By Ana Mandria, Executive Director August 2025
Since the early days of my career, I’ve believed that water is the storyteller of the land. Whatever happens high in the mountains eventually finds its way downstream, carrying news to the valleys below. This is especially true in... Read more
By: Sarah Brasil, Sylvia Galuppo, Thomas Nickerson, Claire Wigglesworth, Caitlin Yardeny, Matthew Aruch, Natalie Knowles, and Juarez Pezzuti - August 2025
This year, the Kayapo Project Internship and Field Course welcomed five participants from four universities, representing Brazil (Federal University of Pará), Canada (University of Waterloo), the... Read more
June 3, 2025 -- ICFC board member Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya has been awarded the Future For Nature Award for 2025—important recognition for young leaders in conservation. The international award recognizes her conservation work to protect Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus), the northern... Read more
by Carlos R. Garcia, Senior Program Director, Mar. 2025.
Researchers with ICFC's field partner FCAT recently documented the presence of the Bilsa white-chested frog (Leucostethus bilsa) within the FCAT Reserve, which straddles the boundary of the Mache-Chindul Ecological Reserve in the Ecuadorian Chocó (Esmeraldas province).This... Read more
March 9, 2025.
ICFC’s project with Strong Roots is in the province of South Kivu in eastern DRC—a region that has until recently been spared from the conflict wrought by Rwanda-backed rebel groups in North Kivu. But recently M23 rebel troops have moved... Read more
Feb. 26, 2025
Lots is happening in the U.S. these days: How is it impacting global conservation? ICFC’s work is being affected in three ways.First, a few of our projects have lost co-funding that comes directly from the US... Read more
By Matthew Aruch, ICFC Director of Indigenous Conservation Programs and Kayapo Program Development, Feb. 26, 2025.
2024 was another successful year for Kayapo territorial monitoring and surveillance, although 250 km of the most remote border region of Kayapo territory in the northwest remains undefended and vulnerable with the advance... Read more
Feb. 26, 2025
by Andre Boraks, Director of Programs and Data
Nomba Ganamé, Head of Field Operations at ICFC's Mali Elephant Project, received the prestigious Prince William Award for Conservation in Africa from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The award ceremony, held at... Read more
by Kevin Tate, Director of Fandroakando NGO, and Carlos R. Garcia, Senior Program Director, Feb. 25, 2025
When we think of Madagascar, lemurs come to mind, but what about amphibians and reptiles?
In fact, the reserve is a very important site for these species. In October... Read more
November 2024 — ICFC is honoured to be one of two recipients of proceeds from the Paul Wawryko Memorial 5k run, which was held in Winnipeg Saturday, September 20th.
Paul worked as a pathologist at the Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg and... Read more
By Carlos R. Garcia, Senior Program Director, Nov. 2024.
ICFC supports a community-led project in Playa Salinas Grandes—located 26 km from the city of León —that demonstrates the power of local action. The project protects the eggs and the beach nesting habitat of... Read more
By Matthew Aruch, ICFC Director of Indigenous Conservation Programs and Kayapo Program Development, Nov. 2024.
The Kayapo Project team recently published an article in the journal Regional Environmental Change. The article, Large-scale forest protection: the successful case of the Kayapo people in the Brazilian Amazon, details what... Read more
In rural areas like Mount Elgon on the Kenya-Uganda border, elephants find human crops a handy source of food, spurring conflict and risks to people and elephants. How can that be addressed?
