After much deliberation, the selection panel for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative’s Collaborative Fund for Conservation has chosen six projects to receive funding in 2014. The six funded projects are:

• Toward an integrated approach to the mapping and mitigation of global pressures on biodiversity
  This project will draw together a broad range of data, knowledge and networks from across CCI partners and their external collaborators to create innovative joined-up approaches to mapping and addressing the pressures facing biodiversity and develop conservation planning tools for practical application. It brings UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge together with a range of non-CCI partners (three other universities, WCS and Microsoft Research).
  
• Does biodiversity promote human happiness?
  This project will apply human psychology theory and research methodologies to informing conservation practice through exploring the benefits people might gain from more biodiverse environments in a novel collaboration between people from the Departments of Psychology and Zoology at the University of Cambridge, RSPB, UNEP-WCMC and the University of Essex.
• Integrating rights and social issues in conservation through capacity building
  This project brings expertise together from BirdLife International, FFI, TBA and the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge to develop and apply a package of training materials for use by conservation practitioners in addressing social and right-based aspects of conservation.
• Strengthening implementation of the mitigation hierarchy: managing biodiversity risk for greater conservation gains
  This project brings researchers from the Departments of Geography and Zoology at the University of Cambridge together with business and biodiversity specialists in FFI, BirdLife, RSPB, and UNEP-WCMC to identify and promote best practice for implementing the mitigation hierarchy and thus reducing the risks posed to businesses from the destruction/loss of biodiversity. The results will be integrated by companies into their operations.
• Developing Global Ecosystems Models for use in IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) and other global biodiversity assessments
  This project brings together Earth- and Sociological-Systems modellers from the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge with Ecological-Systems modellers from UNEP-WCMC and BirdLife to collaborate with scientists at Sussex University and Microsoft Research to inform and improve international policy processes for the conservation of biodiversity. It will draw together models developed across a range of Cambridge-based institutions to deliver interdisciplinary analysis and recommendations.
• Assessing the conservation quality of tropical forest using unmanned aerial vehicles
  This project aims to develop a novel methodology of remote sensing for assessing forest condition that can be made widely accessible via an open-source platform, offering the possibility of transforming the effectiveness of forest management for biodiversity conservation. It draws together researchers from the Departments of Plant Sciences and Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge with forest conservation practitioners from RSPB, CCF member organisation A Rocha International and the Harapan Rainforest project in Indonesia.

The CCI Collaborative Fund for Conservation, which exists to support innovative, collaborative conservation projects undertaken by CCI partners, has now awarded over £1.6 million to 32 projects since its commencement in 2009. The Collaborative Fund is made possible through the generous support of Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, the Grantham Foundation, the Paul and Louise Cook Endowment, The Mitsubishi Fund, and the Westminster Foundation.

For more information on previous projects supported by the Collaborative Fund, visit the Projects page.