A Private Sector Approach for Practitioners:
Conservation Agreements in Support of Marine Protection

The Learning Opportunities Session (#995), A Private Sector Approach for Practitioners: Conservation Agreements in Support of Marine Protection, was held at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain in October 2008. Approximately 20 participants learned what Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) are, when MCAs can help abate threats to ocean and coastal species, habitats, and ecosystems, and how to plan and proceed with MCA projects. Participants discussed examples of MCAs to understand the MCA process, including feasibility analyses, stakeholder engagement, agreement development, and implementation.

Organizing Partners

The Nature Conservancy
Conservation International
Conservation and Community Investment Forum

Agenda and Materials
Day/Date	Session	Presentations	Presenter	Downloads
Day 1	Introduction to Marine Conservation Agreements	Overview of marine conservation agreements	Dick Rice (CI)	Presentation (3,506k)
	Introduction to Break-out Group Case Studies	Phoenix Islands Protected Area
		Chumbe Island Coral Park
		California Trawler Buy-out
		Long Island, New York Fee-title Acquisition
	Phase 1 – Feasibility Analysis	Overview	Patricia Zurita (CI)	Presentation (933k)
	Phase 1 – Feasibility Analysis	Case Study: Galera San Francisco Marine Reserve, Ecuador	Patricia Zurita (CI)	Presentation (933k)
	Phase 2 – Stakeholder Engagement	Overview	Jay Udelhoven (TNC)	Presentation (309k)
	Phase 2 – Stakeholder Engagement	Case Study: Shellfish Restoration Lease, Washington State	Jay Udelhoven (TNC)	Presentation (309k)
	Phase 3 – Building the Agreement	Overview	Patricia Zurita (CI)	Presentation (678k)
	Phase 3 – Building the Agreement	Case Study: Gulf of California Vaquita Project	Patricia Zurita (CI)	Presentation (678k)
	Phase 4 – Implementation	Overview	John Claussen (CCIF)	Presentation (267k)
	Phase 4 – Implementation	Case Study: Misool Ecoresort in Indonesia	John Claussen (CCIF)	Presentation (267k)
	Reflection and feedback		Dick Rice (CI)

Background Reading

Leasing & Ownership within Ocean and Coastal Waters – A Conservation Practitioners Toolkit
This practitioner's toolkit for conservation leasing and ownership was developed by The Nature Conservancy's Global Marine Team with substantial input from our partners. It is meant to help conservation organizations determine:

What conservation leasing and ownership is
When leasing and ownership can help abate threats to ocean and coastal species, habitats, and ecosystems
How to plan and proceed with leasing and ownership projects

Conservation Incentive Agreements: An Introduction and Lessons Learned to-date
This document draws on experience accumulated since 1999 to present the rationale of the Conservation Agreements, emphasize their wide applicability, and offer some practical guidelines for implementation. The main body of this document serves as an introduction to the topic informed by early experiences. The Annex following the main body provides step-by-step guidance for the design and implementation of incentive agreements, informed by the cumulative experience of CI’s Conservation Economics and Conservation Stewards Programs.

MPA Cost Model & Financial Analysis Tool
Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) require a dedicated focus on meeting their long term financial needs—and designing financing mechanism and strategies to do so. The challenge lies in both the need to design complete and factual financing plans but also in effectively defining and managing the operational complexity inherent in running a fully functional and sustainable MCA. Achieving financial sustainability of MCA plans requires a clear understanding of the objectives and effective functions and activities required to achieve them. The individual management plan requirements of each MCA is likely to have varying degrees of functional focus and intensity of effort, and so it is important to define and implement a consistent financing analytical methodology for each, integrating these where appropriate, to arrive at a rational and feasible financing plan. (This poster and memo outline the details of an approach and the CCIF MPA Financial Management Tool which will be freely available as a web-tool and downloadable Excel-based tool in October 2008.)

Additional Recommended Reading

Private Marine Conservation Agreement Workshop
In June 2008, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation and Community Investment Forum, and Conservation International convened an invitational three-day workshop of U.S. and international experts to assess how conservation agreements can contribute to protecting the world's oceans and coasts. All materials from the workshop are available online, including issues, tools and case study white papers, presentations, and posters.

Economic Incentives

Guyana Conservation Concession video

Guyana Conservation Concession Article

Ecuador Chachi community conservation agreement article

Kenya Predator Compensation Fund article

Lisa Dabek (head of Tree Kangaroo project in Papua New Guinea)

Randy Borman (head of Cofan community conservation agreement project in Ecuador)

