About Us
Fondo Naturaleza Chile is a non-profit organization created in 2021 thanks to a public-private effort, which aims to mobilize and manage resources for large-scale nature conservation in Chile. We seek to strengthen the management of Chile’s natural patrimony, empowering local communities throughout different territories. This fund will help activate new sources of funding that will complement the State's financial efforts in order to achieve the national and international goals for conservation and climate action.
Fondo Naturaleza Chile seeks to replicate a successful funding and investment model for conservation that has already been widely validated at an international level. This is highly relevant given the challenge regarding the finance gap for biodiversity conservation. Chile is among the 10 countries that allocate the least funding to biodiversity, compared to what would be expected given its rich biodiversity and level of GDP (Waldron et. al 2013). One of the urgent tasks of the fund is to ensure the financial sustainability of Chilean conservation in the long term.
©Jorge Lartundo | mma
Our vision
Facilitate a cross sector collaboration to address the challenges of protecting Chile's natural patrimony, based on the needs of nature and people.
Our mission
Mobilize and manage financial resources to conserve nature and its benefits to people in perpetuity, in a transparent manner and making efficient use of resources.
Our values
Collaboration: We embrace diversity, join forces, build alliances, and stimulate bonds to achieve common goals.
Transparency: We are guided by the highest ethical standards, along with honesty, integrity and fairness.
Efficiency: We manage the financing of our contributors efficiently and effectively.
Innovation: We believe in continuous learning and encourage the development of new ideas, based on the adaptive capacity and transformational changes in the environment.
©Eduardo Sorensen | oceana
History
In 2017, Chile’s Ministry of the Environment and the local office of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS Chile) visited the Costa Rica Forever environmental fund, with the support of the Walton Family Foundation. At the beginning of 2018, a public-private working table was established at the request of the environmental organizations WWF, WCS Chile and Oceana and coordinated by Chile’s Ministry of the Environment. Subsequently, the work team was strengthened with the integration of two State’s offices: the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (SERNAPESCA), as well as two additional civil organizations, The Nature Conservancy and the National Committee for Defense of Flora and Fauna (CODEFF).
Over four years of intense work, this broad group designed Fondo Naturaleza Chile, thanks to the support of WWF experts at a national and global level, who had led similar processes in Latin America, Africa and Asia. This work was also possible thanks to the funding from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Fondo Naturaleza Chile was formally incorporated in September 2021 and in October of that same year it was admitted as a member of the Network of Environmental Funds of Latin America and the Caribbean (RedLAC). In March 2021, a governance of experts from various sectors, including civil society and the territories, was consolidated.
Strategic Pillars of the Fondo Naturaleza Chile
Effective conservation: We integrate multiple capacities associated with biodiversity management (governance, administration, financing, planning and management), to strengthen conservation initiatives and perpetuate successful actions.
Public-private collaboration: Since our inception, we have fostered collaborative work strategies, based on alliances that allow the active involvement of a wide network of public, private, scientific and community actors.
Activate greater funding: We seek to activate greater funding through different financial instruments, which will allow us to complement public efforts on financing conservation.
Benefits for the territories: We focus our impact on local territories, strengthening the capacities of local organizations and communities devoted to conservation, so they become participants and beneficiaries of the projects we fund.
Long-term vision: We plan our actions with future vision, understanding that in order to achieve effective conservation, financial support must also be long-term.
Transparency
Demonstrating transparency in financial and impact management on nature conservation is essential for Fondo Naturaleza Chile. For this reason, we publicly share the main documents that support the operation of the Fund, for the consultation of our donors, civil society organizations and citizens.
Practice Standards for conservation trust funds
©Conaf
Meet the Board
Carolina Schmidt, Chairwoman. Director and advisor on sustainability, environmental ESG matters in Chile and Latin America; director of WWF in the United States; director of CAP SA, director of Grupo Imagina in Chile and Peru; Advisor of Start Ups of technologies for global decarbonization. Former Minister of the Environment and Women and Gender Equality of Chile, President of COP25 on Climate Change. She has been recognized 11 times with the “100 Women Leaders” award.
