-the-cali-fund-provide-a-rights-based-remedy-for-biopiracy-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/can-the-cali-fund-provide-a-rights-based-remedy-for-biopiracy-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2024 21:20:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex ReepJasmine BetancourtNissim Roffe PiketVictoria Osanyinpeju]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291940</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Finance, Funding, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, philanthropy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When considering the vastly unequal realities of the current global order, it is clear that the ongoing impact of the colonization of the Global South is wide ranging and all-encompassing. From legacies of racial subjugation, to the disproportionate impact of climate change, to the rise of populist authoritarianism, the colonial project is strong. But one [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When considering the vastly unequal realities of the current global order, it is clear that the ongoing impact of the colonization of the Global South is wide ranging and all-encompassing. From legacies of racial subjugation, to the disproportionate impact of climate change, to the rise of populist authoritarianism, the colonial project is strong. But one ongoing element of extraction from the Global South is largely unknown, under-addressed, and requires a human rights-based response – biopiracy. It might sound strange to talk about scientists as pirates, but in some cases, they are. Scientists across lucrative industries — pharmaceuticals to biotechnology to cosmetics — utilize digital sequence information (DSI), the genomic sequence data derived from an organism, to develop scientific advancements for profit. These ‘biopirates’ extract DSI from genetic resources on lands long stewarded by local, often Indigenous, communities, without consent — reaping windfall rewards with little or zero benefit trickling back to the resource’s origin. The global DNA sequencing market, which relies heavily on DSI, is projected to reach $21.3 billion by 2031. Billions of dollars in profits are disproportionately concentrated in the Global North, where the largest DSI databases are housed. For example, a single sequence from a bean grown by an Indigenous group in Colombia could hold the key to resistance against a disease that threatens agricultural crops across the world. Shouldn&#8217;t the communities that cared for the beans that led to this important global benefit be compensated for their contributions? DSI has proven invaluable in efforts such as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/can-the-cali-fund-provide-a-rights-based-remedy-for-biopiracy-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291940</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate finance must empower grassroots conservation in Africa &#038; beyond (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-finance-must-empower-grassroots-conservation-in-africa-beyond-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-finance-must-empower-grassroots-conservation-in-africa-beyond-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2024 20:17:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dr. Josia Razafindramanana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03194713/0006_Fanamby_Camp_Tattersalli_18-02-03-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291154</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Finance, Funding, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The climate crisis is global, but its impacts are deeply local. In Africa, communities at the frontlines of climate change are not only among the most vulnerable, but also among the most innovative in crafting solutions. But look at the flow of global climate finance and you see a different story – one of insufficiency, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The climate crisis is global, but its impacts are deeply local. In Africa, communities at the frontlines of climate change are not only among the most vulnerable, but also among the most innovative in crafting solutions. But look at the flow of global climate finance and you see a different story – one of insufficiency, uneven distribution, and systemic barriers. In the wake of COP29, which ended with developed economies begrudgingly committing to increase climate funding for developing countries to $300 billion, we must ask: will any of this funding get to those on the ground who are critical to the climate solution? A more equitable and effective approach demands that a significant portion of this finance supports small, African-led grassroots conservation organizations, like the ones I work with daily in Madagascar. These groups, embedded in the fabric of local communities, are uniquely positioned to drive transformative change. They achieve what large-scale government programs and international NGOs often cannot: building trust, fostering resilience, and implementing solutions that align with both community needs and ecological imperatives. Community based conservation NGOs like Initiative for Development, Ecological Restoration, and Innovation (INDRI) in Madagascar can very effectively use climate funding. Image courtesy of Maliasili. Africa, despite being one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, receives only a small fraction of global climate finance. Worse, less than a quarter of these funds are directed toward adaptation projects that are critical for people and their livelihoods to survive climate change. Funding overwhelmingly favors large-scale&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/climate-finance-must-empower-grassroots-conservation-in-africa-beyond-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291154</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We need an Indigenous conservation state of mind (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/we-need-an-indigenous-conservation-state-of-mind-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/we-need-an-indigenous-conservation-state-of-mind-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2024 15:11:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rebecca Adamson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/11/27210543/Maasai-storytelling-by-Joan-de-la-Malla-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290799</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Finance, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, philanthropy, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists agree that the biodiversity crisis we face today may be one of the most disruptive events in Earth’s history. The