The Environmental Funds (EF) are institutions that were born in the nineties, in view of the need to manage, administer and provide financial resources for the conservation of natural resources to other organizations in a more effective manner. These initiatives have oriented their main efforts to ensure that the recurrent expenses of protected areas (PAs) are covered, and to finance projects for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and the strengthening of the civil and community organizations that collaborate with them. After two decades of operation, the EFs have diversified their actions, assuming diverse roles in the face of changing political, social, economic and technological scenarios. The multiplicity and innovation of strategies and actions in different situations makes the systematization and transmission of experiences among EFs a priority, in order to strengthen and create new capacities in the short and medium term.

Faced with this challenge, the Network of Environmental Funds of Latin America and the Caribbean (RedLAC), and the Consortium of Environmental Funds of Africa (CAFÉ), designed Project K, Knowledge for Action: improving global conservation through exchanges between peers and knowledge management.