CCI is delighted to be able to announce the new set of projects selected to receive funding through the CCI Collaborative Fund following a call for applications at the end of 2023. Delivered by collaborations between CCI partners and other relevant bodies, these projects strive to have a positive impact on biodiversity while fostering close working relationships between CCI partners.    

The three projects selected to receive funding are:  

• Delivering effective management for invasive alien species, a collaboration between the Department of Zoology (University of Cambridge), IUCN, the Tropical Biology Association, the CCI Invasive Alien Species working group and several Cambridge Conservation Forum partners. This project aims to co-design a platform allowing dynamic evidence collation on invasive alien species management to guide practitioners and policymakers.  
• Enhancing forest restoration in Liberia via capacity building and data-driven case studies, involving the Tropical Biology Association, the RSPB and the Department of Zoology (University of Cambridge), plus the University of Liberia and the Society for Conservation of Nature Liberia. This project will assess the effectiveness of current forest landscape restoration practices and train a new generation of restoration scientists from Liberian government, academic, and community stakeholder groups. 
• Testing the transferability of Butterfly Banks as a habitat enhancement strategy across landscapes, a collaboration between the Department of Zoology (University of Cambridge), the RSPB and the Cambridge Conservation Forum (on behalf of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire), plus the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. This project will deliver an innovative conservation action – building experimental ‘Butterfly Banks’ to help plants and invertebrates adapt to the impacts of climate change – and compare its effectiveness between two regenerating chalk grassland landscapes (North Chilterns and Salisbury Plain).   

Dr David Gibbons, interim Executive Director of CCI, said, ‘These new Collaborative Fund projects demonstrate the breadth of expertise at CCI. The three projects being supported this year consider the global threat of invasive alien species, restoration in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions and habitat interventions for UK butterflies in the face of climate change. Despite the diversity of these new projects, they are all linked by their clear focus on combining excellent science with practical action on the ground and support for conservationists working on these issues’.

Dr Rosie Trevelyan, Director of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA), remarked that, ‘the funding we’ve received through the Collaborative Fund will enable TBA and our partners to have a greater impact in conservation through combining research, training, and sharing best practice in innovative ways.  We’re excited to work across disciplines and to collaborate with a diverse range of organizations  to address some of the most pressing conservation challenges of our time’ 

CCI is grateful to Fondation Ginkgo, the A. G. Leventis Foundation and the Rothschild Foundation for their support of the CCI Collaborative Fund, and to the Collaborative Fund’s independent Selection Panel.