response so far has been for hundreds of billions in government and philanthropic donor funds – along with trillions in private sector investment capital – to be dedicated to conservation, primarily for nature conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists agree that the biodiversity crisis we face today may be one of the most disruptive events in Earth’s history. The response so far has been for hundreds of billions in government and philanthropic donor funds – along with trillions in private sector investment capital – to be dedicated to conservation, primarily for nature conservation and climate change. But is more and more money the answer, especially for a culture whose exploitation of nature for money is the problem? At the core, our society needs to muster the collective humility to admit this mindset is problematic and seek solutions outside itself. In a culture that perceives nature as separate from people, the dominant conservation mindset is biased in theory and practice by science-based methodologies to conserve and protect nature. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for example is the world’s largest environmental organization – serving 1,400 member organizations, NGOs and governments, and 16,000 experts – with the aid of 1,000 staff in 50 countries and an annual budget of almost $1.2 billion. Habitat loss and degradation due to human exploitation is addressed mainly by ‘no go’ enclaves of wilderness or protected areas (PAs) and in 2021, IUCN members launched a major initiative to support &#8217;30 by 30,&#8217; whose goal is to designate 30% of the world as protected areas by 2030. Indigenous conservation (or stewardship) perceives people as part of nature, though, and has a bias towards practical protections of nature and society. It is place-based and driven&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/we-need-an-indigenous-conservation-state-of-mind-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290799</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>At Climate Week and beyond, investing in community conservation pays big dividends (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/at-climate-week-and-beyond-investing-in-community-conservation-pays-big-dividends-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/at-climate-week-and-beyond-investing-in-community-conservation-pays-big-dividends-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2024 15:14:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Resson Kantai Duff]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/04/30123202/Samburu_Grevys_zebra_DanLundberg-Wikipedia-768x466.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287917</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Development, Environment, Finance, Funding, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, philanthropy, Solutions, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How do you secure the future of one of Africa’s most endangered large mammals, a species with only an estimated 3,000 remaining in the wild? You protect its habitat – its water resources, grasslands, and birthing areas. But because so many of these animals – like the Grevy’s Zebra – depend on lands outside of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do you secure the future of one of Africa’s most endangered large mammals, a species with only an estimated 3,000 remaining in the wild? You protect its habitat – its water resources, grasslands, and birthing areas. But because so many of these animals – like the Grevy’s Zebra – depend on lands outside of formalized protected areas, you find that at the heart of their survival lie the communities who live alongside them. In these areas, which are in both drought and flood-prone northern Kenya, the organizations rising to meet the challenges of the day are not just working with local communities, they are the local community. And they are tackling one of the toughest issues we face today: climate change. The Grevy’s Zebra Trust is a prime example of how community-led conservation is an effective approach to not just biodiversity conservation but to so much more. It is a beautiful story of culture, of wildlife, women, governance, restoration, climate adaptation, of protecting and growing carbon sinks. Yet somehow this impactful, holistic approach to conservation doesn’t get nearly the credit – or the resources – it deserves. Perhaps this is because these solutions and approaches are not really new or cutting-edge. In Africa, both Indigenous and local communities have long been stewarding and managing nature, yet the conservation field has not always recognized their role. This local stewardship is what ensures a fisherwoman can catch enough fish to feed her family for the week having patiently participated in a seasonal fishery closure managed by her&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/at-climate-week-and-beyond-investing-in-community-conservation-pays-big-dividends-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287917</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Action at Scale: Elizabeth Yee on The Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Strategy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/action-at-scale-elizabeth-yee-on-the-rockefeller-foundations-climate-strategy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/action-at-scale-elizabeth-yee-on-the-rockefeller-foundations-climate-strategy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2024 19:29:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Matthew BoyerRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/09192805/annual-co2-emissions-1850-2018-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287097</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Interviews, Mitigation, philanthropy, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the world of philanthropy, few institutions carry as much historical heft as The Rockefeller Foundation. Founded over a century ago with the grand ambition to promote the well-being of humanity, it has, over the years, evolved to confront the most pressing global challenges of the time.  Today, the climate crisis looms largest among these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the world of philanthropy, few institutions carry as much historical heft as The Rockefeller Foundation. Founded over a century ago with the grand ambition to promote the well-being of humanity, it has, over the years, evolved to confront the most pressing global challenges of the time.  