Participants Ximena Villagrán from Guatemala and Rianti Pangastuti from Indonesia enjoying the sunshine during a class break

Every day, support from donors like you makes our work possible. Are you willing to make a special year-end donation to help us protect ecosystems around the world?Please, click here to make your donation now. 

Course participants and instructors. In April, CSF lead a three-day training for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in Sacramento, CA. Participants included 22 members of the CDFW staff, and 5 members of the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC). We were able to reach 8 staff in field offices across California using remote access technology and our online workspace.

For this month's Donor Spotlight series, I sat down with Jon Mellberg, a Bay Area-based contributor who has supported CSF's videos on economic valuation, part of our popular animated video series. He recently spent some time with me to discuss his background, why he supports CSF and even the best way to calculate the economic value of an elephant! Aja: Can you tell me a little about your career to date?

Course coordinators Margaret Duncan, Niki Gribi, Craig Martz, and Kim Bonine.CSF traveled to Sacramento, CA in October to lead a three-day training for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Participants included 28 members of the CDFW staff, and 6 members of the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC). We were able to reach 16 staff in field offices across California using remote access technology and our online workspace.

On June 16th, twenty-two members of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staff gathered in Washington, D.C. for a three-day training entitled Economic Tools for Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services into Development Investments. This course came about as part of our multi-year Biodiversity Understanding in Infrastructure and Landscape Development (BUILD) program, which is part of an agreement with USAID, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Conservation Strategy Fund is accepting applications for our International Economic Tools for Conservation Course! Now in it's 17th year, our flagship course will be offered August 10-21, 2015 at Stanford University.

Last month, we had the opportunity to bring CSF’s economic analysis training to a new audience – the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C.  The IDB approves over $11 billion dollars in loans each year, and is a major force in shaping the face of development in Latin America.  We delivered two training workshops for transport and water sector specialists from various country offices, and a shorter session for IDB Economists based in D.C.

CSF economists Susan Seehusen, Aaron Bruner and John Reid joined the German technical support agency, GiZ, and the Mexican Protected Areas Commission, CONANP, to support two big efforts to leverage the economic value of protected areas. Over weekend of October 18-19, Aaron and Susan joined GiZ and parks officials from a handful of Latin American countries to provide technical guidance for the newly launched ValuES program. Yes, that's an upper-case ES for Ecosystem Services; the program focuses on highlighting the values protected ecosystems deliver to human communities in focus countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Vietnam and India, among others.

Two new exciting opportunities could give you the chance to be a part of the equation saving millions of acres worldwide.