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.

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 training and assist ICMBio staff on financial planning to provide services that will improve visitor's access and experience in the parks and strengthen the tie between Brazilians and their parks.

Photos of Madden Dam in Panama

HydroCalculator Tool

The HydroCalculator Tool empowers citizens to analyze the ecological, social, and financial impacts of hydroelectric dams. Click through below to see how you can analyze a hydro project online or see if someone else has already posted an analysis of the project in which you have an interest.

http://www.conservation-strategy.org/hydrocalculator-analyses

Picture of sugar mill in northern Bolivia

Sugar Cane in the Bolivian Amazon

Over the past three decades, the Amazonian region in northern Bolivia has experienced a process of agricultural colonization in formerly pristine forestlands.

Forest conversion for agricultural projects is the basis of several national and local government development schemes. At present, the most prominent development proposal in the region involves building a sugar mill and planting more than 20,000 hectares of sugar cane. However, consensus is lacking on whether and how such a project should be implemented, due in part to the absence of any rigorous feasibility studies.

Interoceanica Sur Road in Peru

Tropical forests of southeastern Peru hold the highest biodiversity levels in the world. This unique region is threatened by the construction of a paved road linking Brazil to Peruvian ports on the Pacific Ocean. CSF is carrying out a study to identify priority areas for conservation investments to mitigate the so-called "Interoceánica Sur" road's impacts. To do this we are analyzing the road’s effects on land-use profits, information we will combine with data on the distribution of wild plant and animal species.

Photo of a deep sea giant turtle swimming in clear tropical sea water.

Ocean Economics - Abrolhos Reef, Brazil

Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) is currently conducting economic valuation research of Marine areas in Belize, Panama and Brazil. This work is being supported by Conservation International’s Marine Management Area Science program. Valuation of ecosystem goods and services is being carried out within three formally protected marine areas: Gladden Spit (Belize), Coiba (Panama) and Abrolhos (Brazil).

Ocean Economics - Coiba National Park, Panama

Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) is currently conducting economic valuation research of Marine areas in Belize, Panama and Brazil. This work is being supported by Conservation International’s Marine Management Area Science program and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Valuation of ecosystem goods and services is being carried out within three formally protected marine areas: Gladden Spit (Belize), Coiba (Panama) and Abrolhos (Brazil). CSF's Coiba research was led by one of our training graduates, Ricardo Montenegro, of the Alliance for Conservation and Development, a Panamanian NGO.

Ocean Economics - Gladden Spit, Belize

Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) is currently conducting economic valuation research of Marine areas in Belize, Panama and Brazil. This work is being supported by Conservation International’s Marine Management Area Science program. Valuation of ecosystem goods and services is being carried out within three formally protected marine areas: Gladden Spit (Belize), Coiba (Panama) and Abrolhos (Brazil).

Usumacinta Dam

In a collaborative study by ProNatura Chiapas, Defensores de la Naturaleza, Conservation International and CSF, we analyzed a dam proposed on the Usumacinta River in Mexico. Our objective is to stimulate discussion on the costs and benefits of such projects in Mesoamerica's largest watershed. We chose to analyze the Tenosique project (formerly known as Boca del Cerro), given that it is apparently the dam being given the most serious consideration by planners.

Photo of invasive swordfern in forest

Economic Impacts of Invasive Species

  • Uganda, Ghana y Zambia, Africa
  • 2006 - 2007
  • Completed

In 2006 and 2007, CSF worked with The Nature Conservancy to develop an interview-based economic assessment process to assist developing countries in evaluating and addressing the impacts of invasive species.

CSF conducted economic assessments of invasive species of particular concern in Uganda, Ghana and Zambia in partnership with CABI Africa and The World Conservation Union (IUCN) as part of the UNEP/GEF project "Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa."

Dams and Roads in the Madeira Basin

In this analysis, we assess the effect of Madeira River energy and transportation infrastructure projects on soybean expansion. Precarious transportation networks and natural barriers have kept the region of the Upper Madeira River geographically and economically isolated and have contributed to the low population densities, particularly in the Bolivian States of Beni and Pando. The development potential of this area, where Brazil, Peru and Bolivia meet, lies in the possibilities of accessing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by river or through the construction and pavement of roads.