Today, the climate crisis looms largest among these challenges, and Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Programs, finds herself at the helm of a multifaceted response. Her leadership encompasses not only managing the Foundation’s vast portfolio of global programs but also steering its strategy to ensure the well-being of the world&#8217;s most vulnerable populations in the face of climate upheaval. Yee, who joined the Foundation in 2019, is no stranger to this type of work. Prior to her current role, she held leadership positions in the Foundation’s climate initiatives and at 100 Resilient Cities, where she worked to mobilize financial solutions for cities grappling with the consequences of a changing planet. Her background reflects a commitment to blending strategy with action, to turning abstract notions of resilience into concrete benefits for communities and ecosystems alike. “The Rockefeller Foundation was founded 111 years ago with a clear mission—one that has never changed: to leverage the latest scientific and technological solutions to promote the well-being of humanity,” Yee notes. “Today, the climate crisis is the single biggest threat to that mission.” The Foundation’s approach to this existential challenge is one that blends ambition with pragmatism. Yee speaks of a $1 billion commitment over the next&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/action-at-scale-elizabeth-yee-on-the-rockefeller-foundations-climate-strategy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287097</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity’s Tower of Babel: The confusion &#038; disorientation of Convention on Biological Diversity Decision 15/9 (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biodiversitys-tower-of-babel-the-confusion-compromise-of-convention-on-biological-diversity-decision-15-9-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biodiversitys-tower-of-babel-the-confusion-compromise-of-convention-on-biological-diversity-decision-15-9-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2024 13:57:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joseph Henry Vogel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/13102057/8265623373_d6a2dc86d8_h-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286489</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Underlying parables of biblical metaphors are often only dimly remembered. The name Babel comes from the Hebrew “to confuse,” בָּלַל (bālal). The tower so ridiculed was an affront to Yahweh. Fast forward some three thousand years: Delegates will be gathering in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024 to thrash out Decision 15/9 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Underlying parables of biblical metaphors are often only dimly remembered. The name Babel comes from the Hebrew “to confuse,” בָּלַל (bālal). The tower so ridiculed was an affront to Yahweh. Fast forward some three thousand years: Delegates will be gathering in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024 to thrash out Decision 15/9 at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). David Cooper, the outgoing Executive Secretary of the Secretariat, heralded Decision 15/9 – a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources” – as a landmark for biodiversity conservation. To make the Decision operational, 250 delegates met in Montreal, Canada from 12 to 16 August 2024 for the second Working Group on DSI (WGDSI-2). Discussion focused on how to share benefits from the use of “digital sequence information on genetic resources” (DSI). Development of the Decision is groundbreaking. A tower is under construction. But wherefore DSI? A shark in coastal mangrove forest. Image by Anita Kainrath/Ocean Image Bank. From such an innocent question, confusion ensues. The noun for bālal is bil’bul (בִּלְבּוּל), which also means disorientation. Perhaps because the term DSI cannot withstand examination, no one claims authorship. The Report from the 2018 Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) reached consensus that DSI is not appropriate. When the AHTEG was re-constituted in 2020, the term nevertheless moved forward as a placeholder, apparently perpetually! The vaunted tower would be erected, and criticism would be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biodiversitys-tower-of-babel-the-confusion-compromise-of-convention-on-biological-diversity-decision-15-9-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biodiversitys-tower-of-babel-the-confusion-compromise-of-convention-on-biological-diversity-decision-15-9-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286489</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Leading the charge in philanthropy across Asia: Interview with Lim Seok Hui</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/leading-the-charge-in-philanthropy-across-asia-interview-with-lim-seok-hui/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/leading-the-charge-in-philanthropy-across-asia-interview-with-lim-seok-hui/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2024 14:20:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Matthew Boyer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/24140920/elephant-sri-lanka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284944</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Interviews, philanthropy, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Standing at the helm of a mission to scale collaborative philanthropy across Asia, and impact the world globally, is the Philanthropy Asia Alliance. And leading it is Lim Seok Hui, the chief executive of PAA, whom Mongabay interviewed as part of our series on leaders in philanthropy changing the world. PAA is an initiative of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Standing at the helm of a mission to scale collaborative philanthropy across Asia, and impact the world globally, is the Philanthropy Asia Alliance. And leading it is Lim Seok Hui, the chief executive of PAA, whom Mongabay interviewed as part of our series on leaders in philanthropy changing the world. PAA is an initiative of the Temasek Trust, Temasek’s philanthropic arm, which launched it with the intention of fostering a philanthropic environment in Asia that’s collaborative, streamlined and intended to have the greatest impact. For PAA, public-private-philanthropic partnerships are key to spur on new strategies and actions for the impact initiatives set forth across Asia. “Today, philanthropy is increasingly seen as a catalyst for innovative solutions and funding mechanisms to tackle environmental and social challenges,” Lim said in her welcoming remarks at the 2024 Philanthropy Asia Summit this past April. “This is buoyed by the rise of family offices in Asia — with 1,400 single-family offices in Singapore alone — and a new generation of wealth owners. These Next Gen funders are passionate about ESG and evidence-based