Why should we care about biodiversity?
Protecting the planet’s biodiversity is a shared responsibility with profound implications for humanity. We care about endangered species and ecosystems for diverse reasons, such as preserving biological heritage, ensuring ecosystem health, maintaining climate stability, and securing food resources. With extinction rates at something like 1000 times the natural extinction rate, there is an urgency to take action to protect vulnerable species and ecosystems.
Our organization is raising money for conservation efforts in Latin America, the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, strategically focusing on regions with exceptional biodiversity. We target areas where opportunities exist for achieving long-term conservation gains. By prioritizing regions like the Amazon rainforest, the Caribbean islands, South and Southeast Asia’s diverse landscapes, and Africa’s vast ecosystems, we aim to safeguard the intricate web of life found in these ecologically significant areas. Our commitment extends to preserving extensive wilderness areas, including national parks and other undisturbed landscapes. Through this approach, we seek to capitalize on opportunities that allow for sustainable, enduring conservation gains, ensuring the persistence of biodiversity over time.
Xingu River, Kayapo Land
We should be doing both!
Here’s why we need to especially increase international efforts:
- Most of the loss of biodiversity and conversion of natural ecosystems is happening in tropical countries.
- US’s migratory birds are being affected by habitat loss in their wintering areas in Latin America.
- Biological diversity is highly concentrated in the tropics.
The shortfall in spending on conservation is far greater in developing countries. - Americans benefit directly and indirectly from natural ecosystems worldwide, for example in climate regulation. See our Conservation Fast Facts.
- Loss of biodiversity is not inevitable! We can prevent many extinctions at modest cost.
- The world’s natural heritage belongs to everyone. We have a stake in elephants in East Africa and rainforests of the Amazon and Congo Basin. The US is an affluent country that generates its wealth as an integrated part of the world economy, and we can easily supplement the limited resources developing nations have to achieve highly desirable conservation goals.
Blue Dacnis, Panama
Our administrative costs are kept extremely low because we are currently a volunteer run organization. The actual conservation work is being done by our international field partners on the ground.
ICF raises funds for local field partners who carry out the actual work on the ground. We rely on our partner ICFC for much of the project management. So we are able to stay small while funding efforts that are having a big global impact.
After applying our selection criteria, we assess which opportunities offer the best value for money in terms of lasting conservation gains, while factoring in risk. We consider conservation significance (presence of threatened and endemic species, threatened ecosystems, ecosystem services, long-term ecological sustainability, and the broader conservation context); the severity of threats; expected project outcomes; and risk.
We seek to fund local organizations engaged in direct conservation action rather than research or sustainable development projects. This work may involve:
- Landscape level conservation by supporting the creation of new or expanded conservation reserves
- Support for work that establishes corridors or connected ecosystems, including elevational gradients that allow species to adapt to climate change
- Support for Indigenous rights and Indigenous conservation of ecosystems
- Focus on regions inhabited by Endangered Fauna (Threatened, Endangered and Endemic Species) as umbrella species for those ecosystems
- Support conservation of migratory corridors by sea, land and air that can benefit migrant species along their routes of travel like elephants, shorebirds, whales and monarch butterflies
We work with ICFC in project planning and oversight, and communicate regularly with our field partners. Where we are funding ICFC or a peer NGO’s projects, we receive progress and expense reports and reports on how our specific funds are spent. Where we are funding new projects, we sign agreements with the local partners who carry out the field activities. We are involved in project planning and oversight, and communicate regularly with our field partners. We make site visits as warranted or share information on visits made by co-funders.
Some of our programs we help fund are long-term efforts and are monitored on an ongoing basis. We follow up on short-term projects through various means including site visits, communications with project partners, and independent evaluations.
Yes, the International Conservation Fund is a U.S. 501(c)3 organization.
Yes, if you need a Canadian tax receipt you can make your donation through the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC). The ICFC is a registered Canadian charity (# 85247 8189 RR0001) and will issue a tax receipt for income tax purposes.
We apply them to the projects considered most urgent at the time.
No, the IRS does not allow that. We must issue the receipt to the person making the donation. But we will send a nice thank-you card to the “giftee”.
ICF will not sell, trade or give your information to any third party. We keep mailings to a minimum and respect donors wishes regarding frequency and means of communications. Please also see our Privacy page under About Us.