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Introduction
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint initiative of Conservation International (CI), l'Agence Française de Développement, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank designed to help safeguard the world's biodiversity hotspots. Conservation International administers the global program through a CEPF Secretariat.
The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot, with its unique assemblages of plant and animal communities and endemic species, is globally important for conserving representative areas of the Earth’s biodiversity, making it worthy of international attention and CEPF funding.
A fundamental purpose of CEPF is to engage civil society, such as community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private enterprises, in biodiversity conservation in the hotspots. To guarantee their success, these efforts must complement existing strategies and frameworks established by national governments in the region. CEPF promotes a coordinated approach to conservation by facilitating working alliances among diverse groups and eliminating duplication of efforts.
CEPF focuses on biological areas rather than political boundaries and also examines conservation threats on a corridor or landscape-scale basis.