interventions, and are keen to embrace more collaborative, impact-driven approaches to philanthropy.” ‘Anchor mandates’ to focus action PAA has three primary focus areas that it refers to as “anchor mandates,” and that it treats as interrelated and building upon one another. The first of these three mandates is climate and nature, where PAA supports communities in adopting sustainable practices that protect the environment. The key issues under this mandate include food, water, waste,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/leading-the-charge-in-philanthropy-across-asia-interview-with-lim-seok-hui/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284944</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Fungibility’ could sink Convention on Biodiversity’s funding mechanism Decision 15/9 (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/fungibility-could-sink-convention-on-biodiversitys-funding-mechanism-decision-15-9-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/fungibility-could-sink-convention-on-biodiversitys-funding-mechanism-decision-15-9-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2024 14:44:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joseph Henry Vogel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/22112931/herps_192039-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284482</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, philanthropy, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[That common sense is anything but common is a truism. Professors of economics often invoke common sense to explain resource allocation. The fungibility problem is exemplary. This esoteric term comes from finance and is synonymous with “adverse selection”: an economic policy selects adversely whenever the beneficiaries would have taken the same action anyway, the action [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[That common sense is anything but common is a truism. Professors of economics often invoke common sense to explain resource allocation. The fungibility problem is exemplary. This esoteric term comes from finance and is synonymous with “adverse selection”: an economic policy selects adversely whenever the beneficiaries would have taken the same action anyway, the action is fungible, and should not be undertaken. Common sense for billionaire philanthropists means identifying a public good that the state would not have otherwise financed: fungible proposals should not be candidates for private largesse. Non-fungible proposals in the eight-figures are far fewer than the number of multi-billionaires that now roam Planet Earth (some 1,623, according to Forbes). Aside from the crucial issue of economic rents, which was addressed in my previous commentary for Mongabay, the development of a $250 million “demonstration case” for Decision 15/9 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) would appear to meet the fungibility criterion. But appearances deceive. A great hornbill in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Image by tontantravel/Flickr. As an example unrelated to biodiversity, to make adverse selection and fungibility less abstract, compare the emissions from state-of-the-art cars with that of smoke-billowing jalopies. The U.S. federal policy of “Cash for Clunkers” (the CARS program, to get inefficient old automobiles off the road) seems commonsensical. Economists have shown, however, that half of the clunkers would have been junked by their owners anyway. “Cash for Clunkers” selected adversely and the retirement of the jalopies was fungible. The federal government would have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/fungibility-could-sink-convention-on-biodiversitys-funding-mechanism-decision-15-9-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/fungibility-could-sink-convention-on-biodiversitys-funding-mechanism-decision-15-9-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How philanthropy in Asia is evolving</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/how-philanthropy-in-asia-is-evolving/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/how-philanthropy-in-asia-is-evolving/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2024 09:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Matthew Boyer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/03185007/raja-ampat_rainbow-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284025</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, philanthropy, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a world grappling with increasingly complex environmental and social challenges, the role of philanthropy is undergoing a profound transformation, particularly in Asia. The recent Philanthropy Asia Summit underscored this evolution, highlighting how new funding mechanisms and collaborative approaches are reshaping the philanthropic landscape. The summit, organized by the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) and held [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a world grappling with increasingly complex environmental and social challenges, the role of philanthropy is undergoing a profound transformation, particularly in Asia. The recent Philanthropy Asia Summit underscored this evolution, highlighting how new funding mechanisms and collaborative approaches are reshaping the philanthropic landscape. The summit, organized by the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) and held in Singapore in April, brought together 450 leaders from various sectors to discuss and strategize on &#8220;Partnerships for Action,&#8221; emphasizing the need for systemic solutions and collective efforts. The rising influence of family offices One of the most striking trends in Asian philanthropy is the burgeoning role of family offices, investment firms set up to manage the wealth of a single family. With an estimated 1,400 single family offices in Singapore alone, these entities are increasingly pivotal in driving innovative, impact-focused philanthropy. This shift is largely driven by the younger generation of these families, known as Next Gen funders, who, more than their predecessors, prioritize environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and seek evidence-based interventions. Seok Hui Lim, CEO of PAA, encapsulated this trend, saying that philanthropy in Asia &#8220;is increasingly seen as a catalyst for innovative solutions and funding mechanisms to tackle environmental and social challenges,” and that the Next Gen funders moving it in this direction “are keen to embrace more collaborative, impact-driven approaches to philanthropy.