Organizers’ Biographies

Jay Udelhoven	Jay Udelhoven joined The Nature Conservancy’s Global Marine Team in September 2005. He came to the Conservancy with 15 years of experience in natural resource management, planning, protection, and research at the local, state, federal, and international levels throughout the United States and parts of Africa. His work with the Global Marine Team focuses on developing and assisting with the implementation of market-based marine conservation strategies. Current activities include assessing the opportunities for conservation leasing and ownership of marine lands with TNC state and country offices, state and federal agencies, and nongovernmental environmental organizations. Jay has a Master of Environmental Policy from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
John D. Claussen	John D. Claussen is the Director of the Conservation and Community Investment Forum (CCIF) and a Partner with Starling Resources. John has almost 10 years of experience managing economic development and conservation finance programs throughout Asia. He has worked with partners such as the World Bank/IFC, TNC, CI, WWF, regional NGOs, UNDP, and a variety of private companies and foundations. His work focuses on designing financing and operational plans for conservation programs, conducting business feasibility assessments, and designing economic development and microfinance programs that are supportive of conservation programs. John also advises a number of Private Foundations in the United States on the design and development of conservation programs, protected area financing strategies, and conservation trust funds. John previously worked for a decade in the private sector designing and implementing environmental and efficiency initiatives in a variety of industries, including chemicals, supply chain/logistics, energy, automotive and semiconductors. He has consulted and presented extensively on this subject in North America, Singapore, Korea, and the Philippines. He holds a BS degree in Biology from Valparaiso University.
Sarah Conway	Sarah Conway is an Associate with Conservation and Community Investment Forum and supports work in conservation finance, microfinance, and enterprise development. She has contributed to the design and development of business plans, endowment funds, and financing strategies for a number of protected areas in SE Asia. She is currently leading an effort to create pragmatic excel and web-based conservation finance modeling tools with Duke University and the Packard Foundation. Ms. Conway joined CCIF from Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) where she was a fixed income Portfolio Associate. She worked with portfolio managers and traders to ensure timely and accurate execution of investment strategies across client portfolios and also monitored various risk metrics and exposures. Prior to PIMCO, she was an Analyst in Citigroup’s two-years Sales & Trading Analyst Program during which she gained experience in U.S. fixed income interest rate sales and Asia Pacific equity sales. Ms. Conway holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and is a CFA Level III Candidate.
Dick Rice	Dr. Rice has 20 years experience in natural resource and public policy analysis. He currently supervises projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. While at Conservation International, he has done extensive research on the costs and effectiveness of different approaches to biodiversity conservation in the tropics. He has published widely on the viability of sustainable forest management and is presently working on the development and implementation of conservation incentive agreements, an approach to conservation involving annual payments for the acquisition of development rights in priority habitats. Prior to joining Conservation International, Dr. Rice worked on the economics of public land use policies in the United States with The Wilderness Society, Resources for the Future, Inc. and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Dr. Rice has a B.S. in Economics from Grinnell College, an M.S. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan.
Patricia Zurita	Patricia Zurita manages the Conservation Stewards Program , a 5 year initiative to test and implement conservation agreements, with CI since 2005. Before that Patricia was leading the Policy and Economics Unit of the Andes Program with CI leading the impelmentation of conservation agreements and other incentive and economic initiatives in the 5 Andean countries. From 2000 until 2002 she worked with the Economics Program of the World Resources Insitute assessing and building markets for nutrient reduction in the US as well as assessing market opportunities for watershed protection payment systems in Panama and Viet Nam. Patricia holds a Master on Environmental Management from Duke University.

Organizations

Conservation International	CI believes that the Earth's natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically. Our mission is to conserve the Earth's living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature. Our work is based on cutting-edge science, comprehensive partnerships, and concern for human well-being. With these three principles guiding us, we safeguard valuable species, preserve the most important landscapes and seascapes, and support communities that care for and rely on Earth's natural resources. To reach these goals, we focus on three strategies: dedicating ourselves to innovation, raising awareness about conservation, and maintaining business-like effectiveness. CI works in 42 countries around the world protecting biodiversity in Hotspots, High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas and Priority Marine Areas. CI has been implementing conservation agreements since 2002 and has expanded its application to 18 countries around the world testing the tool in wide array of ecosystems, legal systems and partnerships.
Conservation & Community Investment Forum	The Conservation and Community Investment Forum (CCIF) is a non-profit group that provides consulting services to support the design and management of solutions which contribute to conservation, economic development, and sustainable use of natural resources. CCIF specializes in applying the tools and strategies of the private sector to address urgent conservation issues worldwide. An important area of focus for CCIF has been in working directly with our partners to analyze and design effective management plans and long term financing strategies for marine conservation programs and efforts. CCIF is based in San Francisco, California and has a regional office in Bali, Indonesia.
The Nature Conservancy	The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. TNC is the largest environmental non-governmental organization in the world, working to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Since our founding in 1951, we have: Protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide Initiated (and operate) more than 100 marine conservation projects globally Established a membership base of more than 1 million Established offices and field projects in all 50 states of the United States and more than 30 countries Addressed threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, fresh water, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems TNC’s Pacific Island Countries program marine strategies include: Micronesia Challenge: Support MC jurisdiction governments establish a coordination structure, engage in the implementation of the region’s PANs, develop EAF project and assist with sustainable financing plans; Coral Triangle (Melanesia): Provide effective leadership and support to the CT and related fundraising; implement the Kimbe Bay network design, complete the Bismarck Sea ERA, initiate the Solomon Archipelago ERA and two networks of MPAs and establishing EAF management frameworks and models; Sustaining Conservation: Improve the enabling frameworks by strengthening government and regional partnerships; strengthening capacity through application of learning and leadership development tools; and establishing a range of sustainable financing plans and mechanisms.