Conservation International

Founder(s)	Spencer Beebe, Peter Seligmann
Founded	1987
Headquarters	Arlington, Virginia
Key people	Peter A. Seligmann (Chairman & CEO) Rob Walton (Executive Committee Chairman) Russell A. Mittermeier (President) Niels Crone (COO) Harrison Ford (Vice-chair)
Product(s)	Global Conservation Fund
Focus	Climate change, freshwater security, health, food security, biodiversity, cultural services
Revenue	FY 2010: US $77.8 million; FY 2009: $ 116.1 million[1]
Employees	900
Website	http://www.conservation.org

Conservation International (CI) is a nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization's mission is to protect nature, and its biodiversity, for the benefit of humanity.^[2]

CI is one of the largest conservation organizations headquartered in the United States,^[3] though its field work is done in other countries. It has 900+ employees, more than 30 global offices, and more than 1,000 partners around the world.^[2] Since its inception in 1987, CI has contributed to the protection of more than 260 million acres of land and sea^[4] — including places such as the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the largest UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world.

From its origins as an NGO dedicated to protecting tropical biodiversity, CI has evolved into an international organization with influence among governments, scientists, charitable foundations, and business.^[5]

The organization has been criticised for links to companies with a poor environmental record such as BP, Cargill, Chevron, Monsanto and Shell and for allegations of offering greenwashing services.^[6][7] Conservation International has also been chastised for poor judgment in expenditure of donors' money.

History [edit]

Conservation International was founded in January 1987 in Washington, D.C., by Peter Seligmann and Spencer Beebe, previously employees of the international division of The Nature Conservancy.^[8] The new organization focused on the conservation of tropical biodiversity and, at first, focused on the countries where Seligmann and Beebe had worked: Bolivia, Costa Rica and Mexico.^[4]

In CI's first year of existence, the organization purchased a portion of Bolivia's foreign debt. The money was then redirected to support conservation in the Beni Biosphere Reserve. Since this first-ever debt-for-nature swap, which helped cement CI's role in the conservation community, more than $1 billion of similar deals have been made around the world.^[9]

Two years later, in 1989, CI formally committed to the protection of biodiversity hotspots, ultimately identifying 34 such hotspots around the world and contributing to their protection. The model of protecting hotspots became a key way for organizations to do conservation work.^[10]

Growth and mission shift [edit]

In the subsequent two decades, as its resources grew and new donors pledged their support, CI expanded its work — gaining a stronger focus on science, corporate partnership, conservation funding, indigenous peoples, government, and marine conservation, among other things.^[4]

Yet despite a number of successes, the organization’s leadership grew to believe that CI's focus on biodiversity conservation was inadequate to protect nature and those who depended on it. In response to those concerns, CI updated its mission in 2008 to focus explicitly on the connections between human well-being and natural ecosystems. Currently, the group's environmental work focuses on key areas of interest for human well-being, including: climate change, freshwater security, health, food security, biodiversity, and cultural services.^[11]

This new mission places CI somewhat at the intersection of traditional conservation work and development work — in other words, in the sustainable development community. According to the organization’s website, CI now seeks "... to make conservation a cornerstone of economic development to benefit everyone, everywhere."^[12]

As of FY10, CI's expenses totaled more than US $138.8 million.^[1]

Approach to conservation [edit]

The foundation of CI's work is "science, partnership, and field demonstration." The organization has scientists, policy workers, and other conservationists on the ground in more than two dozen countries on five continents. It also relies heavily on hundreds of local partners.^[1]

The stated aim of CI’s field work is to find local successes that benefit both people and nature. For example, the creation of "no-take zones" for fish might have a short-term deleterious impact on fishermen; but ultimately, they increase fish populations, helping both marine ecosystems and the local economy.^[13]

CI hopes to replicate these successes on a larger scale — thus its work with governments, universities, NGOs and the private sector. By showing how conservation can work at all scales, CI aims to make the protection of nature a key consideration in economic development decisions around the world.^[14]

For example, CI supported 15 national governments in the formation of the Pacific Oceanscape, a management plan for the conservation of 24 million square miles of sea from Hawaii to New Zealand. In addition to the sustainable management of ocean resources, the agreement includes the world's largest marine protected areas and sanctuaries for whales, dolphins, turtles and sharks.^[15]

The organization has been active in United Nations discussions on issues such as climate change^[16] and biodiversity,^[17] and its scientists present at international conferences and workshops. Its United States policy work currently highlights "a direct connection between international conservation and America's economic and national security interests."^[18]

A few years after its founding, CI started working with McDonald’s to implement sustainable agriculture and conservation projects in Central America.^[19] The organization expanded its commitment to working with the business sector in 2000, when it created the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business with support from the Ford Motor Company.^[20]

Criticism [edit]

Conservation International has been chastised for poor judgment in expenditure of donors' money. A 2008 article in The Nation pointed out that the organization had attracted $6 million for marine conservation in Papua New Guinea, but the funds were used for "little more than plush offices and first class travel."^[21]

In recent years, CI has also come under increasing scrutiny around its corporate partnerships -– particularly around its practice of accepting financial support for its work. Critics say such deals are unseemly because nonprofit groups taking cash from big companies are unlikely to push their donors to achieve meaningful environmental change.^[22] CI’s response is that its corporate financial support is communicated transparently, directed toward core conservation programs, and linked to high expectations for the sustainability performance of its corporate partners—and, therefore, does not compromise the organization's integrity, independence and effectiveness.^[23]

In 2011, Conservation International was targeted by a group of reporters from Don't Panic TV who posed as a major American arms company and asked if the charity could "raise [their] green profile." Options outlined by the representative of Conservation International (CI) included assisting with the arms company's green PR efforts, membership of a business forum in return for a fee, and sponsorship packages where the arms company could potentially invest money in return for being associated with conservation activities. Conservation International agreed to help the arms company find an "endangered species mascot." Film footage shows the Conservation International employee suggesting a vulture North African birds of prey as a possible endangered species mascot for the arms company because of the "link to aviation."^[24][25] CI contends that these recordings were heavily edited to remove elements that would have cast CI in a more favorable light, while using other parts of the video out of context to paint a highly inaccurate and incomplete picture of CI’s work with the private sector.^[23]

Notable leadership [edit]

In addition to Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann, CI counts among its leaders:

• President: Russ Mittermeier, a notable herpetologist and primatologist
• Chief operating officer: Niels Crone
• Chairman of the Executive Committee: Rob Walton, chairman of the board, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Vice chair: Harrison Ford, actor

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Conservation International - Official site
• Global Symposium 2006 Madagascar
• Defying Ocean's End, A Conservation International led Agenda for Action in ocean conservation
• Charity Navigator Evaluation by America's premier independent charity evaluator
• Youtube video Al Gore explaining the need for more action on climate change
• Deep Sea Conservation Coalition - A union of 60+ international organizations working towards biodiversity conservation on the high seas.
• Reserva Ecologica Pachijal - A Conservation effort in the Cloudforest of Mindo-Ecuador