Stronger Funds. Stronger Conservation

Saint Lucia hosts a regional exchange built on a simple idea: when conservation funds learn from each other, the entire Caribbean benefits.

What happens when conservation funds stop working only within their national borders and begin learning from one another?

In April 2026, Saint Lucia became the meeting point for just that kind of exchange, as the Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund (SLUNCF) hosted representatives of the Dominica National Conservation Trust Fund (DNCTF) and the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Conservation Fund (SVGCF) for a regional mentorship and learning exchange focused on strengthening conservation finance across the Caribbean. 

The exchange was organised in collaboration with the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF), with funding support from FFEM, Agence Française de Dévelopement (AFD), and KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 

But this was not simply a meeting around a conference table.

Over the course of the exchange, participants combined institutional discussions with practical field experiences, engaging directly with SLUNCF grantees and seeing conservation projects in action. This created an opportunity to move conversations about conservation finance from theory to practice, examining not only how funds are structured and managed, but how financing ultimately translates into action on the ground. 

Discussions explored some of the issues that determine whether a conservation trust fund can remain effective over the long term: governance, grant management, resource mobilisation, financial sustainability, strategic planning and institutional strengthening. Participants shared experiences, challenges and approaches that could help each fund strengthen its own systems while building relationships for continued regional cooperation. 

For SLUNCF, hosting the exchange also represented something larger.

Saint Lucia's Fund is itself part of a regional network of national conservation trust funds connected through the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, an architecture designed to help provide long-term financing for nationally determined biodiversity and natural-resource priorities. The mentorship exchange demonstrated what that architecture can look like beyond financing: a network through which institutions can share knowledge, learn from experience and become stronger together.

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As CBF CEO Karen McDonald Gayle observed, collaboration among national conservation trust funds helps build “a stronger, more connected network for conservation across the region.” 

Caribbean islands face many of the same pressures: biodiversity loss, climate vulnerability, limited resources and the challenge of securing sustainable financing for environmental priorities. While the national context differs from country to country, the solutions do not always have to be developed in isolation.

By sharing what works, and equally, what has been difficult, conservation funds can learn faster, strengthen their institutions and explore opportunities that may be more powerful when pursued collectively.

The exchange has already identified possibilities for continued collaboration, including joint training and knowledge-sharing activities, regional initiatives, technical cooperation and potential joint funding opportunities. SLUNCF also intends to build on the experience by exploring a more structured mentorship framework that can support emerging conservation funds and contribute to strengthening the wider regional conservation-finance architecture.

For SLUNCF CEO Craig Henry, that is at the heart of the initiative: “By facilitating this mentorship and exchange workshop, we aim to strengthen the network of Caribbean conservation funds, allowing us to leverage shared insights and experiences to tackle common challenges.” 

Because when the institutions entrusted with financing conservation become stronger, so too does their capacity to protect the biodiversity, communities, and livelihoods that depend on them. Sometimes, strengthening conservation begins by strengthening each other.

Caribbean islands face many of the same pressures-biodiversity loss, climate vulnerability, limited resources, and the challenge or securina sustainable financing for environmental priorities

By sharing what works, what is difficult, conservation funds can learn faster,

strengthen their institutions and explore opportunities that are more powerful

when pursued collectively. Recuse when the institutions entrusted with financing conservation become stronger. So too does their capacity to protect biodiversity.

Communities and livelihoods that depend on them.