by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Jan 22, 2026 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, January 22, 2026. Presented by: Hollie Booth of the University of Oxford and Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan & Camille Richer and Yousr Ben Fadhel of BlueMove / BlueSeeds. Description: The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Incubator fosters innovative solutions to conservation challenges by supporting projects that use financial and economic tools to deliver measurable conservation outcomes and long-term sustainability. This webinar, the second in a series of five, highlights two approaches that focus on transitioning fisheries toward more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient models – aligning biodiversity conservation with livelihoods and coastal community well-being. In the first half of the webinar, Hollie Booth of the University of Oxford and Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan will present on marine conservation incentives – a scalable, cost-effective approach to protecting marine biodiversity while safeguarding the livelihoods and wellbeing of coastal communities. This program uses positive incentives – tailored to local realities through a people-centered and evidence-based approach – to drive pro-conservation behavior and support economic welfare in small-scale fisheries. The presentation will explain why and how positive incentives are a powerful solution; share evidence of measurable positive outcomes from a portfolio of pilot programs; and explore how marine conservation incentives can be sustained and scaled to deliver durable benefits for nature and people. In the second half of the webinar, Camille Richer and Yousr Ben Fadhel of BlueMove / BlueSeeds will introduce a new nature-positive fund designed to regenerate marine ecosystems and strengthen coastal livelihoods. Building on the proven BlueMove model in Europe, the fund combines technical assistance and concessional finance to support a regenerative blue economy: sustainable fishing, shellfish farming, value chains, and mangrove-positive livelihoods. The pilot phase will focus in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Tunisia and Senegal in partnership with local cooperatives, microfinance institutions, and MPA managers. The presentation will demonstrate how financial incentives can encourage compliance with conservation rules while improving income stability. It will also outline opportunities for donors to support the launch of the pilot phase.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Jan 14, 2026 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Presented by: Ross Dixon and Audrey Maria Popa of Coast Funds, Raven Walkus of the Wuikinuxv First Nation & Melissa Carmody of WCS Chile. Description: The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Incubator fosters innovative solutions to conservation challenges by applying finance and economic tools to generate measurable conservation outcomes and long-term funding. This webinar, the first in a series of five, will feature two place-based impact bond initiatives that align conservation, community priorities, and accountability. In the first half of the webinar, Ross Dixon and Audrey Maria Popa from Coast Funds, together with Raven Walkus from the Wuikinuxv First Nation, will present the Salmon Impact Bond. A salmon impact bond is a nature bond designed to attract investment in Indigenous-led salmon habitat restoration and community development. The project is currently assessing the feasibility, design, and structure of the bond, including community-defined outcome metrics, market interest, risk considerations, regulatory challenges, and scalability. In the second half of the webinar, Melissa Carmody of WCS Chile will present Karukinka’s Impact Bond, as well as a holistic view of the sustainable finance options supporting the conservation of Karukinka Park in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The park uses a diversified approach that includes nature-based tourism, an existing conservation endowment that underpins long-term management and requires continued strengthening, and the exploration of results-based financing mechanisms. Karukinka’s approach integrates both ecological and cultural impact considerations, reflecting its vision to safeguard and restore the park’s ecological integrity and cultural values.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Dec 2, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Monday, December 1, 2025 (US time). Presented by: Alvin Chelliah of Reef Check Malaysia. Description: Traditionally, MPAs in Malaysia have been managed in a top-down approach with little involvement of local community. In 2014, Reef Check Malaysia started working with local islanders on Tioman Island to provide advanced-level diver certification and a variety of trainings – including reef monitoring and rehabilitation, predator management, mooring buoy replacement, and ghost net removal. In 2015, Reef Check Malaysia established its first community-based conservation group – the Tioman Marine Conservation Group (TMCG) – in response to demand from local islanders who were keen to participate in management and conservation of their island’s marine resources and work for the local MPA Tioman Marine Reserve. Today, the TMCG has over 85 trained volunteers – all local islanders – who regularly participate in conservation activities. In 2019, the group was officially recognized by the Malaysian Department of Fisheries as a strategic partner under its Reef Care Smart Partnership program, which shares responsibility for coral reef management with suitable local community groups. Recognizing the effectiveness of this approach, Reef Check Malaysia has now expanded the Community Marine Conservation Groups model across 4 states and 11 islands. Collectively, these CMCGs are leading the way in showing how the involvement of local communities in marine ecosystem management can have significant conservation outcomes, as well as mainstreaming environmental protection at community level.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Nov 20, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, November 20, 2025. Presented by: Anastasia Quintana of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Eréndira Aceves Bueno of the University of Washington, and Jean Wencélius of the Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement (CRIOBE).
Description: International conservation efforts, including “30×30” – the goal to protect 30% of the land and sea by 2030 – have focused largely on permanent or long-term protection. This is based partly on studies that link marine protected area (MPA) effectiveness to longevity, and partly on pragmatic policy concerns. However, coastal communities often rely on fisheries for their livelihoods and need ways to balance conservation and livelihood outcomes. Many forms of spatial fisheries management, especially traditional and indigenous management, rely on impermanence, including periodic and rotational fisheries closures. So how should conservation practitioners think about temporary protection? The international “TEMPO” project, a 5-year partnership between four universities, two research institutes, and two community partner organizations in Mexico and French Polynesia, brings together several lines of evidence to address this question. In this webinar, the TEMPO team will present novel results from social-ecological analysis at multiple scales, including a systematic review of temporary protection globally and in-depth results from case studies in Mexico and French Polynesia. The four main takeaways are: (1) there are diverse ways to include time in spatial management; (2) adding time to marine spatial management increases climate-adaptive policy options and potential for institutional fit; (3) temporary closures probably increase equity and justice; and (4) periodic harvest tends to deplete ecological benefits that have accrued but support long-term buy-in into ecological care.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Nov 19, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. Presented by: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Sustainable Finance Specialist Group. Description: New guidance provides detailed frameworks, descriptions, and insights into the use of conservation finance solutions to achieve protected and conserved area outcomes. The webinar will spotlight how protected and conserved areas (PCAs) generate significant values for society and the economy, why these high economic values are not enough to ensure PCAs are adequately funded and conserved, why financial needs for PCAs are growing, and why investing in PCAs generates significant returns. In addition, this webinar will cover critical guidelines for PCA finance – optimizing resource efficiencies, discouraging harmful actions, incentivizing position action, and increasing financial capital for conservation – for a variety of finance streams including donors and philanthropies, site-based finance, and private sector finance along with special considerations for indigenous group funding.