It turns out that gathering precise information on the movements of elephants is... Read more
By Scott Hecker, Director of Bird Conservation, Oct. 2024
As you likely know, British miners used to carry chirpy little yellow canaries in a cage at their side they descended into mine shafts. The invisible danger of carbon monoxide killed the canary before it could... Read more
The recently concluded COP16 meeting in Cali, Colombia highlighted the intersections between climate change and biodiversity, focusing on the Global South’s concerns, Indigenous rights, and the need for conservation to address the roots of ecological decline. I attended some of the most critical discussions and... Read more
October 28, 2024 — Michael de Pencier, who died October 6th, looked out into the world and understood big challenges and opportunities and acted on them. These included the great cause of conservation and environmental protection, which he cared about deeply. In this realm, Michael was active for decades,... Read more
By Carlos R. Garcia, Senior Program Director, Sept. 2024
The latest report from ICFC's partner Osa Conservation (July 2024) highlights progress in rebuilding functional habitat connectivity through biological wildlife corridors from the lowland forest of the... Read more
by Matt Aruch, ICFC Director of Indigenous Conservation Programs, Sept. 2024
Few people get to experience remote areas of the Amazon and witness the way of life of the Indigenous people who live there. ICFC provides a way. From July 29 to... Read more
By Scott Hecker, ICFC Director of Bird Conservation September, 2024
When Paul Ferber, the founder and Director of Marine Conservation Cambodia, began working in Kep province, he was met with confusion by many who did... Read more
by Andre Boraks, Director of Programs and Data September, 2024
Shoreline districts of Lake Malawi made key advances in sustainable fisheries management and conservation with the signing of agreements between Malawi’s Director of Fisheries and community-based Sub-Fisheries Associations in... Read more
By Scott Hecker, ICFC Director of Bird Conservation September 2024
On April 4th, 2024, a critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper carrying the world’s smallest satellite transmitter departed Thailand, where it... Read more
August 16, 2024 — At the conference of the Western Hemispherica Shorebird Group in Sackville, New Brunswick, the Allan Baker Lifetime Achievement Award for Shorebird Conservation was given to Patricia M. Gonzalez, Shorebird Program Coordinator at ICFC (shown holding the plate in the left image).
The late Allan Baker... Read more
U.K., June 14, 2024 — ICFC sends hearty congratulations to the founders of Ripple Africa, Liz and Geoff Furber, on being appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire.
Ripple Africa is ICFC&rsquo... Read more
U.K., June 12, 2024 — The renowned naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has penned an endorsement of the Indonesian NGO YAPPENDA, recognizing the importance of its mission to conserve the rich and unique biodiversity of the Indonesian portion of the... Read more
June 12, 2024, Nepean, Ontario — A closing ceremony at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School marked the happy conclusion of an entrepreneurial exercise by grade 5 students from which the entire profits were donated to ICFC. ICFC founders Anne Lambert and Tom Welch attended the ceremony to accept the cheque and... Read more
We are delighted to welcome Barnabe Geis as our new CEO! Barnabe comes from the cleantech and climate tech world, and the major motivation behind this work has been his love of nature and desire to ensure its preservation and restoration. He has grown many impact-focused initiatives, and we'... Read more
Note from ICFC: A key early collaborator of Paul Hebert was Dan Janzen and the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, in barcoding Lepidoptera and other taxa at Area de Conservaión Guanacate (ACG) in Costa Rica (see
November 10, 2023 — It lives! An expedition to a remote region of the island of New Guinea has rediscovered a “lost” and little-known species of echidna (a group also known as spiny anteaters).
The last record of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi)... Read more
The second Global Amphibian Assessment, reported this month in the journal Nature, has found that 40.7% of amphibians are globally threatened, compared to 39.4% in 2004 when the first... Read more
by Matthew Aruch, PhD
August 14, 2023 — Last week (August 8-10) the eight countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela) of the Amazon Conservation... Read more
December 29, 2022 — Conservationist Barbara Zimmerman has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in appointments announced today by the office of Canada's Governor General.
Barbara is Director of the Kayapo Project, a ground-breaking... Read more
Media release: for immediate release
COP15 outcome: The world gets serious in tackling global biodiversity lossDecember 19, 2022, Montreal, Canada – While much attention has been on the goal of protecting 30% of land and marine areas of the planet by 2030, which was accepted in Sunday night’s... Read more
December 7, 2022 – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday that Canada will provide an additional $350 million to help developing countries protect their large share of... Read more
November 8, 2021-- The Globe and Mail's science reporter Ivan Semeniuk did an excellent new story on ICFC's Protecting Our Planet Challenge pledge, adding background and context. ICFC has pledged $100 million for biodiversity aid over... Read more
The Kayapo have an uphill battle to protect their Indigenous Territories in the Brazilian Amazon. (Photo by Martin Schoeller)
The International Conservation Fund of Canada Pledges $100 million as part of the New ‘Protecting... Read more
June 13, 2021-- ICFC welcomes the Prime Minister’s announcement at the G7 that Canada will double its international climate finance, to $5.3 billion over five years. While considerably less than we had recommended in Read more
Media release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Kayapo chief speaks out to Brazil's presidentNOVO PROGRESSO, BRAZIL, April 22, 2021 – A video of a defiant speech proclaiming the determination of the Kayapo Indigenous people to... Read more
How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need. by Bill Gates, 2021, Knopf. 257 pp.
