Securing nature’s future

Nature conservation is a perpetual effort. Along with political support and ambitious policies, governments and communities also need long-term funding to continue stewarding their natural places for many years.

Unfortunately, conservation budgets are often the first to go during times of financial difficulty.

That is why the game-changing approach called Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) is critical to securing nature’s future, and why WWF and our partners in Enduring Earth are partnering with governments and communities to deliver enduring protections through Project Finance for Permanence.

PFP initiatives secure the policy changes and funding necessary for conservation success and bind them together in a single agreement. This can look like creating new protected areas, ensuring community and traditional rights, or generating new sources of funding that will sustain the program long after donor funds are spent.

Because they are designed for the long term, PFP initiatives can dramatically transform people’s ability to conserve and steward nature according to their own visions and values.

Funds are released over ten or more years to governments and communities as they achieve key milestones. In this way, the stewards of nature know they will have reliable funding if they continue to show results, and donors know their funds will only be spent if the goals they support are achieved. And it ensures that we have all the pieces in place before any work gets started.

Putting everything into a single agreement ensures that systems of conservation areas—like a national park system, for example—are well-managed, sustainably financed, and benefit the communities who depend on them for the long term.