About the Darwin Initiative

The Darwin Initiative was announced by the UK Government at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

The aim of the Initiative is to assist those countries which are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and CITES through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise.

The Darwin Advisory Committee (currently chaired by Professor David Macdonald), consisting of experts from government, academic, science and the private sector, advises Ministers on development of the Initiative and makes recommendations on applications for funding.

Darwin projects are diverse. Typically, they may address issues in the following areas:

• institutional capacity building
• training
• research
• work to implement the the CBD, CMS and/or CITES.
• environmental education or awareness