Reviewed by Anne Lambert, April 22, 2021
I don’t expect a non-fiction book to be a page-turner, but this one was. ... Read more
January 14, 2021 -- At a One Planet Summit held this week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People has now been joined by 50 countries. The Coalition, which includes Canada, was launched in 2019... Read more
December 28, 2020 — The Coordinator of ICFC's Spoon-billed Sandpiper Project, Sayam Chowdhury, has won a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Established in 2000 with funding from the... Read more
Opinion What Canada needs to do to be a leader on biodiversity—and why
by Anne Lambert
Is Canada doing its part “at home and abroad” as Canada’s environment minister said we will at last week’s UN Summit... Read more
October 7, 2020 — An article in today’s Guardian newspaper looks at pioneering work done at the University of Guelph and at Costa Rica’s Area de Conservación Guanacaste, where scientific data is collected... Read more
September 17, 2020 — For over a decade Canada has badly lagged other OECD countries in providing aid to developing countries to help them conserve their large share of the world's biodiversity. A report released today by the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) compared biodiversity-related bilateral official development... Read more
Sepember 15, 2020—The Global Biodiversity Outlook report issued this week by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) presents grim findings. While progress has been made in some areas, biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, threats to nature are intensifying, and none of the targets the CBD set... Read more
June 16, 2020 — Paiakan was born in the 1950s in the historic village of Kubenkranken during the early era of Kayapo contact with non-indigenous society. Paiakan had a brilliant mind. He learned the Brazilian national language of Portuguese, likely effortlessly, and set out to explore and understand the new world... Read more
February 3, 2020 -- An opinion piece by ICFC founder Anne Lambert was posted to the News page of The National Environmental Treasure (NET). NET is a “people’s trust fund” devoted... Read more
January 23, 2020 -- ICFC has prepared a brief overview of natural climate solutions for Canada as we wanted to understand what is needed here at home in relation to the global potential. We were unable... Read more
January 10, 2020 — An op-ed by ICFC co-founder Anne Lambert published in the Chronicle Herald newspaper argues that Canada should play a role in reducing tropical deforestation as this is vital to avoiding catastrophic climate change. A rapid... Read more
January 6, 2020 — The Kayapó leader Raoni Metuktire has lived through through 24 administrations of the Brazilian government since first making contact in the early 1950s with the world outside his rainforest home. President Bolsonaro has been the worst, at least for those who care about preserving the... Read more
November 5, 2019 — The Green Budget Coalition – including ICFC – just released its detailed recommendations for the 2020 federal budget, focused on escalating action to counter climate change and biodiversity loss, plus sustainable agriculture, & toxics and pesticides. Check them out at: Read more
FORESTS AND CLIMATE
Canada has been a laggard on one crucial area of climate action: Here’s how we can become a leaderby Anne Lambert, Sept. 23, 2019
With the spotlight on the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York, Canadians may feel... Read more
August 26, 2019 — Amid mounting international concern over increased fires and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, some are taking direct action. A new Amazon Forest Fund was announced yesterday... Read more
April 18, 2019 — The Kayapo will fiercely defend their Indigenous Territories from any movement by the new Brazilian government to open them up to development, as reported in a compelling story by the Financial Times. The... Read more
April 1, 2019—The Kep Archipelago has been declared a Hope Spot by the international nonprofit Mission Blue in recognition of the impact that the conservation efforts of Marine Conservation Cambodia has had in preserving the area’s unique seagrass meadows and sensitive marine species. MCC has been... Read more
February 21, 2019 — ICFC and our partner Amazon Conservation Association (ACA) can claim some of the credit for a crackdown on illegal goldmining that was initiated this week by the government of Peru. ICFC supports and played a role in... Read more
ICFC and Panamanian field partner ADOPTA led a donor expedition into ADOPTA's remote Cerro Chucantí reserve in the Darién region of Panamá in January. The trip offered participants an opportunity to experience and explore a remote montane/cloud forest habitat and its unique wildlife.... Read more
A CNN feature story describes how the crowd-funded Vertical University of ICFC's Nepalese partner KTK-Belt is empowering rural community members to study and conserve their natural environment. "Vertical" because the education program spans six different climatic... Read more
Travels in Bolivia - Anne Lambert
In September we visited reserves in Bolivia run by our field partner Associación Armonía. ICFC supported land acquisition for two reserves that protect the Critically Endangered blue-throated macaw; and at one of these – Barba... Read more
March 27, 2018 — Dr. Amanda Vincent explained the dire situation with what she refers to as "annihilation fishing" happening in parts of Asia and beyond in an interview with the conservation news site Mongabay.