&#8221; Kathlyn Tan, director of Rumah Group, emphasized the long-term strategic vision of family offices. &#8220;As the natural world crumbles around us, family offices have the aptitude to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/how-philanthropy-in-asia-is-evolving/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284025</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Using immersive media to strengthen support for the environment: An interview with Wendy Schmidt</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/using-immersive-media-to-strengthen-support-for-the-environment-an-interview-with-wendy-schmidt/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/using-immersive-media-to-strengthen-support-for-the-environment-an-interview-with-wendy-schmidt/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2024 02:54:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/14212659/A7_01202-2024-04-11T21_21_41.105-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282520</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Circular Economy, Conservation, Deep Sea, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Journalism, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Media, Oceans, philanthropy, Sustainability, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the intersection of philanthropy and sustainability, Wendy Schmidt stands out for her innovative approach to addressing global challenges. Her work transcends traditional charity, rooted in &#8220;systems thinking,&#8221; a holistic method that considers the interconnections within ecological, social, and economic systems. Schmidt’s journey into this realm began somewhat unexpectedly through her career as an interior [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the intersection of philanthropy and sustainability, Wendy Schmidt stands out for her innovative approach to addressing global challenges. Her work transcends traditional charity, rooted in &#8220;systems thinking,&#8221; a holistic method that considers the interconnections within ecological, social, and economic systems. Schmidt’s journey into this realm began somewhat unexpectedly through her career as an interior designer. It was here that she became acutely aware of how design choices impact resource use and waste generation. This awareness grew into a profound commitment to addressing broader environmental challenges, particularly those related to climate change, sustainable food systems, equity, and ocean health. Her dedication led to the creation of the Schmidt Family Foundation with her husband Eric and a constellation of initiatives aimed at fostering systemic change. Among these is the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which exemplifies the Schmidts’ approach to philanthropy: leveraging cutting-edge technology and interdisciplinary research to explore and protect the world&#8217;s oceans. A Chaunacops (a genus of bony fish in the sea toad family Chaunacidae) is seen at a depth of 1388.65 meters on a seamount inside the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park during a Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition earlier this year to examine seamounts off the coast of Chile. Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute Schmidt&#8217;s work extends beyond traditional grant-making. Through entities like the 11th Hour Project, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, and Schmidt Sciences, she supports innovative projects and ventures that push the boundaries of what&#8217;s possible in nature conservation and environmental sustainability. One of the core principles underpinning Schmidt’s efforts is &#8220;venture&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/using-immersive-media-to-strengthen-support-for-the-environment-an-interview-with-wendy-schmidt/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/using-immersive-media-to-strengthen-support-for-the-environment-an-interview-with-wendy-schmidt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282520</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will a billionaire bankroll biodiversity? CBD Decision 15/9 as potential &#8216;goldmine&#8217; (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/will-a-billionaire-bankroll-biodiversity-cbd-decision-15-9-as-potential-goldmine-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/will-a-billionaire-bankroll-biodiversity-cbd-decision-15-9-as-potential-goldmine-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2024 23:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joseph Henry Vogel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/20224851/GC_Jaguar_drinking_MX-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282093</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, philanthropy, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Economic metaphors can be ironic, unexpectedly so. The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund” (Decision 15/9). The Acting Executive Secretary of the Secretariat heralds the mechanism [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Economic metaphors can be ironic, unexpectedly so. The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund” (Decision 15/9). The Acting Executive Secretary of the Secretariat heralds the mechanism as a “landmark.” Hope runs high. Global biotechnology sales will soon reach $1 trillion per year. Hundreds of billions are needed to finance the conservation of biodiversity. Decision 15/9 could be a goldmine. But for whom? Industries that use genetic resources are dismissive. They may point to Brazil, the most biodiverse country in the world, where legislation allows royalties as low as 0.1%. The WiLDSI Project, funded by the German Government, contemplates a benefit one order of magnitude lower than that: on a billion-dollar blockbuster biotechnology, 0.01% translates to $100,000. Why bother? A goldmine exists only if industry pays an ‘economic rent’ for commercially successful biotechnologies. The rent in any good is the difference between what one pays and what one would have paid in a competitive market. Industry enjoys rents through intellectual property rights (IPR), such as patents and copyrights. These limited-in-time monopolies allow IPR-holders to offset the costs of bringing artificial information into existence. Tokay gecko. Image by Tontan Travel via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). By contrast, mega-diverse nations which are Parties to the CBD compete in ‘natural information,’ which is embodied in genetic resources and diffused across species and jurisdictions. Brazil is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/will-a-billionaire-bankroll-biodiversity-cbd-decision-15-9-as-potential-goldmine-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282093</doi>				</item>
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