WWF - Conservation Finance - Conservation Trust Funds

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Conservation Finance

Conservation Trust Funds

The translocation of Greater one-horned rhinos from Royal Chitwan National Park to Royal Bardia National Park is a joint initiative of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, the WWF Nepal Program and Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
© WWF-Canon / Jeff Foott

WWF creates conservation trust funds to provide stable and long-term sources of funding for conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in countries that have high levels of biodiversity but oftentimes limited resources to invest in conservation. WWF is a leader with extensive experience in establishing conservation trust funds around the world. Our partners are government agencies, multilateral institutions, the private sector, local community groups, and large and small NGOs.

Since the 1980s WWF has been involved in establishing over one third of roughly 55 conservation trust funds and foundations throughout the world (see map below). These include the very first trust fund in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan; the Mesoamerican Reef Fund extending across Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras; the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) Fund dedicated to conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Brazil; and the Mexican Nature Conservation Fund, currently the largest conservation trust fund with assets close to $100 million.

Why are Conservation Trust Funds Important?

Conservation trust funds provide an investment mechanism that can be used to finance conservation program costs over many years through debt swaps, grants or donations, or other financing mechanisms such as earmarked taxes and fees. Conservation trust funds can take the shape of endowment funds (where the interest, but not the capital is spent); sinking funds (where the income and part of the capital is spent every year, eventually sinking the fund to zero over a pre-determined time); and revolving funds (which continually receive new revenues from earmarked taxes or fees and continually spend these revenues). Conservation trust funds are important financing mechanisms as they:

Have the ability to raise, manage and disburse funds to support government and non-governmental activities;
Can be legally independent grant-making institutions that better withstand economic or socio-political risks;
Can be effective financing mechanisms to channel financial benefits to indigenous peoples and local communities;
Can make government protected areas agencies more transparent, accountable and effective;
Can serve as catalysts for creating new partnerships with private sector for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Learn More about Conservation Trust Funds

World Wildlife Fund