Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Its goal is to protect nature as a source of food, fresh water, livelihoods and a stable climate.
CI's work focuses on science, policy, and partnership with businesses and communities. The organization employs more than 1,000 people and works with 2,000+ partners in more than 30 countries.CI has helped establish 1,200 protected areas across 78 countries and protected more than 730 million hectares of land, marine and coastal areas (with annual Ocean Health Index).
Conservation International was founded in 1987 with the aim of analyzing the problems most dangerous or harmful to nature and building a foundation dedicated to solving these issues on a global scale. This model:-
detects the problems most threatening to nature,
prevents the industry side of the world from being detrimental to nature,
ensures the knowledge the institution has acquired over its first twenty five years is shared with governments and, in doing so,
establishes policies within these countries that serve as a great benefit to people and nature.
In CI's first year, the organization purchased a portion of Bolivia's foreign debt. The money was then redirected to support conservation in the Beni Biosphere Reserve. Since this first-ever debt-for-nature swap, more than $1 billion of similar deals have been made around the world.
In 1989, CI formally committed to the protection of biodiversity hotspots, ultimately identifying 34 such hotspots around the world and contributing to their protection. The model of protecting hotspots became a key way for organizations to do conservation work.