ICFC helped to enable... Read more
Feb. 5, 2018 — On January 31st, the Kep Provincial government of Cambodia conducted the final meeting in an approval process for the creation of an 11,000-hectare Marine Fisheries Management Area under the Department of Fisheries Conservation. This now allows the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and Agriculture to formally recognize this... Read more
January 12, 2018 — Peru has a new national park that will safeguard 869,927 ha (2,147,164 acres) of forest in the highly biodiverse northern region of Loreto. Parque Nacional Yaguas also protects the ancesteral lands of indigenous people, who were... Read more
December 18, 2017 — ICFC was the top-ranked Canadian conservation charity in the Financial Post’s 2017 charity ratings. Just 23 charities made the cut for FP’s “picks of Canada’s most efficient and accountable charities... Read more
December 8, 2017 — As reported by the Amphibian Survival Alliance a salamander species not seen since its discovery in 1975 has been unexpectedly rediscovered in Guatemala’s Cuchumatanes Mountain range. A guard at the Yal Unin Yul Witz Amphibian... Read more
November 28, 2017 — “Be a part of the movement to save our planet’s diverse and beautiful wildlife and wild places, and give nature the space it needs to survive and thrive.”
With these words, ICFC was invited to sign on to the Nature Needs... Read more
October 30, 2017 — The dramatic story of the success of Mali's anti-poaching brigade (which our Mali Elephant Project was involved in creating) in halting high levels of elephant poaching is told in a New York Times... Read more
New York, September 17, 2017 -- The Mali Elephant Project, a joint project of ICFC and WILD Foundation, was among fifteen winners of the prestigious Equator Prize awarded in a gala ceremony in New York on Sunday, coinciding with the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly.
Organized by... Read more
June 30, 2017 — The Mali Elephant Project (MEP), a joint project of ICFC and WILD Foundation, is among the winners of the 2017 Equator Prize. The UN Development Programme funded prize... Read more
June 8, 2017 — The inspiring personal story behind an important conservation win in Panama was the subject of an op-ed piece by ICFC founding director Anne Lambert, in which she urged fellow Canadians to step up... Read more
March 25, 2017 — Here is ICFC's Director of Bird Conservation's blog on his travels in Patagonia in December 2016:
Only when one flies in a Triple Seven from North America to South America does one fully appreciate what our long-distance migrants accomplish with only the force of... Read more
February 13, 2017 — The conservation impact of illegal fishing has again made news in Cambodia. The Cambodia Daily carried a photo of a grinning fisherman astride an endangered whale shark before its fins were cut off and it was returned to the water. The article quotes Paul... Read more
January 27, 2017 — Imagine tracking elephants through the arid region near Timbuktu with your senses primed not just for elephants but for poachers and Islamic militants. In a recent blog Nigel Kuhn describes the experience in words and... Read more
January 19, 2017 — An in-depth review of the global status of primates (Science Advances, Jan. 18, 2017) has revealed that mankind’s closed relatives are in serious trouble. The study found that about 75% of the 504 non-human... Read more
January 5, 2017 — Paul Ferber, a marine conservationist who founded the local NGO Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC), is the subject of an Associated Press story published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Titled "British conservationist fights to save... Read more
December 11, 2015 — As world leaders finalize agreements and commitments at the November 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference, an initial report (see pdf) produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), World Wide Fund (WWF) and Climate Advisers and released today highlights the significant potential of targeted forest conservation... Read more
August 26, 2015 — Famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson calls for setting aside half the world for nature, and cites Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (which ICFC supports) in Costa Rica as an model for integrating local people into protected areas as... Read more
June 19, 2015 — If there was any doubt about this before, a recent study has provided further evidence that we have entered a period of mass extinction — the sixth in the Earth's history. Gerardo Ceballos, from Universidad... Read more
February 15, 2015 — An article soon to be published in Conservation Letters, a journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, takes stock of what countries have actually achieved relative to their commitment to conserve at least 17% of terrestrial and 10% of... Read more
