CSF will launch African and Himalayan initiatives and expand Andes-Amazon programs through $1.2 million agreement with Biodiversity Understanding in Infrastructure and Landscape Development (BUILD) program of USAID. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently announced a $1.2 million agreement with Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) to launch a comprehensive initiative in central Africa, expand CSF’s programs in the Andes-Amazon region, and initiate a limited program in Asia’s Himalayan region. The goal of the program is to promote biodiversity conservation through infrastructure best practices.

HydroCalculator 2.0 and the Roads Filter have just been released for use on CSF's website. Both were showcased in early September in La Paz where CSF Bolivia staff rolled out the two strategic tools to prioritize conservation efforts in the face of road and dam development in South America. The first, the HydroCalculator enables people to quickly analyze the pros and cons of hydroelectric projects distinguishing between those that are relatively clean and efficient and those that are expensive and destructive. The hydro presentation is the third in a series that included similar events in Medellín, Colombia and Brasília, Brazil and ultimately aims to avoid destructive dam building.

Rondang Siregar is an Indonesian biologist whose passion is protecting the wild orangutans of her native country. She recently attended CSF’s 13th annual Economic Tools for Conservation course at Stanford University where she and 27 other conservationists from around the world gathered to learn how economic tools could help them succeed. Watch the video below to hear Rondang explain how CSF’s economic training, combined with her skills as a biologist, could help her protect these noble and endangered apes.

Thanks to World Wildlife Fund's Russel E. Train Education for Nature (EFN), nine environmental professionals from seven countries were awarded the opportunity to attend this month’s international Economic Tools for Conservation course at Stanford University. EFN provides financial support to professionals and organizations worldwide for higher education, short-term training, and practical mentoring programs.

After attending Conservation Strategy Fund's Economic Tools for Conservation course in 2009, Theresa Kas visited the small village of Sohoneliu in her home country of Papa New Guinea. Once she arrived, she realized much of the forest had been depleted to the extent wild animals were no longer hunted and the river was full of sediment and pollution from the local quarry. Theresa took the initiative and began meeting with the local community where many had converted precious forests into farmland. Using the skills she had acquired from the training course at CSF, she conducted a Cost Benefit Analysis to evaluate the true cost of these unsustainable practices. They soon realized that the true economic cost was far greater than the benefit of the harvest and quarry development.

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.

Each year conservation professionals from around the world join Conservation Strategy Fund for a two-week course where they learn to use economics to be more strategic and successful in their work. This year students will be coming from 12 countries and 5 continents to participate in this one-of-a-kind course being held August 15th-26th at Stanford University. Watch the video below to find out more about the course and what participants from last year plan to do with what they learned. You may also click here to watch it on our You Tube site.

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.

On March 29th and 30th, 2011, CSF Brazil Technical Manager Leonardo Fleck led a conservation economics workshop at an event organized by the TEEB initiative (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) from the United Nations Environment Program. The event was held in Corrientes, Argentina, and was co-sponsored by the Avina Foundation. The workshop aimed to promote the use of economics in environmental conservation with a focus on climate change. The workshop was attended by 80 participants from various governmental and non-governmental organizations, including representatives from Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. Leonardo taught principles of microeconomics, environmental valuation and cost-benefit analysis.