Founding Partners

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is committed to education, health, rural development, good governance and sustainable economic development. Under its Caucasus Initiative, BMZ through the German development bank KfW, has committed €28 million in support of CNF in four stages since 2007. BMZ is the most important funder of the protected areas sector in the South Caucasus and also finances development of new protected areas and major protected area infrastructure development through its “open programs” for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It also finances transboundary cooperation in the region through its Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) initiative. Visit: www.bmz.de

KfW Development Bank has been helping the German Federal Government to achieve its goals in development policy and international development cooperation for more than 50 years. In this regard, KfW is both an experienced bank and a development institution with financing expertise, an expert knowledge of development policy and many years of national and international experience. On behalf of the German Federal Government, and primarily the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW finances and supports programmes and projects that mainly involve public sector players in developing countries and emerging economies – from their conception and execution to monitoring their success.

Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity. CI has helped to establish Conservation Trust Funds around the world and is one of CNF’s founding partners. CI contributed $3 million to our initial endowment fund in 2008 and has since supported CNF’s growth with technical and fundraising assistance. Visit: www.conservation.org

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has been active in nature conservation all over the world since 1962. WWF was largely responsible for the feasibilitystudy that led to CNF’s creation and is one of CNF’s founding partners. WWF Germany has provided €800,000 in three stages since 2007 and CNF cooperates with the WWF offices in Armenia and Georgia on a various field projects and technical audits. Visit: wwf.panda.org

Funding Partners

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment. An independently operating financial organization, GEF provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. GEF, through UNDP committed $2 million to our projects in Armenia and Georgia. The grant was given as an inovative up-front contribution to a “sinking fund” that must be spent over a seven year period in the two countries’ protected areas. Visit: www.thegef.org

The Acacia Conservation Fund (ACF) supports effective and innovative solutions to global biodiversity conservation by providing a mixture of core organizational support and targeted project support to leading international conservation organizations and initiatives. ACF has supported conservation trust funds around the world and has provided CNF with commitments of $840,000 since 2008, making the ACF our largest private donor.

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation. CEPF provides grants for non-governmental and private sector organizations to help protect biodiversity hotspots, Earth’s most biologically rich yet threatened areas. CEPF contributed to CNF’s start up and administrative costs with two grants in 2008 and 2010 totaling, $850,000, providing a crucial lifeline as CNF developed its program and internal structures.  Visit: www.cepf.net

Sustaining Partners

The Bank of Georgia has supported CNF’s work in Georgia since 2010 with financial support totaling $400,000. Among other things, Bank of Georgia’s funding has financed the rehabilitation of the aging BKNP visitors center, creating a modern and attractive facility in which to receive tourists and engage with schools and the local community. Visit: www.bankofgeorgia.ge

Sullivan & Cromwell has supported CNF’s work since 2012 with support totaling $75,000. Their funds help CNF’s program in all three South Caucasus countries.

Visit: www.sullcrom.com

For KPMG, community involvement is an integral part of its corporate mission. The firm has developed successful global strategies for working with clients and its employees and is now developing a global approach to community activities that builds upon the active local involvement of its member firms. KPMG’s offices in Georgia and Armenia have supported CNF’s work since 2010 by providing financial audits, tax advice and feasibility studies at a discounted rate. Visit: www.kpmg.com

RAUE LLP has supported CNF with pro bono legal advice on German foundation law and corporate matters since 2008. Visit: www.raue.com

Hogan Lovells LLP has been providing CNF with pro bono US and international legal advice on tax, finance, intellectual property, employment and similar matters since 2008. Visit: www.hoganlovells.com

Dentons office in Georgia have supported CNF with pro bono legal advice since 2014. Visit: www.dentons.com

NameScan’s mission is to provide businesses with the service they require under AML regulation and help in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Knowing Your Customer (KYC) is becoming an increasingly important process for businesses with many regulations in place that they must comply with. Businesses must ensure that they have the correct practices in place to reduce the risk of being associated with money laundering and terrorist financial activities.

NameScan helps businesses ensure they are compliant by assisting them with their KYC processes through our PEP and Sanction screening service. By utilising multiple well known data sources, we provide our users with the option to choose which database they would like to screen an individual or entities name against to ensure they are not a risk to their business. Visit: https://namescan.io

Major Donors

Individual donors are crucial to our ability to fund our programs on an annual basis.  Individual donors who contribute at least $10,000 in the most recent three year period are eligible to participate in trips and other events organized specially for them.  Several donors who have made contributions substantially in excess of this amount do not wish to be named.  We are deeply grateful to these donors, as we are to all of our donors and partners, large and small.

• Al Breach
• Ian Hague
• Neil and Nancy Janin
• Ted Jonas
• Gwen Melvin
• David Morrison and Mary Fleming
• Jean Raby
• Marshall and Deborah Wais

Program Partners

While we are unique in focusing on operating costs and long-term support, we are not alone in supporting protected areas of the South Caucasus. As noted, our strategic partners all have a substantial commitment to developing and improving protected areas. In addition, a number of other organizations that do not support us financially support our work by partnering with us on particular projects or coordinating their support with ours. We look on the efforts of these organizations as “in kind” contributions to our work, since in most cases without this support from others we would need to find ways to implement the activities pursued ourselves.

The Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) provides support to the Ministries of Environment of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to increase regional harmonization, sector development in nature conservation and related socio-economic development, as well as promote the development of state of the art operational instruments for sector policies and develop strategies and instruments for sustainable financing of Protected Areas. Visit: www.tjs-caucasus.org

NACRES is a Georgian non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the biodiversity of Georgia and the South Caucasus, through conservation activities at national and local levels, based on sound science, sustainability principles and local participation. Among other things, NACRES cooperates with us on technical audits of the parks in Georgia. Visit: www.nacres.org

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network. On the ground in 177 countries and territories, UNDP focuses on poverty reduction, democratic governance, crisis prevention and recovery and environment and energy for sustainable development. UNDP acts as the implementing agency for our grant with GEF. Visit: www.undp.org

Caucasus Nature Jewels (CNJ) is a Tbilisi-based boutique that trades in unique art works, handmade crafts, jewelry and textiles created by artisans using traditional techniques.  In addition to supporting local artists, CNJ contributes to preserving nature in the region by donating a percentage of revenues from every item sold to CNF.  CNJ also assists CNF in increasing its brand recognition by placing CNF’s logo and website on their product labels, as well as displaying brochures and collection boxes in their two stores. Visit: www.caucasusnaturejewels.com