As CSF's new BUILD Program Operations Manager, Irene Burgués Arrea has found herself traveling all over the world in order to promote biodiversity conservation through infrastructure best practices. From her native country of Costa Rica, to the forest of Uganda (with stops in Bolivia and Brazil in between), Irene is jumping right in.

In early December, CSF’s Marcos Amend delivered economics know-how to students in the Professional Masters for Protected Area Managers program run by INPA (National Institute for Amazon Research). The program's objective is to train managers to face the challenges of protected areas management in Amazon region. This is the second time CSF has contributed to the program, which was founded by CSF course graduate Rita Mesquita.

An hour drive from Kampala lies the Mabira Forest, one of the few remaining natural forest reserves in Uganda. Rich in biological diversity, the forest contributes to the livelihood of the adjacent communities and provides an opportunity for ecotourism. In 2009 the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL) requested permission from the government to use part of the Mabira Central Forest Reserve for sugarcane growing. CSF graduate Ronald Kaggwa took action. An environmental economist at the Uganda National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), Ronald conducted an economic analysis to prove that the net benefits of conservation far outweighed those of sugarcane.

Conservation Strategy Fund's Economic Tools for Conservation training course will be offered next year in Micronesia thanks to a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and a partnership with 2010 international course graduate Willy Kostka and the Micronesian Conservation Trust (MCT). The course will be CSF's first in the Western Pacific region. The training will support conservation of marine and forest resources in Micronesia by equipping conservation practitioners, natural resource managers and community leaders with the principles and tools of conservation economics.

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 has designed 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. To read more about this project and test the model yourself, please click here.

Proyecto Tití is a Colombian non-profit that integrates wildlife and forest preservation with education and community development. Proyecto Tití’s work centers around the cotton-top tamarin monkey, Colombia’s cutest, but most threatened, primate.

CSF-Brazil analyst Fernanda Alvarenga returned to the Southern Amazonas state last week to help locals complete business plans to sustainably use forest resources. The technical assistance sessions followed a business plan training delivered with CSF's Leonardo Fleck and partners from the FORTIS consortium.

A study (in Portuguese) led by Marcos Amend of Conservação Estratégica (CSF-Brazil) has calculated the financial incentive that will be needed to change the destructive pattern of cutting a burning forest to open new pasture. The study, "Subsidies for Cattle and Conservation: Estimates for the Municipality of Humaitá," looks at what it would take to encourage landowners to restore degraded pasture instead of clearing forest, focusing on a sprawling territory in the state of Amazonas, one of the main "fronts" of deforestation. The team found that it would cost R$292/hectare/year (US$74/acre/year) to deter deforestation.

For Conservation Strategy Fund's Brazil Executive Director Marcos Amend was featured on Santa Rosa, California's KRCB, discussing economic development as an alternative to deforestation in the Amazon basin. He also explores the work CSF does to prevent destructive roads from being built through the rainforest. To hear what Marcos has to say, click here.