A Global Initiative
Primarily financed by The Nature Conservancy’s China Board of Trustees, we are dedicated to solving conservation issues worldwide.
What is the China Global Conservation Fund (CGCF)?
After an inspiring trip to The Nature Conservancy’s Kenya program site in 2011, the China board collectively decided to initiate a fund, the China Global Conservation Fund (CGCF), to focus on addressing global environmental challenges beyond China’s borders.
The seed funding that started CGCF was generously given by Zeng Fanzhi, a key board member and renowned contemporary artist, who donated the proceeds from his painting, Leopard.
As a champion of this initiative, Mr. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group and a TNC global board member, launched the Fund and announced his $5 million pledge in Washington D.C. at TNC’s global volunteer leader summit later that year, where he invited philanthropists from outside China to also support CGCF.
In May 2016, two key China board members, Mr. Wu Ying and Mr. Ma Huateng (Pony), announced at the China-Global Board joint meeting in Beijing, the launch of a renewed 5-year commitment (2016-2020) on behalf of the China board.
The first grant from CGCF supported the building of the Hirola sanctuary in Kenya, since its inception in 2011, CGCF has awarded $33.48 million (including $15.06 million leveraged from non-Chinese donors) to 42 priority TNC Projects outside of China, across all five Conservancy regions, from forests to oceans, from wildlife conservation to sustainable community development, the Fund has greatly advanced TNC’s global conservation agenda.
What does CGCF aim to achieve?
The Fund has two main conservation objectives:
- Produce tangible conservation outcomes in the water and on the ground in critical landscapes, watersheds and seascapes.
- Catalyze changes in public policy and corporate practices that protect nature and incorporate natural solutions to solve pressing development problems.
What is the scale of CGCF’s funding?
In each phase of CGCF, the Fund aims to capitalize $15 million, consisting of: $5 million pledged by the CGCF Core Committee; $5 million pledged by China board members; and the remaining $5 million from overseas philanthropic contributions. The fund is requesting for proposals each year from outside of China, 1 to 5 projects from which will be selected to support with grant amount between $0.2 to $2 million.