December 20, 2014 — Thanks to the work of Aves Argentina and (ICFC partner) Ambiente Sur, a new national park was recently declared that will protect the core breeding population of the Critically Endangered hooded grebe, Podiceps gallardoi, on the Buenos Aires Plateau in Argentina's Santa Cruz province. Field work... Read more
December 8, 2014 — Few of us will have the opportunity to make the long journey (and get the necessary permits) to visit a remote Kayapo community in the Brazilian Amazon. But PURE Energies, a generous supporter of the Kayapo Conservation Program, has just returned from such a journey. Check out... Read more
November 25, 2014 — We at ICFC were deeply saddened by the news of Allan Baker's death on 20 November 2014 at the age of 71. Allan was Senior Curator of Ornithology and head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum. He was a Fellow of the American Ornithologists'... Read more
November 15, 2014 — On November 13th, Terrin Art in Toronto held its "Kayapo Guardians of the Rain Forest Exhibition" with ten original paintings by Belgian artist Peter Terrin, from which the gallery is generously donating half the proceeds in support of... Read more
March 17, 2014 — ICFC is proud to announce the creation of the new Amphibian Conservation Reserve of San Isidro in the Western Highlands of Guatemala!
Together with local partner FUNDAECO, Global Wildlife Conservation, Rainforest Trust, World Land Trust, and the Amphibian Survival Alliance, ICFC supported the acquisition of... Read more
January 28, 2014 — Born into a remote Amazonian tribe with no contact with the outside world, Grand Chief Megaron departed his Amazonian home to brave the winter in North America and meet with partners and supporters who are helping the Kayapo protect their lands. The Kayapo represent a built-in protection... Read more
December 23, 2013 — ICFC's flagship program receives world attention through a cover story ("Defenders of the Amazon") on the Kayapo in the January 2014 issue of National Geographic. And see the Read more
September 14, 2013 — In a 16-page special report, The Economist sees an improving outlook for biodiversity in the developed world, and argues the same can be expected from the developing world as continued economic growth reduces poverty and... Read more
October 12, 2013 — ICFC staff gave presentations to hundreds of conservation professionals from around the world this October at the tenth World Wilderness Congress in Salamanca, Spain. Susan Canney, Director of the Mali Elephant Project, presented on Community Conservation During Rebellion, War, and Global Terrorism, and Barbara Zimmerman, Director of... Read more
August 22, 2013 — The northern Kayapo came down hard this summer on illegal gold-mining in their territory. Forty-six warriors with logistical support from their association, ICFC partner Instituto Kabu, left the frontier town of Novo Progresso on July 24th with the objective of expelling goldminers operating in Bau (Kayapo) Indigenous... Read more
July 16, 2013 — Along with conservationists from 122 countries, ICFC attended the BirdLife International (BLI) World Congress in Ottawa recently. Held every five years, the event allows BLI partners (ICFC is not a partner, but some of our field partners are) and other participants an opportunity to compare notes and learn... Read more
July, 2013 — A chief aim of conservation is prevention of extinctions and, more broadly, the preservation of biological diversity. Because species are very unevenly distributed across landscapes and seascapes, scientists have looked to see where species are concentrated in order to prioritize conservation efforts. A Read more
April, 2013 — Sometimes unintended consequences are positive.
In 2012 the Gourma region in which ICFC and WILD Foundation are working to conserve the "desert elephants of Mali" was beset by Tuareg rebel activity and occupation by armed Islamists. Mali government personnel withdrew. Our project had strong local leadership... Read more
November 14, 2012 — At a November reception in Toronto, ICFC welcomed as speaker Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton Administration and former governor of Arizona. Mr. Babbitt is an active conservationist and director of ICFC partner Amazon Conservation Association (ACA).
Synopsis of Bruce... Read moreMarch, 2012 — The 146,000-hectare Los Amigos Conservation Concession (LACC) protects a trackless wilderness of diverse old-growth Amazonian forest from the threats of illegal logging, road development and gold mining. Strategically located at the mouth of the Los Amigos River, it also protects a much larger and even more remote... Read more
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