From 6 to 8 October 2020, the Consortium of African Funds for the Environment (CAFÉ) and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Environmental Funds (RedLAC) successfully held their first joint virtual congress under the theme of Sustainable Finance for Conservation.

The event brought together over 700 participants from 95 countries and over 40 panelists and speakers from across the world.

With primary emphasis on the work of conservation trust funds (also called environmental funds), the event was organized to equip participants with relevant knowledge and skills on such important topics as Financial Sustainability, Impact Investment, Blue-Green Economy, Environmental and Social Safeguards, among others.

It featured many high level speakers including Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

From CAFÉ, Karen Price (the CAFÉ President, Malawi), Claude Fanohiza (Executive Director of Tany Meva Foundation, Madagascar), Sean Nazerali (Director of Innovative Financing at BIOFUND, Mozambique), and Serge Ratsirahonana (Monitoring and Evaluation Manager from the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity of Madagascar) were among the speakers.

One of the outcomes of the joint virtual congress was the signed CTFs’ Pledge for Biodiversity Conservation.

Basically, the pledge:

  1. commends political leaders for taking action
  2. urges political leaders to develop finance plans to meet their ambitions
  3. urges support from political leaders to direct climate financing to nature based solutions and,
  4. urges multilateral agencies to swiftly get the money to the ground
    A decision for the virtual event was arrived at by the two networks given the Covid19 pandemic that shut countries and claimed over a million lives across the globe.

The event was financially supported by the French Facility for the Global Environment (FFEM), the REDD-CCAD-GIZ Program, Forever Costa Rica Association and FONAFIFO.