December 2003

CEPF Annual Report Available

CEPF recently topped the $30 million mark in its grant investments to protect nature's biodiversity hotspots for people and prosperity. Don't miss our 2003 annual report, which documents innovative conservation initiatives we support as well as our ability to deliver results where it matters, when it matters. We're far more than a simple grants mechanism.

November 2003

Arroyo Expands Peñablanca Protected Area

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently signed a presidential proclamation expanding the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape from 4,136 hectares to 118,108 hectares, creating the largest block of forest under conservation management in the Philippines.

October 2003

Rhino Protection Units Stop Poachers in Sumatra

Special anti-poaching units in Sumatra's beleaguered Bukit Barisan National Park are making a dramatic difference: zero rhinos killed and poachers, rather than rhinos, snared. Urgent funding has enabled the Indonesian Rhino Conservation Program to expand and intensify the patrols now achieving these results in one of the most challenging landscapes to protect.

September 2003

Talang Mamak, Groups Win Forest Protection in Sumatra

Local communities and organizations in Sumatra recently won a major victory with the cancellation of logging plans in the northwest of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, home to one of the largest areas of remaining lowland forest on the Indonesian island. The cancellation by the district chief who had already issued tentative permits to private companies capped a six-month effort.

August 2003

CEPF Set for Expansion

The CEPF Donor Council recently approved new ecosystem profiles and investment strategies for the partnership to expand to two new biodiversity hotspots: Caucasus and the Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya. The expansion will bring the number of hotspots to 13 where CEPF grants are available to civil society, such as nongovernmental organizations and community groups.

July 2003

First Wilderness Management Courses Held in Cape

Seventeen field rangers and reserve managers participated in the first wilderness management training courses in the Western Cape, South Africa during June. The courses, presented by the Wilderness Action Group and accredited by the University of Natal's Centre for Environment and Development, were the first offered in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot.

June 2003

Haribon Foundation Champions Events for Philippines Conservation

The Haribon Foundation's new Threatened Species Program recently co-sponsored this year's Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines Symposium, led a workshop on threatened vertebrate species and conducted a field course for 12 graduate students and practicing conservationists.

May 2003

Team Records Philippine Eagle

A survey team recently recorded the first sighting of the critically endangered Philippine eagle in the Peñablanca forests in five years. Its presence strengthens the case for the expansion of the Peñablanca Protected Landscape as a core area of the Sierra Madre Biodiversity Corridor.

April 2003

Stakeholders Forge Common Ground in Succulent Karoo

More than 130 people attended a special event on 7 April in the heart of the Succulent Karoo biodiversity hotspot to mark the official launch of the CEPF investment strategy for the region. What stood out at this gathering in the small town of Vanrhynsdorp in Southern Namaqualand, South Africa was the diversity of participants.

March 2003

New Grants for Atlantic Forest Landowners

Small grants are now available from the Alliance for the Conservation of the Atlantic Forest to assist landowners in managing existing private reserves and creating new ones in the Atlantic Forest hotspot. The alliance, which includes Conservation International-Brasil and SOS Mata Atlântica, is a leading force in the hotspot's conservation.

February 2003

Planning Leads to Project Success in Côte d'Ivoire

"With hindsight, I would say that there is nothing we should have done differently." So says Roger Safford of BirdLife International about the organization's project that has successfully established a nationally driven management and conservation system for Mont Péko National Park in Côte d'Ivoire.

January 2003

Chiefs Join Bushmeat Campaign in Ghana

Clan leaders in Ghana wield more influence over their subjects than even Ghana's president. Now the clan chiefs from Ghana's 10 major regions have become a leading force in CI's ambitious campaign to stop the growing trade in wild animals for food that threatens many of the country's endangered species.