WiserEarth Governance

The Interagency Planning Group on Environmental Funds (IPG) brings together a wide range of organizations - donors, NGOs and policymakers - dedicated to supporting, in a variety of ways, environmental funds in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as effective, long-term conservation financing mechanisms and sustainable institutions for biodiversity protection and compatible development. Over the years, the IPG membership has changed reflecting the current activities of the IPG and the interest and level of involvement of its members.

There are currently three regional working groups of the IPG - Africa, Asia and Latin America - comprised of the organizations particularly interested and/or involved in trust funds in that region. Every effort will be made to keep the membership list current and to include all active participants in the IPG on these pages.

Institutional members of the IPG include: World Bank, UNDP, USAID, GEF, Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, Synergos Institute, African Wildlife Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, the European Union, IRG, as well as other organizations and independent conservation finance professionals. See here for individual contact information for institutional representatives.

The Interagency Planning Group: Africa Working Group

Last April, 2002, the IPG/Africa working group sponsored, in collaboration with The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Tanzanian Land Conservation Trust/Africa Wildlife Foundation/Tanzania and The Nature Conservancy, a conference for African Environmental Funds "Sustainable Financing for Conservation in Africa." This conference, a first for the African continent, was held in Arusha, Tanzania. Papers and presentations from that event are now available on this website.

Learn more about what the Asia and Latin America working groups are doing! Or find out more about the membership of the IPG.

The Interagency Planning Group: Asia Working Group

More to come on what the Asia working group is working on.

The Interagency Planning Group: Latin American Working Group

In addition to its own activities, the LAC working group of the IPG works very closely with RedLAC, which is a network of 23 environmental funds in Latin America. This network is involved in a dynamic process of capacity building and institutional strengthening of environmental funds. The member institutions function as donors at the local level representing various countries, with a deep knowledge of the diversity of social and cultural sectors and with the potential to ensure the continuity of conservation efforts. The funds have financed more than 3000 environmental projects in the region and, all together, manage approximately US$500 million and have a combined annual operational budget of more than US$70 million for conservation activities in the region.

At the end of October, RedLAC held its annual Assembly in Kingston, Jamaica. Although the CFA Chair, Alain Lambert, couldn't attend the meeting, he did send a message to RedLAC representatives. Read it here!