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Program

Conservation Finance Network

As a founding partner, CBEY is a key part of this diverse network of individuals and organizations from across the private sector, foundations, public agencies, conservation groups, and academic institutions.

Conservation Finance Network

Conservation Finance Network: Where Conservation Meets Capital

More and more, the conservation community is recognizing that traditional funding models can’t keep pace with the need for conservation capital. At a time of modest public funding and limited philanthropic dollars, innovative funding and financing strategies hold great promise in narrowing the gap between the financial resources that are available and the scale of the conservation need.

About Conservation Finance Network

The Conservation Finance Network (CFN) advances land and resource conservation by expanding the use of innovative and effective funding and financing strategies. We support a growing network of public, private and nonprofit professionals through practitioner convenings, intensive trainings, and information dissemination to increase the financial resources deployed for conservation. Our web presence is produced in partnership with Yale Center for Business and the Environment. This web presence is a leading resource for practitioners, investors, conservationists, students and others. Our work draws from a start in and focus on the United States and touches on international approaches. We produce original content and curate the work of other organizations. We create news, research, policy, training and convenings related to conservation finance. We cover all the world’s ecosystems including forests, agriculture, oceans, cities and rivers.

We welcome your ideas and encourage you to share our articles.   

Our Story

CFN is the culmination of years of collaborative effort by leading practitioners in the field. The initiative grew out of a pilot workshop envisioned at Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in 2006 and held at Yale School of the Environment in 2007. This initial training course – nicknamed the “Boot Camp” for its intensity – tackled the art and science of raising, borrowing, managing and investing money for land and resource conservation. Its success energized momentum for additional workshops, provided a clear rationale for backbone support in this emerging field, and spurred the eventual creation of CFN at Island Press with seed money from the United States Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program.

We worked for many years out of The Conservation Fund, a top-ranked organization for efficiency and effectiveness that works to achieve environmental and economic outcomes. Since 2021, we have acted as an independent organization with fiscal sponsorship from Multiplier. 

Our Team

Go to Conservation Finance Network

 

Students - want to work as a content creator at the Conservation Finance Network? Check out the job opportunity here.

Student Writers

Shimul Bijoor

Climate Impact Fund Fellow at VertueLab
Master of Environmental Management 2021

Jeamme Chia

Program Officer at World Wildlife Fund
Master of Environmental Management 2021

George Moore

MBA 2022
Master of Environmental Management 2022

Wilder Person

Portfolio Management Analyst at BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group
Master of Environmental Management 2021

Kristen Wraithwall

Clean Energy Finance Associate 2019/2020 at CBEY
Master of Environmental Management 2021

Andy Xie

Writer at Yale Center for Business and the Environment
Yale College 2021

Previous Events

People & Partners

Alec Appelbaum

Storyteller at AllBeforeUs
BA 1993
MBA 1998

Tanya Sinha

Master of Environmental Management 2022

Sam Feibel

Master of Environmental Management 2023

Elwin Lim

Master of Environmental Management 2022

Leigh Whelpton

Program Director at Conservation Finance Network
Master of Environmental Science 2012

George Moore

MBA 2022
Master of Environmental Management 2022

Vero Bourg-Meyer

Project Director, Solar and Offshore Wind at Clean Energy States Alliance
Master of Environmental Management 2015

Bradford S. Gentry

F.K. Weyerhaeuser Professor in the Practice at Yale School of the Environment and Yale School of Management
Faculty Co-Director at Yale Center for Business and the Environment

Heather Fitzgerald

Managing Director at Yale Center for Business and the Environment
Staff Lead, Business and the Environment Learning Community at Yale School of the Environment

Kathy Hoegler

Program Associate at Yale Center for Business and the Environment

Program Alumni

Marisa Repka

Shea Flanagan

Maki Tazawa

Abby Martin

Cortney Ahern Renton

Dennis Tung

Meaghan McGrath

Logan Yonavjak