CSF Projects

Conservation Strategy Fund helps local conservationists use economic tools to find smart, efficient solutions to the most urgent environmental problems. Since its creation in 1998, CSF has conducted dozens of analysis projects in forests, rivers and coastal environments. Most of our work has focused in the tropics, where extraordinarily high levels of biological diversity are found. To maximize the reach and quality of our work, we involve leading experts and conservation organizations in all of our projects.

Photo of a road in the Bolivian Amazon

Fortalecimiento de capacidades institucionales para la aplicación de herramientas económicas para la conservación en proyectos de infraestructura - Bolivia

CSF presenta un nuevo programa de fortalecimiento de capacidades, esta vez, a nivel institucional. Este programa es financiado por la Fundación Gordon y Betty Moore.

photo of Andes mountain road

Fortalecimiento de capacidades institucionales para la aplicación de herramientas económicas para la conservación en proyectos de infraestructura - Colombia

CSF presenta un nuevo programa de fortalecimiento de capacidades, esta vez, a nivel institucional. Este programa es financiado por USAID y la Fundación Gordon y Betty Moore a través del programa BUILD (Biodiversity Understanding in Infrastructure and Landscape Development).

Investigaciones Económicas Aplicadas para la Conservación en la Amazonia Andina

La Unidad de Apoyo de ICAA y Conservación Estratégica (CSF), en el marco de la Iniciativa para la Conservación en la Amazonía Andina (ICAA), invitan a investigadores y analistas a proponer investigaciones económicas aplicadas a temas de conservación de la biodiversidad en la Amazonía.

En el marco del programa ICAA, se ha diseñado un fondo de becas de investigación para profesionales que trabajan en temas de análisis económico relacionados con la conservación de la biodiversidad en la Amazonia Andina de Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú.

Serra do Cipó, Minais Gerais, Brazil

Upgrading Brazil's Official Conservation Investment Model

Managing national parks and reserves requires reliable information about needed investments in equipment, infrastructure and research. CSF recently revamped the model, called the Minimum Conservation Investment model (IMC), used by Brazilian public land managers to calculate these needs. The project was a partnership between CSF-Brasil, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and GiZ, the German overseas cooperation agency.

In this process, CSF adapted and integrated financial models we had previously developed for protected areas. We reviewed and corrected unit cost figures used by the IMC and built in the capacity to forecast investments over a ten-year period. Finally, we added a feature to permit forecasting investment needed to create new protected areas.

picture of road in Amazon

Pucallpa - Cruzeiro do Sul Road Analysis

The Initiative for Regional Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA) is a series of road and energy projects that aims to connect South American countries. The proposed Pucallpa - Cruzeiro do Sul road between Peru and Brazil is a link in the Central Inter-Oceanic highway in IIRSA's Amazon Hub. The route's other sections are largely in place. However, some are still in the paving and rehabilitation process in both countries. This project would open a new road in a biologically and culturally unique area, known as the Sierra del Divisor (Serra do Divisor in Brazil) increasing deforestation.

British Columbia Salmon Farming

Conservation Strategy Fund is providing economic analysis to a joint initiative of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) and the fish-farming firm, Marine Harvest Canada (MHC). This cooperative venture seeks to understand the financial and environmental costs and benefits of different approaches to raising salmon in the coastal province of British Columbia. CSF’s team includes consulting economists Glenn Jenkins, George Kuo and Leonard Leung, of Queens University in Ontario.

Economic Opportunity Cost Model for the Amazon

Solving our global climate crisis hinges on doing a number of things right. One is slowing - eventually stopping - deforestation, which now accounts for 15-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To do that we need to know how much stopping deforestation costs and where on the Earth's vast tropical belt it can be done most cost-effectively. With the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CSF is designing an "opportunity cost" analysis method that will work at the level of individual farms and single land uses and be scalable up to the level of entire regions.

Wild Cacao

Wild Chocolate in Bolivia

The tree that give us chocolate is native to the Amazon rain forests. It has long been domesticated and planted commercially in hot, humid climates around the world. But the "wild" cacao beans are still harvested from natural Amazon forests, such as those in Northern Bolivia. CSF is helping local communities and our partners at Conservation International assess the Bolivian market for wild rain forest chocolate.

picture of road in Amazon

Roads Filter: A strategic analysis of road projects in the Amazon

The Roads Filter is an analysis tool developed by Conservation Strategy Fund to support conservation and sustainable development. The tool uses a comparative index that considers the environmental, economic, social and cultural implications of road construction projects. It can be used throughout the Amazon region to inform decision makers about a project’s risk levels and possible impacts. In 2011, we applied the Roads Filter to 36 proposed roads in the region. The overall ranking of these roads is seen in Figure 1.

Business and Parks: CSF and the Brazilian National Park Service

CSF is working with the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which is the Brazilian National Park Service, on financial aspects of businesses operating in national parks. Starting with five protected areas, in the Atlantic Coastal Forest, the Amazon and the Cerrado, CSF will train and assist ICMBio staff on financial planning to provide services that will improve visitors' access and experience in the parks and strengthen the tie between Brazilians and their parks. The project is supported by the United States Forest Service and the United States Agency for International Development.