Global Conservation Assistance Overview

Global Conservation Assistance (GCA) is a new and innovative organization of social entrepreneurs dedicated to sustaining our natural environments through poverty reduction. Our mission is to build networks and assist community-based organizations with projects that integrate poverty reduction and ecosystem protection. Our primary goal is to provide rural communities with the tools and skills to manage their natural resource base and build sustainable livelihoods.  We are driven by the scientific information that clearly shows the changes in our economic and ecological behavior needed to sustain life on earth, and a moral commitment to culture and nature that forges a bond between this and all future generations.  Maintaining a diverse human environment is among our core values, and empowering women and youth is integral in all of our work.

GCA principally focuses its program and project work on practical measures to improve human livelihoods through ecosystem and wildlife protection.  We believe that the key to the prosperity of all people lies in their capacity to understand and use their natural resources sustainably and care for nature as stewards.  We are particularly committed to ensuring that impoverished rural communities have the tools and skills to participate in the sustainable management of the resources that most affect their lives.  We have learned that on-the-ground conservation only succeeds if the methods and solutions come from local communities.  At the same time, we feel that businesses and corporations must adopt a nature-friendly set of operating principles if they are to truly meet the needs and interests of the global community they serve.

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Projects

The Malawi Corridor Initiative (MCI) represents one of GCA’s leading initiatives.  Our project is assisting government, local communities and businesses to establish a wildlife corridor in Malawi that will protect biodiversity, sustain critical water resources and increase the income levels of rural people that live within and adjacent to the corridor.  CEED methodologies will be implemented widely, and GCA applies business-nature mechanisms that support sustainable local entrepreneurship integrated with enhanced conservation of natural resources in order to develop a corridor that links Malawi’s parks, protected areas and adjacent community landscapes. 

Malawi’s economy is 95 percent agricultural based and 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line in rural areas. Malawi’s environmental challenges are deforestation, loss of wildlife, land degradation, water pollution, and siltation of fish spawning grounds. The MCI will benefit existing businesses and create opportunities for sustainable businesses to emerge. Communities will benefit from small business development training, technical assistance and start-up assistance to support tourism, agricultural and forest/woodland product ventures. Parks will benefit from local participation in management. Business-nature relationships will become more widely replicated, with an increased focus on biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use.  GCA’s work is resulting in new partnerships with business and conservation groups to strengthen local economies through improved resource use and conservation for communities living adjacent to protected areas. The corridor will promote genetic exchange of wildlife populations, maintain healthy ecosystems, and improve economic opportunities in a region of extreme poverty.

Carbon-Poverty Reduction as a Tool for Rural Communities – GCA Director of Programs, James Tolisano, has been working closely in partnership with Michael Brown of Satya, Inc., a for-profit firm based in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Hartmut Holzknecht of the Australia National University (and a citizen of Papua New Guinea), to develop an innovative methodology for empowering rural landholders to participate in forest-based carbon sequestration projects.  The focus of the methodology is on building the capacity of rural stakeholders to strengthen their ability to plan, negotiate and manage forest-based carbon projects.  Specifically, the project provides the carbon “sellers” with the administrative, technical and small business management tools necessary to negotiate with local and international “buyers” and participate in the emerging global climate market.  The methodology will be tested at selected sites in Papua New Guinea, Brazil and the Congo Basin.