Conservation Trust Funds provide long term financing for management of protected areas, conservation projects and sustainable development. The significant majority of the CTFs participating in this study are managed as private organizations, independent of government. They are generally capitalized by grants from donor agencies, governments, foundations, nonprofit organizations, individuals and corporations.
Since the establishment of the first CTF in the early 1990s, Conservation Trust Funds have proven to be highly successful in providing stable funding sources by effectively managing income from investments and leveraging those monies to secure grants and other funds for conservation projects. As of this writing over 70 Conservation Trust Funds have been established or are in active development, in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe and Oceania, building on the structure and functional example of the early CTFs.
