International Conservation Fund of Canada

The International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) was founded in 2007 to support conservation in the tropics and other priority areas in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Our mission is to conserve the world's irreplaceable biodiversity. Our work provides striking co-benefits in climate mitigation and adaptation and benefits for local and Indigenous communities (livelihoods, environmental, and social benefits).

ICFC finds opportunities for outstanding conservation returns and partners with capable local conservation organizations. Our field partners know best what needs doing and how to go about it. They excel at engaging local communities and government relations. Our work is science based, and the collective experience of our small staff adds value.

ICFC has the capacity to quickly expand its work to take advantage of excellent opportunities in the more than 30 countries in which we work. With your help, we can do more. Because ICFC’s administrative and fundraising costs are covered by a core group of donors, 100% of your support is applied to projects.

In one of the world’s most important conservation efforts, ICFC works with the Kayapo Indigenous people to protect an area of the Brazilian Amazon larger than almost half the world’s countries. We conserve large (hundreds/thousands of square kilometers) protected areas in Peru, Costa Rica, Kenya and elsewhere and have participated in land acquisitions for more than a dozen private reserves of high conservation value. In Cambodia we have shown that marine protected areas can restore fisheries and the marine ecosystem. We have been instrumental in securing a future for several endangered species; our projects protect hundreds of officially threatened species; and we’re safeguarding important wintering sites of Canada’s shorebirds.

Why the tropics? Tropical nature has astonishing biodiversity—the Amazon alone is home to 7,000 tree species (vs. 180 species indigenous to Canada) and a single rainforest reserve in Peru has more bird species than the entire United States. Tropical forests are crucial for addressing climate change, and they generate rainfall and supply water for agriculture and other human needs. Coastal ecosystems prevent storm damage and are vital to fisheries. Canada's migratory species depend on tropical wintering areas. Yet tropical ecosystems are being lost and degraded (95% of deforestation is happening in the tropics). Conservation works but it is under-funded.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION: ICFC was the top ranked conservation charity in Canada in the Financial Post’s 2017 charity ratings (the last done by FP); is rated five out of five stars by Charity Intelligence Canada; and was a winner of the Canadian Museum of Nature’s 2020 Nature Inspiration Awards. Our Mali Elephant Project was awarded the prestigious Equator Prize in 2017 by the United Nations. Our project in Cambodia received the National Geographic Society’s Marine Protection Prize and is a Mission Blue “Hope Spot”. Project field personnel have received the Disney Conservation Hero Award, the Whitley Award (two individuals), and the Indianapolis Prize.