Dominique Hervé, Secretary. Lawyer, Doctor of Law, Associate Professor at Diego Portales University. Research Coordinator, Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program, Professor of the Department of Public Law. From 2014 to 2018 he served as Prosecutor of the Superintendence of the Environment.
Andrés Antivil, Treasurer . Mapuche born in Chile, lives in the Nahuelhu Community in Rengalil IX region of Araucanía. He was presidential advisor for COP25, he is President of the Empresas 'i' Foundation and first director of the Mapuche Lonko Kilapang Corporation. Today he defines his mission and challenge for his next years of life: 'to create wealth where there is extreme poverty today.'
Kathleen Barclay. Principal of KCB Consulting, strategic advisory firm and member of the Boards of Metlife Seguros de Vida SA, Austral Capital and Geomar SA as well as BanBif and San Fernando in Peru. He is President of Endeavor Chile and member of the Board of Directors of the Adolfo Ibáñez Foundation and the Adolfo Ibáñez University, Advisor of the Center for Public Studies. Founder and member of Women Corporate Directors in Chile, and member of the board of directors of the Chilean North American Chamber of Commerce AG (AmCham). Graduated in Bachelor of Science – Foreign Service (specialization in International Economics) from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He spent 23 years at Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase & Co).
Antonio Lara. Forestry Engineer, PhD in Geography, Professor at the Austral University of Chile. Expert in ecology and conservation of native forests, silviculture, dendrochronology, climate change, alteration regimes, evaluation and inventory of biological diversity and ecosystem services of native forests through a transdisciplinary and multiscale approach.
Hema'ny Molina. Selk'nam writer and craftsman. President of the Selk'nam Chile Corporation, and founder of the Hach Saye Foundation. He works for the recognition of his people, and their cultural restoration after the academic world declares it extinct.
Leo Prieto. Entrepreneur and pioneer in the internet industry in Latin America. Founder of ImageMaker and FayerWayer, the most influential Spanish-language blog in the world and the spearhead of Betazeta, the community network that he co-founded in 2008. He is a partner and president of Stgo Makerspace, space for collaboration and experimentation with projects of global impact. He is founder and CEO of LeMU, the first atlas of the biosphere for conservation.
Meet the Council
Aníbal Pauchard | Director of the Chilean Ecology Society.
Bárbara Saavedra| Director Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Chile and founder Fondo Naturaleza Chile.
Christian Little | Executive Director of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).
David Silva | Member of the board of directors of Así Conserva Chile, a private conservation trade association in Chile.
Denise Lira | Artist with exhibitions on several continents related to the communication of environmental problems.
Elías Albagli | Manager of the Monetary Policy Division of the Central Bank, responsible for national natural capital accounts.
Elizabeth Balcázar | Social and environmental activist from Caleta Los Hornos, Coquimbo Region
Erik Heyl |Former general manager of Rabobank Chile.
Fernanda Romero | Administrator of the Altos de Cantillana nature sanctuary.
Juan José Donoso | Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy - Chile.
Francisco Solís | Director of the Chilean Patagonia Program, Pew Charitable Trusts.
Javier Ancapán | Leader of the Mapu Lahual Indigenous Association in Los Lagos Región.
Julio Chamorro S. | Member of the Local Governance Board, Juan Fernández Archipelago and Desventuradas Islands MPA.
Laura Farías | Oceans scientific committee for COP25.
Lorenzo Rosenzweig | Former Executive Director of the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature for 25 years.
Magdalena Aninat | Director of the Center for Philanthropy and Social Investments of Adolfo Ibáñez University.
Martín del Río| CEO Ladera Sur, expert in communications and the environment.
Patricio Merino|Director of Pitipalena Foundation in Aysén Region.
Sara Larraín |Director, Fundación Chile Sustentable and director of San Francisco de Lagunilla Nature Sanctuary.
Meet the Team
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Opportunities
[There are no open selection processes in this period].